Bartlett’s Uneven Shenson Spotlight Piano Recital

Pianist Martin James Bartlett (from his San Francisco Symphony event page)

Last night in Davies Symphony Hall, this year’s Shenson Spotlight Series presented by the San Francisco Symphony continued with a solo piano recital by Martin Janes Bartlett. He prepared a program that spanned from the eighteenth century (music which predated the piano) to the twentieth. The major work on the program was Robert Schumann’s Opus 15 Kinderszenen (scenes from childhood), a collection of thirteen short pieces composed in 1838.

This is one of those works that has been encountered by just about anyone that took serious piano lessons. (My own coaching came from Jake Heggie with input from Johana Harris.) Sadly, Bartlett seemed to be more interested in speed, rather than phrasing, leaving little room for expressiveness in any of the thirteen movements. When he was not overplaying his approach to pace, he turned to dynamics; and his account of Franz Liszt’s transcription of the “Liebestod” episode at the conclusion of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde amounted to a roar that totally undermined the semantic infrastructure. The other composer to receive significant attention was Maurice Ravel, whose “Pavane pour une infante défunte” (pavane for a dead princess) and “La valse” were performed in Herbst Theatre by Louis Lortie exactly two weeks earlier. The conclusion of the former was delivered with a heavy hand, while the account of the latter left me wondering if that would have been how Franz Liszt would have played it.

The program began with early keyboard compositions by François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau. The latter was the Gavotte movement from the RCT 5 suite in A minor. In that movement the dance theme is followed by six variations. Bartlett delivered an account that sounded as if it has been written for a modern piano. Clearly, the composer did not have this in mind; but the interpretation was both solid and convincing. This was preceded by one of the best-known short pieces by Couperin, “Les Baricades mystérieuses;” but Bartlett leaned so heavily on the damper pedal that it was almost impossible to sort the theme out from the arpeggiated accompaniment.

Both encores were selections from George Gershwin’s Song Book, “The Man I Love” and “I Got Rhythm.” I used to enjoy listening to Earl Wild play this music in recital, and his approach to Gershwin was always engaging. Bartlett’s account left me wondering if he even knew there were words behind those songs, let alone the denotations and connotations of those words!

I fear that the Shenson “spotlight” deserves better!