Pro-Musica pianist returns with eclectic program: By Betty Ligon
In the music world, keeping in touch with old friends can be good for business. Zuill Bailey, artistic director of El Paso Pro Musica, can attest to that. Last season he called on a friend, pianist David Allen Wehr, to fill a performance date vacated suddenly by guest artist Andreas Haeffliger, who busted a finger. Wehr took the 48-hour challenge and played a great Beethoven recital a year ago in April. So I was prepared to be overwhelmed by his artistry again, this time by his eclectic programming. He’s a man of all musical kinds and seasons. Last week he distinguished himself at the UTEP Recital Hall performing piano powerhouses from Chopin to jazz. His first offering was a delicate Charles Griffes’ White Peacock from Roman Sketches not often heard in recitals around here. Wehr talks as well as he plays the piano. His schtick is communicating bits of information about the composer and the work before it’s played. Griffes admired the graceful white peacocks on his travels in Italy and put their unique sound to music. Wehr seems to revel in threes. The Estampes (Engravings) by Claude Debussy were inspired by Islam, Pagodas; Evening in Granada, Spain; and Garden in the Rain, France. He pointed out that the Franco Debussy never visited Spain. As he laced into the works, his fingers danced on the keys like water on a hot stove, each note pealing its own distinct ring. Wehr demonstrated a smart way to keep applause from breaking out between each short Estampes and those following on the program. He kept his hands elevated above the last notes he touched before proceeding with the next piece. That was a series of Frederic Chopin Nocturnes, replete with coloristic style and a requisite sense of romance. They were the B-flat minor, op. No. 1, awash in important intent; the E-sharp major, op. 15, No. 2, with dreamy sensitivity; and E minor, op. 72, No. 1, featuring a lovely melody. Wehr added the popular Chopin (Heroic) Polonaise in A-flat major, op. 53 that took no prisoners, as intense and restless in its emotions as one could wish for. His strong delivery included the spellbinding ability to drum the left hand softly while the right hand operated on high octane to wind up in a hair-raising finish. In a surprising change of mood, Wehr showed off his formidable talent to elevate jazz to its syncopated level in what he described as “a palate cleansing.” He described his friendship with Joe Utterback, contemporary composer of the three flamboyant works that swept the audience to standing enthusiasm. Candlelight Blues from Jazz Bagatelles was bluesy and mellow. Deep River from Three Spirituals in Jazz Style was barely recognizable as far as the melody was concerned. The pianist’s iron fingers hammered out a foot patting and head nodding third piece called Dr. Joe’s Long-Fingered Ragtime Special. He tossed off octaves and trills and a glissando seemingly oblivious to their difficult challenges. The second half of the program was devoted to Modest Mussorgsky and Pictures at an Exhibition in its original form as a piano suite. We usually hear it in the Maurice Ravel orchestration. Wehr made it even more realistic and robust in its artistic portraits of original sketches by the composer’s friend Victor Hartmann. The tonal representations of the paintings began with Promenade, meant to depict the composer walking from picture to picture. The first one, Gnomus, represented a leaping hunchback patterned from a design for a wooden nutcracker. From there the viewer wandered to a scene of The Old Castle, both loud and quiet; the Tuilleries, a quick sketch of children playing in the park; Bydio, Polish word for cattle, as the piano imitates the clomp, clomp of the cows; Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, chirp, chirp, chirp; two old Jews, Samuel Goldenberg, polite rich man, and Schmuyle, poor grump. The Market Square brought sounds of women gossips, animals; Catacombs, sad song leading to mournful restatement of the Promenade. Hut on Hen’s Legs depicted a fabled witch’s hut with bruising music and the final Great Gate of Kiev, which was never built. But Mussorgsky wrote it as a grandiose scene and the Exhibition came to a thunderous close. All this was skillfully and realistically created by a virtuoso pianist whose keyboard command was technically impeccable, equally turbulent or quietly introspective as the score required. Wehr responded with a well-known encore, the Andante Cantabile from Beethoven’s “Pathetique” Sonata.
The tumultuous, expressive range of chamber music was explored fully Tuesday night at Duquesne University when pianist David Allen Wehr, violinist Andres Cardenes and cellist Anne Martindale Williams played the three Piano Trios by Johannes Brahms. Energy verged on the ferocious at the start of the first movement of Brahms' Third Piano Trio, but the musicians equally were successful at making us really feel the lyricism and spectral moods, and letting us hear the composer's constant inventiveness. The musicians maintained the same level of technical refinement in Brahms Second Trio. It was characteristic of the integrity of the performance that Anne Martindale Williams' played as forthrightly when doubling the piano's bass as when playing independent lines. Wehr's dynamic and fastidious playing included sensitive dynamics that helped his colleagues to shine. His tempo flexibility, which heightened expression, was always idiomatic and tasteful. The concert concluded with Brahms' First Trio, a "first and last" trio because it was performed, as nearly always, in the composer's reworking of his youthful piece that he did a few years before his death. Cardenes' lustrous string tone was applied with perfect weighting throughout the concert. -- Mark Kanny Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
London Guardian: Wehr belongs to the high-powered school of American pianism, but has a depth and sensitivity rarely encountered.
New York Times: One has the impression of a man who so strongly believes in his ideas that they come across as statements of musical fact.
Pittsburgh Tribune: Wehr's lyrical sensitivity, touch and pacing were heart-warming...masterly control of the instrument.
Washington Post: Wehr's interpretation of the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto had balance, impetus, lyricism, clarity, sensitivity and a sure sense of direction. He produces a lean, resonant sound.
Baltimore Sun: Wehr played the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto with tremendous confidence and panache and with a good deal of romantic freedom.
Houston Chronicle: Wehr gave a very satisfying performance of the Brahms First Concerto, the kind that burrows out a readily accessible nook in the memory. Faced with a work of major length and structural proportions, Wehr shows a remarkable consistent ability to get that long, controlled, yet relaxed arch that makes up so much of the concerto's fabric.
Musical Opinion (London): I was greatly impressed by Wehr's recital, which ranged from poetic Schumann to an intense account of the Barber Sonata and a dazzling show of Liszt.
Musical America: Wehr brought off the taxing semifinal round (the Dvorak Quintet followed by a one-hour solo recital) with color, insight and a straight-arrow intelligence, giving the clear impression that he was unshakable. In Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 6, Wehr created a complete world within the confines of this single piece, laying out an almost tangible sense of space and line and projecting individual phrases with a light, firefly touch or with the snap of steel. It brought the hot and somewhat note-weary audience to its feet. When Wehr came out for his Brahms First Concerto, it was already half-past midnight, but the hour seemed immaterial-he played with shape, flexibility and driving propulsion, and held the slow movement under complete control, spinning it down to a beautiful close in the final moments. The finale was taut but never tense. It was a mature, handsomely executed presentation, and deserved the first prize that the jury announced just after 3 o'clock in the morning.
Listin Diairio (Santo Domingo): David Allen Wehr evoked the image of a super-pianist with his delivery of the Grieg Concerto, giving us a flawless interpretation, one with rich personal contributions. Wehr's technical virtuosity has outstanding personality, which allows for pianistic shades and colors. He sustained a subtle skill over the musical argument with astonishing transparency.
Wellington Evening Post: In Mendelssohn's Concerto no. 2, a more sympathetic combination of maestro Decker and pianist Wehr can hardly be imagined. The space that each gave the other in the opening passage, and the beautiful balance they achieved in the warm acoustic of the hall produced a rare feeling of contentment.
The Dominion (Wellington, New Zealand): This was a stunning performance of the Barber Concerto. I am at present reviewing the superb new recording with John Browning, but this performance by David Allen Wehr was fully its equal, and maybe in the slow movement even more poetic and haunting. Wonderful stuff!
La Prensa (Buenos Aires): The work of David Allen Wehr permitted appreciation of the temperament of an interpreter demanding and refined, who articulates each note with exquisite beauty, revealing a spiritual perfectionist. He displayed infallible precision and the shining resources of a great interpreter...a revelation of aristocratic spirituality.
Chautauquan Daily: In Franck's Symphonic Variations, Wehr displayed authority and assurance along with a fine awareness of the music's drama and poetry. His skill and musicianship were applauded by an enthusiastic audience of 5000 and Mr. Wehr obliged with two encores: the Ravel Toccata, played with strength and drive, and the Chopin Nocturne in D-Flat Major, played with a limpid delicacy and tenderness
Stamford Advocate: Wehr played the Brahms Concerto no. 1 with extraordinary awareness of the work's ebb and flow, and of the balance between piano and orchestra. He knew when the soloist must roar with authority and when he must sympathize tenderly with the orchestra. He has fingers of steel, executed the concerto's fantastic trills with astonishing strength, tossed off its heroic octaves with absolutely no concessions to their difficulty, while never losing sight of the music's deeper meaning. The performance brought down the house with cheers, whistles and a roaring ovation from the audience. It was a memorable event in every sense.