André Laplante
At Dominion Chalmers United Church
Reviewed Friday night
Another August Friday, another Chamberfest gala: this time a rare Ottawa recital by the uncompromising Quebec pianist André Laplante.
Laplante has worn the mantle of “romantic virtuoso” since he won a silver medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978. It’s true that his leonine style, titanic power and profound musicality all seem to belong to some past golden age of piano aristocrats, when giants like Josef Lhevinne and Arturo Benedetto Michelangeli roamed the Earth. Laplante is the kind of artist whose sensitivity and deep emotions transcend technique, and even a few missed notes or small memory lapses can’t mar the grand landscapes he paints.
The concert opened with the middle movement of Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major for organ, transcribed by Liszt’s most famous pupil, Busoni. Laplante played it as it should be: Bach’s rigour viewed through the Vaseline lens filter of the late 19th century, and conceived as one slow, masterfully crafted crescendo-decrescendo.
In Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 3, Laplante produced almost orchestral colours, with inner voicing balancing melodic lines as smooth and fluid as anything a woodwind could produce. Three excerpts from Schubert’s Moments Musicaux Op. 94 were finely detailed — the A-flat major was especially lovely — and always with that incomparably nuanced sound.
In his Sonata No. 26 Op. 81a, “Les Adieux”, Beethoven wanted to evoke the feelings aroused by a friend’s departure, absence and happy return. The distant hunting horn calls and octave leaps in the first movement were beautifully coloured, and Laplante expertly conveyed the work’s sense of urgency and anticipation. The last movement was taken at a thoroughbred gallop, a true “vivacissimamente” racing headlong to its joyful conclusion.
The second half of the program was taken up by that Everest of the piano repertoire, Liszt’s B minor Sonata. Laplante, a Liszt specialist, made an authoritative recording of this work in 1995 for the Analekta label. Friday’s performance showed how Laplante’s concept of this monumental composition has continued to evolve over the years.
His playing today seems more confident, more violent, with the energy and stamina of a much younger man. His sumptuous sound achieves an almost three-dimensional quality, never harsh or uncontrolled even in the most explosively virtuosic passages. Laplante tossed off thundering cascades of octaves and astounding double trills, but also showed tremendous subtly and delicacy, and all that technical skill only serves his intelligent, emotionally unbridled musicality.
As an encore for the appreciative audience, Laplante performed Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnet No. 47 with rapturous, poetic lyricism.
