Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Pin Hsu (Emma) Liu: Duo Recital (Finalist)

For some reason, whenever I listen to Pin Hsu (Emma) Liu, all my mind comes up with is nature and natural metaphors. When she played the Allegro from Haydn's Sonata No. 59, my notes go something like this: "A very stroll-in-the-countryside feeling. Light, breezy, elegant." When she moved on to Schumann's Drei Fantasiestücke, the first fantasie minded me of a "melodious undercurrent that now and then overflows its banks". Floweriness aside, she has a very bright, clear, graceful sound that worked well with Scott Tisdel's cello playing. The second and third fantasies showcased Liu's great flow; every phrase just sort of naturally blends into the next. It's just a really nice sound. She had a really aggressive take on the third movement, and managed to do all of these complicated passages without ever losing her equanimity, either on her face or on the keyboard.

Playing with Wilanna Kalkhof, Liu then launched into the first movement of the well-traveled Schumann's Concerto in A Minor, and the audience heard the love story of Robert and Clara one more time. Liu demonstrated the piece's opening melody and explained some of the key changes that modify it throughout the piece. The second movement, she told the crowd, starts with dialogue between the strings and piano and concludes with a rising and falling melody. When she began the piece, Liu sounded authoritative and like she was telling a story at the same time, a welcome combination. She just has such a classic concert pianist sound, it's hard to really even describe. It sounds the way you expect a really good pianist to sound. She carries off the complex bits of the Schumann without batting an eye, and merged well with the fauxchestra as played by Kalkhof.

Emma Liu is a PianoArts finalist, and will play the entirety of the Schumann concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday the 13th, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield.

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