Beethoven Festival: Christopher Guzman
A Beethovenian
January 27, 2012Most classical pianists play at least a few of Beethoven’s sonatas. Many, nowadays, play them with technical assurance despite their notorious challenges. Only a few make these groundbreaking works their own, play them with the authority that comes from both intensive study and life experience.
Before going on, I should acknowledge that my impression of Christopher Guzman’s accounts of five Beethoven sonatas, Jan. 24 in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, probably is colored by my having observed his artistic growth for about half of his 30 years. I first heard him, as a co-winner of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio 1996 concerto competition, play a dazzling performance of the first movement of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. I’ve probably heard him seven or eight times since then, in solo recitals, chamber music and concertos, and been impressed by his development.
After his 2010 appearance with the Olmos Ensemble, I wrote that “he seemed fully formed as a mature artist with something to say about everything he played. His distinctive soloistic zest and technical brilliance were still fully intact, but he also was an alert and sensitive collaborator. Gratifyingly, he was as persuasive in the most intimate, subtle music as in the biggest, boldest passages.”
Still, I approached his Beethoven recital, sponsored by the San Antonio International Piano Competition, with some trepidation. Beethoven’s sonatas are a world apart from any other music in the repertoire. I expected that his performances would be fully creditable. But at age 30 had he been able to study this music deeply enough, had he experienced enough of life, to play these sonatas compellingly, authentically, from the inside?
For the most part, he had.
His program included two of the landmarks of the 32-sonata cycle -- the Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2, “The Tempest”; and the lyrical Sonata in E, Op. 109. He opened the first half with the brief Sonata in G, Op. 79, whose finale is linked thematically to the first movement of Op. 109. The second half opened with the two short, Haydnesque “easy sonatas” (Beethoven’s designation) published as Op. 49.
Only the G Minor sonata from Op. 49 received less than a fully engaged performance; its stablemate in G Major, which Mr. Guzman said was one of his favorites, came off swimmingly, with energetic, pointed rhythms in the menuetto.
Mr. Guzman played Op. 79 like a thoroughbred feeling his oats. He brought fleet, exuberant vitality to the outer fast movements, freely billowing tempos and dynamics to the central andante.
The first movement of “The Tempest” gave vent to Mr. Guzman’s penchant for hyperspeed, big dynamic contrasts and a distinctive way of pouncing on certain phrases and devouring them in one bite. But those youthful traits were put in service of a fully mature understanding of the music in its details and its structural coherence. His tempos on the whole were flexible, sumptuously shaped in the slow movement, but he also knew when a strict tempo was more appropriate.
Op. 109 was the capstone. Mr. Guzman’s tempos were again carefully shaped. He maintained a clear sense of direction even in the thickest flurries of the prestissimo second movement. He brought great tenderness, almost a pleading quality, to the theme and the first variation of the finale, and each of the subsequent variations had its own distinct character.
Throughout the program, Mr. Guzman projected firm, clear tone, and he displayed a remarkably wide color palette. More important, he had something cogent and interesting to say about the music. There's still room for growth, of course, but there's no doubting the fellow has turned into a Beethovenian.
Mike Greenberg
