Saturday, June 9, 2012

Brian Lin: Watch the Hands

If you will pardon a brief editorial note from your friendly neighborhood blogger: In between Sahun Hong's performance and Brian Lin's, I moved from the right side of the concert hall to the left side, enabling me to see the hands of the performers. When I watched Brian Lin's hands (for the first time in the competition with anybody's), I was absolutely blown away. He's completely comfortable crossing his left hand over his right, and when playing a completely different mood with each hand. In his version of J.S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue, the left hand has to maintain a weighty, moody background feel while the right hand is jumping around and doing all sorts of sprightly things. This is a skill I suspect not everybody has, but Lin has it in spades.*

This is also the first time where I specifically mentioned a performer's basic sound in my notes. Simply put, Lin had just a gorgeous sound throughout all of his pieces. It was very clear and pure, not tainted by the crashing of keys or the overuse of the pedals, and just thoroughly pleasurable to hear. You could hear that in the Bach, as well as in Beethoven's Sonata no. 30, of which he played the third movement alone. That particular piece is not a barnstormer, like many third movements are; a large chunk of the piece is soft, tremulous buildup before the storm. It takes a long transition from quiet and picturesque feelings to very loud, technically complex passages, but Lin was able to negotiate it very well. The obligatory Chopin nocturne also starts out quietly; for some reason, listening to Lin's rendition, it sounded like a foggy day in London in the late nineteenth century. He really brought out that sadness of the nocturne, rather then blowing it out of the water.


Lin's final piece was the Gargoyles again, which Josephine Yang also performed in her turn. This was the first repeat of a piece in the concert, and I found it really entertaining to see what similarities and differences there were between their two interpretations. Where Yang saw a sudden movement, an atmospheric one, a wavelike one and a sudden attack, Lin saw a cohesive story about the gargoyles in question. The brooding first movement paints a picture of the gargoyles, the second gives them a mysterious, eerie element, the third reminded him of water running and the fourth saw the gargoyles acquire heartbeats and come alive. It was a wonderfully creepy story to hear, and it was a splendid interpretation. He really brought out the mysteriousness of the second movement, and captured the fourth movement's spinning-out-of-control sense.

As you've probably guessed, I also loved Lin's presentation. He came up with great stories and musical factoids about each piece, and brought a deeply personal touch to his explanation of why he picked the Beethoven to do in this competition. He gives the listener vivid images to imagine in the upcoming piece, and then provides the perfect musical interpretation of them. Lin looked like the music physically took something out of him, flinging his head forward and back with each climax in the pieces. He was a pleasure to watch.

*If everyone has it, don't tell me. I am but a humble cellist trying to blog about piano stuff.

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