In a tribute to modern music, Sally Pinkas performed the world premiere of Kathryn Alexander's progressive composition "A Moment, A Kind of..." Thursday night in Spaulding Auditorium. Pinkas, the College's pianist-in-residence since 1985, also performed other classical works spanning two centuries of piano composition during her first solo recital this year.
Pinkas' professional artistry and command over the keyboard was evident from the very first piece she played, a Sonata in f Minor by Haydn. The vibrant melody of this piece was its most prominent part and it wasn't burdened down by heavy chord changes that often impose a rigid rhythmic structure. Instead, Pinkas stated the melody and then proceeded to play variations with different harmonic elements, adding colour and texture to a straightforward theme.
The centerpiece of the concert, however, was Alexander's "A Moment, A Kind Of..." a composition she wrote for toy and grand piano. The piece emphasized dissonance as a primary expressive tool, as almost all of the six movements contained substantial amounts of diminished and augmented seventh chords, perhaps the two types of chords classical composers avoid most often. The work, based on a poem "There Was a Moment," by Portugese poet Ferdinand Pessoa, stressed that the piano is fundamentally a percussive instrument, a point highlighted by the complementary use of the celeste (which was substituted for the toy piano).
The interaction between the celeste and the piano was not only an interesting auditory experience, but an interesting visual one also as Pinkas' hands darted back and forth between the two keyboards. The work was well received by the audience but it was undoubtedly a composition molded in a progressive contemporary tradition and one that violated certain rules of classical composition in favor of expressing musical ideas.
The next piece, "Arabesque 3" by composer Richard Trythall, was among one of the most beautiful pieces of the evening. "Arabesque 3," a piece dedicated to Pinkas, used the right hand to represent a prima ballerina performing an arabesque in the context of the left hand's ostinato, a Spanish dance rhythm figuration.
This piece, unlike Haydn's, fully utilized Pinkas' strong left hand to integrate the chordal structure with melody and well pronounced arpeggios. Pinkas' slow weaving of multiple rhythmic textures into the song created even more drama and added to the composition's overall liveliness.
Pinkas finished off her recital with two fugues by Shostakovich and a six part composition by Maurice Ravel, which showed off her dexterity and control over the entire range of the keyboard.
While Pinkas remains an unusually intelligent and sensitive interpreter of classical compositions, her uniquness as a pianist comes from the depth of her repertoire. She does not restrict herself just to the classical works that have been played time and again but she has the courage to tackle highly unconventional works like "A Moment, A Kind of..."
The vehicle Pinkas utilizes for the compositions is always excellent, with plenty of emotional drive and drama, a clear presentation of ideas and a talent for extracting a beautiful sound from a majestic instrument, the grand piano. Watching and hearing her play reaffirms the belief that the piano in itself is a complete expressive medium, both musically and emotionally.
