Share your reactions to Ingrid Fliter
I enjoyed Ingrid Fliter’s performance much more than I expected. Until last night, aside from winning the Gilmore award (PCA, by the way, has brought two past winners: Piotr Anderszewski and Leif Ove Andsnes), she was, for me, one of many young pianists making the rounds.
On February 6, however, she certainly demonstrated her talents. Her Chopin proved beyond doubt her pleasure in playing. She didn’t mind a wrong note (one or two?) or a hesitancy in order to play with feeling.The Beethoven was more cautious and did not build to the grandeur that other, sometimes older, pianists can give to it. The two Schubert pieces had life, and she certainly enjoyed the technicality of the second impromptu.
You could see with her two encores that the rapid style of her music gives her great pleasure and results in genuine beauty – like an ice skater enjoying a complicated jump for the first time.
The Portland audience continues to impress me with the quality of its attention and respect for good artists. With such support of artists such as Fliter, how I wish each member in the audience last night would bring friends next time to introduce them to these events. Let’s all try to do something about this.
a bibliography
Some resources if you’d like to read more about Romanticism and the composers featured in Ms. Fliter’s concert. Thank you to Dr. John David Ober, who used these resources to prepare his pre-curtain lecture, for this list.
- Charles Rosen – The Romantic Generation
- Charles Rosen – The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven
- Charles Rosen – Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas
– a somewhat technical exegesis of the famous thirty-two
- J. M. Coetzee – Diary of a Bad Year
– a poignant, brief discussion of Romantic symphonic tradition, as well as Bach
- Tad Szulc – Chopin in Paris: the life and times of the Romantic composer
- Lewis Lockwood – Beethoven: the music and the life
– currently the best and most recent biography
- Joseph Kerman – The New Grove Beethoven
- Maynard Solomon – Beethoven
- Maynard Solomon – Late Beethoven: music, thought, imagination
– an essential source
- Maynard Solomon – Mozart: a life
– brilliant psychoanalytic biography
Riaye says:
nice work, bro
Cabanne Howard says:
Ingrid Fliter’s concert on last Wednesday was first rate, but is there any way to schedule the few chamber music concerts the series offers on evenings that are not adjacent to those when the Portland Symphony plays? It’s happening again in May when the Borromeo String Quartet is playing the day before a symphony concert. There’s so little good music in Portland that it’s a shame if it has to happen all at once.
Bil says:
My wife and I are not classical music lovers but Ingrid Fliter was just amazing to us and probably would be no matter what she played. It was wonderful to be near enough to watch her hands just fly over the keyboard.
Michael Bachem says:
The essence of Schubert is song. Song needs words! Schubert gave voice to over 600 poems. But the Impromptu Ingrid Fliter opened her program with had no poem. And yet! After the opening chord cleared the air, the piano started to sing. I cannot recall hearing Schubert without words sound so lyrical. Orpheus and his lyre made the animals, the trees, even the rocks dance. And he used words! Ingrid Fliter captured something very close to the essence of Schubert, just with a Steinway.
– Michael Bachem, PCA Board Member
Will Hertz says:
Let me add to your recommended book list The Beethoven Compensium, A Guide to Beethoven’s Life and Music, Barry Cooper, general editor, as a useful and well organized reference source. For example, the Beethoven piano sonatas are meaningfully summarized and inter-related in three information-packed pages.
Will Hertz says:
I enjoyed Ingrid Fliter’s performance, but would have enjoyed it far more in an environment more appropriate for solo instrumental music. Again, let me urge PCA to use small auditoriums for chamber music and solo recitals, particularly now that Portland has the new recital space at USM. The Portland Chamber Music Festival is setting a new and appropriate standard by using the Abromson hall at USM.
Nancy says:
All I can say is wow! She had me from the first note.
In tears after the Beethovan; amazed with her fresh playfulness in the Chopin. Great art.....there is nothing like it. Thanks PCA!
Frank & Maureen says:
Ms. Fliter is an incredible pianist, pure and simple!
Jan and Paul Lynskey says:
Paul, a pianist for over 70 years, was hugely impressed, and he is the one who can spot great technical ability as well as a pleasurable sound. She was adept without being showy, and you could tell she was immersed in the music. We both loved it, in spite of worrying about a snowy, hour-plus drive home, but it held! Worth the tension!!
Ed says:
Thank you for the reduced student ticket price for this event. It allowed me to bring my daughter, a budding piano student. I loved the performance! However, I was a little surprised a small mic wasn’t above the piano. I think it would have improved the sound quality of the event a tad. (Sometimes it was too soft.) Thanks!
Jack Campbell says:
Damn, I tried to get there but turned back because of the threat of snow. Stopped at MacDonalds for dinner and
was the only one there. I hope there was a good crowed
to cheer her on.
Barbara says:
Thank you so much for bringing this exquisite Gilmore Award winner to Portland. The entire program was a thrill. Also, thank you for the reduced price tickets for piano students. I only wish more could have attended. I hope the sponsors could help enough with the costs for such a small audience and you can continue this quality.
Phyllis says:
Does it get any better than a 10-minute drive to easy parking for a magical performance of the most beautiful works in the piano repertoire in a wonderful concert hall?!!! Last night was a quintessential Portland experience for classical music lovers. Thank you again PCA for bringing these extraordinary musicians to our little city.