George Li, "our own" piano virtuoso, has now performed four concerts with SPM, starting when he was 11 and, most recently this last weekend, at the grand old age of 14. He was already a very accomplished performer the first time he played with us in November 2006 (the Beethoven 1st Piano Concerto). In succeeding years, he followed with the Saint-Saëns 2nd Piano Concerto, then the Mendelssohn 1st Piano Concerto. This year, he played the Schumann concerto, a wonderfully romantic work which tested the limits of George's emotional maturity. He was definitely up to snuff. And, he's such a pleasant young man. All this adulation (he had played Carnegie Hall and appeared on Martha Stewart when he was still only 11) could easily have gone to his head. But not a bit of it. He really seems to enjoy playing. He can't get enough of it.
This time, he played two outstanding encores (he always checks with Mark, our music director, if it's OK to do an encore): the Chopin Nocturne in C# minor and the Liszt La Campanella. Here are two links to recent performances on YouTube:
- La Campanella (although George was much better yesterday than this recording suggests);
- Nocturne in C# minor.
My pre-concert lectures went quite well. I believe that I made the case that the Andante (2nd movement) of Schubert's 9th symphony is completely free from repetition. I'm still plagued a little by equipment failures. If I do this again, I really will have to ensure that everything is working correctly. It's frustrating for me and the audience to have to wait while I try to get excerpts to play!
Will and Nilo came to the talk and concert and I was very happy to see them there. There were many comments afterwards on how well the Schubert had gone (it's easy to concentrate only on the Schumann concerto). If you'd like to read the program notes, they are here: http://www.rubecula.com/SPM/SPM/Program%20Notes/201005.pdf. [You may need to install the (free) Adobe Acrobat Reader plugin]. Here is a link to the review in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
So, another year of SPM (the 27th) has finished. I always feel a little sadness after the last concert. But it'll be nice not to have to drive all the way to Hudson every Wednesday.
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