Tiffany Poon’s Third CMSF Recital in Herbst

Tiffany Poon on the cover of her Nature album (from the Amazon.com Web page)

Yesterday afternoon pianist Tiffany Poon returned to Herbst Theatre for her third appearance as a Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) recitalist. Some readers may recall my disappointment with her last performance two years ago, which I described as “a very long program that offered absolutely nothing to satisfy any seriously attentive listener.” The second half of the new program was devoted to the recent release of her Nature album, while the first half was dominated by Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 35 sonata in B-flat minor, his second sonata given the title “Funeral March.”

This was definitely an improvement over her last visit, when she performed the full cycle of Chopin’s Opus 28, his set of 24 preludes in all major and minor keys. Over the course of the four movements of Opus 35, she delivered a firm grasp on intensity without devolving into banging. The second half of the program accounted for about half of the tracks on the Nature album. These were presented in roughly chronological order.

She began in the Baroque period with one of the keyboard compositions by François Couperin, “Les fauvétes plaintive” (the mournful warblers), coupled with a similar setting by Jean-Philippe Rameau, “Les tendres plaintes” (tender complaints) from the RCT 3 suite in D major in the Pièces de Clavecin collection. The program then leapt forward about a little less than two centuries with selections by Gabriel Fauré, Camille Saint-Saëns, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Lili Boulanger.

Fauré’s first barcarolle, Opus 26 in A minor, was impeded by a heavy damper pedal. This was particularly frustrating, since the theme was carried by the left hand. Saint-Saëns was represented by “Le cygne” (the swan), the best-known movement from The Carnival of the Animals, arranged for solo piano by Lucien Garban. This was followed by Debussy’s first “Arabesque” composition, with a middle section that was overly rushed. Poon found herself on sounder ground with Maurice Ravel, beginning with “Jeux d’eau” and followed by the second and third of the Miroirs compositions. Boulanger’s “D’un jardin clair” concluded the program, followed by an encore performance of Franz Liszt’s “Liebestraum No. 3” in A-flat major.

Taken as a whole, that seriously attentive listener did not have to contend with “absolutely nothing.” Nevertheless, the performance, taken as a whole, was an uneven one. Poon clearly wanted her audience to appreciate Boulanger; and, as far as I am concerned, she succeeded. Similarly, her approach to playing Rameau with a contemporary instrument could not have been more engaging; and, as was already observed, Ravel was a high point in her program. Taken as a whole, the program may have been uneven; but the assets were still worthy of attentive listening.