Camerata Pacifica’s October program — at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West — will star two musicians and one instrument, as pianists Anna Polonsky and Orion Weiss will play Music for Solo Piano and Piano Four Hands.
The program consists of Claude Debussy’s Marche Écossaise sur un Thème Populaire and Children’s Corner; Robert Schumann’s Gesänge der Frühe, Opus 133; Arthur Honegger’s Le Cahier Romand; and two works by Franz Schubert, the Fantasie in F Minor, D 940 and the Divertissement sur les Motifs Originaux Française, D. 823. Those who attend the 1 p.m. concert will hear only the two Schubert pieces.
From the late 17th century until well into the 20th century, the great composers were great performers on one instrument or other (violin, organ and piano) — and usually more than one. Much of the music they wrote was intended for performance, by themselves and/or with other professional musicians. But the heroic age of the virtuoso pianist — much shorter on account of the piano being a newcomer — is also witness to the greatest flourishing of the amateur pianist, when the middle class bought pianos and played them in social or family gatherings.
So, the composer-pianist, if he wanted his publisher and himself to prosper, wrote music with this market in mind. No doubt, the stores were overwhelmed with requests after a Beethoven or John Field recital. Even Liszt, who delighted in composing music only he could play — and in improvising further layers of difficulty in concert — wrote ballads such as Liebestraum that just about anybody could play well enough to achieve the romantic effect.
The crackle of the radio put an end to that world. The piano was taken down to the basement, and the amateur musician went with it.
The music in this Camerata program is all written for a single piano — musical guests being way less expensive than a second piano — and much of it doesn’t exceed a certain level of difficulty. That does not preclude many opportunities for excitement and bravura performance. Yet, it seems a thoroughly domestic program.
Don’t mistake that for condescension, by the way. Polonsky and Weiss, separately or together on the same bench, are capable of any level of virtuosity and pyrotechnics. They would be the first to admit that it is much easier to impress an audience than it is to move them. Friday is likely to be a very satisfying evening.
For tickets and other concert information, call Camerata Pacifica at 805.884.8410 or click here to visit it online.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com.