Phillip Kwoka: Expressive Expression

Phillip Kwoka is returning to the scene of the crime. The West Palm Beach, Florida native is in his second stint at PianoArts, having previously performed in the 2010 competition. He has an expressive, emotional style that's generally very effective, but it can also cost him; if he makes a mistake, it's there on his face for the whole audience to see.

That happened in the first piece, when Kwoka got lost two or three times in the middle of the Bach and had to stop and go back (a Prelude and Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, by J.S. Bach, are required). He grimaced and went back, grimaced and went back again before finally getting onto the right track. Kwoka did recover nicely and finished the piece well; he preferred to keep the his tone softer and more expressive, stopping only for punchy chords that jumped out at the audience.

Once he got over the Clavier hurdles, however, Kwoka was a pleasure to listen to. He showed off his light touch on the keyboard in Maurice Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, making good use of the pedals and showing a deft touch on the notes left hanging in the air. In the Chopin nocturne, he again stayed slower and more expressive. There were moments in Ravel with huge crashing chords, as there were in the nocturne, but both times they were quickly brought back into softness. If listening to Bohrod was a walk in the country, hearing Kwoka was like listening to the ocean. He's a romantic pianist through and through. In the final piece, "Transmissions" by David McIntyre, he showed the ability to lay down some really pretty cascades in the upper registers; it reminded me of how snowflakes look. (Not to slobber all over his playing or anything like that.)

The only real flaw in Kwoka's performance didn't come in the pieces, but in the little talks that the artists give between each piece. He seemed very uncomfortable speaking to the crowd, and was kind of hard to hear. I didn't learn a lot about the pieces listening to him speak, although I learned quite a bit while hearing him play. After a slow start to the concert, Kwoka only got better as he went along.