Pianist Offers Sensitive Touch To Chopin Works

Spokane String Quartet

Sunday, May 19, at The Met

Tadeusz Majewski has certainly found his niche playing the piano music of Chopin, or it has found him.

Sunday’s Spokane String Quartet program was carried mainly by Majewski; three from the SSQ joined him on one number.

It doesn’t violate any conventions to expect the right notes from a performer, but Majewski played all the notes with the right attack, the right length, and the right volume and balance. Every moment was well-considered and startlingly appropriate.

Majewski conveyed an intimate and sensitive mood throughout his performance. He was reluctant to use the harsh hammering articulations resorted to by pianists competing with orchestras.

He achieved power and volume in the requisite moments by invoking a sustained quality in the music. As velvety as his touch was, I was disappointed with the top octave on the piano, which sounded tinny in spite of his efforts.

Disquieting, or simply novelty, was Majewski’s disregard for the printed program before the intermission. Bach’s BWV 988 Aria is a piece recognizable in two notes or fewer. Savoring the moment before it began just served to jolt me all the more when some non-Bach vibrations hit my ears.

After this digression, the audience was back on terra firma with the Bach, as printed. Misled into expecting the Chopin preludes next, we were served the Schubert Sonata.

As advertised, Chopin’s Waltzes rounded out the first half, but Majewski skipped the A minor Waltz, playing three, not four.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed Majewski’s performance tremendously.

It was so clear, with every note laid out so simply, that it was made to look easy. But announcing the changes or dispensing with the program and saying “Works selected from …” would have been gracious.

While there are probably those knowledgeable enough to avoid confusion and those who just let the music wash over them, there may also be those who are not quite sure what happened and would like to have known.

String Quartet members Kelly Farris, Tracy Dunlop and John Marshall joined Majewski for Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat. The group handled the work’s abrupt mood swings well, offering up big, warm sounds, especially in the cantabile sections of the third and fourth movements.

Majewski’s just so yet not predictable Chopin finished out the performance. He landed squarely on the well-known Polonaise in A-flat, eliciting a standing ovation.

Rumors that this was the final concert of the Spokane String Quartet’s season, promulgated in the Weekend section on Friday, were greatly exaggerated. Its season is not over until the other shoe drops June 7, when it hosts the Imeldas, the trio famous for footwear.