Jean-Pierre Lemarié, elegant and dramatic pianist, born in Paris and living in New York, gave the first of a pair of demanding and varied, virtuoso recitals, at the intimate Michiko Rehearsal Studio, on November 14, billing the tour-de-force as “A Musical Journey through Time.”
Lemarié, at the Yamaha, began with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita Number Four in D Major, and his performance of the suite, made up mostly of dances, was grand, courtly, and florid. Lemarié played the variations in George Frideric Handel’s Chaconne in G Major fleetly and nimbly, but for a contemplative adagio. The pianist’s account of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s ornate variations on children’s song “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” was graceful and quicksilver, flowing as seamlessly as a bel canto singer’s coloratura.
Two of contemporary composer Alain Louvier’s “Agrexandrins”—compounding aggressiveness and Alexandrines, and played with fingers, fists, and forearms—were Lemarié’s next selections, a mournful “… La Cloche Frappa l’air de ses Funestes coups,” after Victor Hugo’s “La Grand Mère,” heralding the death of the grandmother, and contrastingly fierce “… L’orage est dans ma voix, l’éclair est dans ma bouche,” with text from Alfred de Vigny’s “Moïse.” A majestic Preludio, from Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras,” Number Four, followed.
Proceeding to evocative high-Romantic works by Frédéric Chopin, the pianist juxtaposed a brilliantly fiery Sixth Polonaise, “The Heroic,” in A-flat Major, and dulcet, moody Nocturne in C-sharp minor.
In Claude Debussy’s “L’isle Joyeuse,” Lemarié ebulliently, even playfully, limned a wondrous island, which he has likened to Fire Island. A heated “Asturias,” of Isaac Albéniz, was the encore. Lemarié repeats the program on November 14.