Modern Marvel

by Peter Burwasser

It's a funny thing about Peter Serkin. He has been before the public for nearly half a century, which is amazing considering his eternally boyish looks. He has scaled some of the tallest peaks of the pianistic repertoire, fearlessly so. He climbed to one such mountaintop last week, as he delivered a blistering account of the Diabelli Variations of Beethoven. Yet when the dust settled, there were the usual quirks to consider. A fellow professional pianist in the audience marveled at Serkin's immense energy, but seemed puzzled that Serkin struggled with basic trills. And there is that clattery, almost glassy tone. There is nothing of the big, velvety sound in Serkin's palette that is commonly associated with big-ticket solo pianists. He is, without apology, his own man, with a unique and exhilarating approach to his unwieldy instrument.

Serkin is nothing if not consistent. His recordings of 30 years ago display the same sonorities and individualistic phrasing that were heard at Perelman a week ago. He also maintains a fierce commitment to music of our time, although two of his heroes, Toru Takemitsu and Olivier Messiaen, are no longer with us. Both composers were on this program, and his playing once again demonstrated his deep connection to this music. In Takemitsu's 1973 "Far Away," Serkin put his unique tonal qualities to special use, piling up delicate slivers of shimmering harmonies. In the Messiaen, he found the exotic and everyday music in the bird calls, and also explored the polytonal Variations of Oliver Knussen, which hearkened back to the epochal Alban Berg sonata of a century ago. A group of Luciano Berio pieces sounded surprisingly sweet, even Chopin-like.

It was the great Beethoven set that echoed in the ears for days. The deaf composer took a silly waltz by a prominent Viennese publisher, Anton Diabelli, and spun out 33 variations of astonishing depth and imagination. Serkin has made a specialty of this music, and plays (and records) it often. What seemed so remarkable about this performance, given the pianist's intense familiarity with the score, was the freshness and explosiveness of his playing. There is a stark modernity in this music that is breathtaking, and Serkin exudes that sensibility. It is, then, a testament to both the musician at hand and the composer that this music can be made to sound, centuries hence, novel, exciting and wonderful.

PETER SERKIN
May 20, Kimmel Center

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