According to a pre-recital talk, Leonard Bernstein's "Touches" was written as an exercise in character creation. Take one theme and play with it half a dozen different ways; make it spooky, make it triumphant, make it cat-on-a-wire jaunty and get a score of different things out of it. In the hands of Pin Hsu (Emma) Liu, all those traits and more were on full display. Liu played the first few movements fairly aggressively, or so it seemed to this blogger, so the variation advertised as "cute" sounded more than a little bit "peeved" at its lot. Even so, she did a good job of bringing out that old Bernstein jauntiness later on, as well as the spooky nightmare fuel in Variation Six.
Liu followed this up with an obligatory Chopin Nocturne (No. 2), another very elegant piece, and a dignified Prelude and Fugue from J.S. Bach. (Dear PianoArts overlords, I know this bit is skimpy, but I noticed that her eyes were closed for much of the Bach and flipped out and forgot to take notes. Please forgive your humble servant.) She closed out her section with Brahms's Fantasies, and here is what I wrote on that: "It's emotional, it's loud, she's into it. She does those little hooks with considerable flair. Whatever she plays, she puts heart into it. Whether calm or fiery, her heart is in it." I don't know what more you can ask from a pianist.
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