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The Friends of Chamber Music presented Kansas City favorite sons Stanislav Ioudenitch and his student, Behzod Abduraimov, in a joint recital this past Friday evening at the Folly Theatre. Adburaimov performed all twenty-four of Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28 and a transcription of Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre before intermission. After intermission, Ioudenitch continued with his own selection of Liszt and Chopin before a second Hamburg Steinway was brought on stage to close the show with Rachmaninoff's Suite No. 1 for Two Pianos.

From an analytical standpoint, Abduraimov's half of the concert was awkward for me to listen to. In all honesty, by about two-thirds of the way into his interpretation of Chopin's 24 Preludes, I had worked myself into a barely-controllable state of agitation. Abduraimov was playing Chopin - hitting all the right notes in the process - but all I heard was THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD: technical prowess devoid of any artistic interpretation. I also was frustrated that Abduraimov's pedaling at the ends of phrases and each Prelude was sloppy, causing awkward squawking from the unevenly-released strings.

While Abduraimov's interpretive shortcomings were evident, in general they were more so in those Preludes that required a particularly high level of nuance. Prelude Nos. 3, 4, 7 and 13 for example, all require light nimbleness, subtlety, and/or subdued passion - but, again:  thud-thud-thud. With the livelier or more intense Preludes that already required a commanding attack - in particular Nos. 9, 12 and 13 - the thudding increased exponentially.

Thankfully, the "thud" tendency started to dissipate somewhere around Prelude No. 15. Of all the Preludes, No. 15 could be considered the most vulnerable to such attack (literally and figuratively) - the constantly repetitive single note requires a very nuanced touch to keep it from sounding ...well, like a constantly repetitive single note. While there (still) wasn't quite enough nuance to Abduraimov's interpretation in No. 15, he managed to avoid over-thudding, and it was here that I began to discern a turning point.

It is interesting to note that probably the most technically-challenging of the Preludes begins with No. 16. It was at this point that I began to see some light at the end of the tunnel as both Abduraimov's technical skill - which had certainly been there all along - began to reap the benefits of his delayed interpretive skills. No. 17 - a slow, pondering, but still thud-prone, piece - was well-executed. Nos. 18 and 19 called for technical skill similar to No 16, and these were executed much better as well. In this last third of the Preludes, No. 20 by far is the most thud-prone while paradoxically requiring as much light, passionate nuance as any of the other twenty three . Abduraimov handled it with a mature balance that seemed to have been absent in the prior pieces. Preludes Nos. 22 and 24 are similar in technical requirements to Nos. 16, 18 and 19, and it was in these - and fortunately, from a climactic standpoint, No. 24 in particular - that I witnessed the full maturing of technique and interpretation. In fact, No. 24 was positively astounding.

From the Preludes, Abduraimov moved to the Liszt/Horowitz transcription of Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre, and following seamlessly off of the prowess displayed in Prelude No. 24, it was fantastically brilliant, and quite deservedly, brought the house to its feet. Being a transcription of an orchestral composition, the sonic flavors and requisite technical demands of the work reminded me quite a bit of Stephen Prutsman's gargantuan performance of Stravinsky's Petrouchka Suite a few weeks earlier on The Friends' series.

I've since spent quite a bit of time trying to put my finger on exactly what went awry during the early and middle Preludes; and I continue to come back to the same conclusion:  Behzod Abduraimov is a monstrously talented 19-year-old pianist - and in some ways I find myself glad to have witnessed the metamorphosis evident just within the short span of those 24 Preludes - but the fact remains that Abduraimov is...a 19-year-old pianist, and I think his interpretive skills have yet to mature and catch up to his technical mastery of the instrument. It probably won't take long. When he is finally able to meld both technique and interpretation, I believe he could well become one of the world's finest pianists. There were glimpses of sheer brilliance that I haven't seen or heard in a pianist in a very long time. His will be a career well worth watching.

With whatever natural technical brilliance Abduraimov arrived with at Stanislav Ioudenitch's Park University door step, listening to and watching Ioudenitch at the piano made it immediately evident the additional technical growth Abduraimov could hope to gain from his tutelage. His (Ioudenitch's) crisp, effortless and flawless technique was pristine. And he brought the additional two decades of experience and maturity that made the interpretive difference in what were, in many ways, very similar pieces (more Liszt and Chopin). Ioudenitch's interpretations were conservative nonetheless, and I would hope that Abduraimov's potential isn't blunted by this influence. I dare say that Adburaimov's titanic talent and potential have the capacity eventually to eclipse that of Ioudenitch, and I am reminded of that great line from "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by The Police: "you will find your servant is your master."

The program closed with the Suite No. 1 for Two Pianos, Op. 5 by Rachmaninoff that gave teacher and student the opportunity to display their collective talents.

Mainly because of the Preludes, this was a challenging roller-coaster ride from a critical standpoint, but in its totality I have to say I enjoyed on a very visceral level Abduraimov's rough, unbridled energy, and I envy Ioudenitch's responsibility at taming and directing such a musical juggernaut.

REVIEW:
The Friends of Chamber Music
Behzod Abduraimov & Stanislav Ioudenitch in recital
Friday, March 5, 2010
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown, Kansas City, MO
www.chambermusic.org

By Christopher Guerin

Traditional and New Classical music, and Theatre Contributor (Past writer)
Christopher Guerin holds degrees in Music Education, Music Business, and Music Theory & Composition, the latter from the University of Massachusetts (Lowell) College of Music where he co-founded the college's Composers' Guild, and, in 1985, won the Artin Arslanian Composition Award. During college, he also obtained some musical theatre experience as a member of pit orchestras for Threepenny Opera and My Fair Lady. Since 1989, Christopher has been in the very non-artistic corporate sector, where his creative energies have been put to more mundane endeavors 

Christopher credits his musical motivations to his late father, who was concertmaster of the Springfield (MA) Community (pre-cursor to the city's current Symphony) Orchestra and performed popular music on radio in the 1930s. Christopher began his classical training in 1972 at age 10, began teaching at 16 (continuing to take private students throughout college), and traveled extensively with a youth orchestra - including to New Zealand in 1980. After college, and until 1989, Christopher focused on the business end of music as a successful sales manager for one of New England's largest music chains.

Over the past 20 years, Christopher's expertise has focused on medicine as a life risk underwriting officer for a large Midwest insurance group. His past duties included responsibility for risk underwriting in Pacific Rim markets where he traveled extensively to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and Burma. Time permitting, he has continued to compose intermittently throughout this period. Christopher is married to Paula, a fellow musician he met during college, and together they have "composed" their magnum opera in three very creative children - an architecture student (go K-State!), an aspiring classical pianist, and a budding writer/journalist. He and his wife relocated from Massachusetts to the Kansas City area in 1997.