Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Federico Colli’s Art of Distortion

Last night in Herbst Theatre San Francisco Performances resumed its annual tradition of presenting a Subscriber Gift Concert. Drawing upon the generous support of George and Camilla Smith, both subscribers and donors were eligible to receive tickets free of charge. After those tickets had been committed, the remaining ones were sold to the general public for $45. With a few exceptions, there was unreserved seating for all in attendance.

Last night’s concert marked the California debut of the Italian pianist Federico Colli. On the surface the program he prepared provided what might be called a “bread-and-butter” journey through the keyboard repertoire. He began with a selection of seven keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, all in relatively conventional major (G and D) and minor (also G and D, as well as F) keys. This was followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 333 sonata in B-flat major.

The intermission was followed by two seriously massive undertakings. The first of these was Franz Schubert’s D. 940 fantasy in F minor. This is probably Schubert’s best-known compositions for four hands on one keyboard (the only “competitor” being the first of the three D. 733 “Marches militaires”). Notwithstanding Eric Bromberger’s program note that the music “demands first-class performers,” as a rank amateur I have found myself in no end of opportunities to work through this composition with a partner not necessarily any more talented than I was.

While this music is decidedly thick in its textures, Colli decided to give it a two-hand account, performing an arrangement prepared by Maria Grindberg. Whether or not this should be likened to a dog walking on its hind legs must be left to the individual tastes of the listener. Nevertheless, one challenging arrangement deserves another; and the program concluded with Ferruccio Busoni’s solo piano reworking of the Chaconne movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s D minor solo violin partita (BWV 1004).

The encore selection was composed by another currently active pianist. I first encountered (and wrote about) Fazil Say when Warner Classics released his six-CD set of all of Mozart’s piano sonatas. Apparently, after he finished that project, Say decided to have a little fun with the repertoire. He composed a somewhat jazzy and delightfully irreverent take on the “Alla Turca” movement from the K. 331 sonata in A major. This was all in good fun, and Colli passed that fun on to his audience with panache.

However, the four selections on the printed program sheet made for an entirely different listening experience. One might say that Colli had put in considerable time to establish the rhetorical details of everything he played, all the way down to the distinctions across the Scarlatti sonatas. Having established solid foundations for every selection, he lit a few sticks of dynamite and smashed them all to Kingdom Come. This might be called an “anti-logical” approach to every performance he prepared, since his every gesture seemed to thumb its nose at how all the other pianists would approach the music.

I suspect that any number of diverse reactions emerged on audience side. Some may have dismissed the whole affair as little more than a choreographic display of Colli’s approach to his keyboard. There were definitely others that left the house during intermission, having decided that enough was enough. Some of the voices I overheard during intermission were trying to decide whether or not to laugh at the whole affair.

Personally, I put the evening in the same category applied to Marcel Duchamp having added a mustache to the Mona Lisa and then providing a cryptic title that was little more than a dirty joke. During my time in Philadelphia, I visited the Museum of Art frequently and always went to visit that particular Duchamp piece as if I were meeting an old friend. Whether or not I would revisit a Colli recital expecting “more of the same” is another matter. Probably I would prefer to stay and home at listen to my Spike Jones is Murdering the Classics! CD.

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