Have you ever visited the Yamaha Artist Services site? I hadn’t either until I received an invitation to Yamaha Artist James Adler’s recital there on Tuesday, November 14. It was a beautiful evening, Autumn in New York after all, and my feet seemed to glide past Rockefeller Center, where a billboard acts as a placeholder for this year’s tree. The famous department stores’ windows are all under wraps for the big reveals oh-so-imminent, so there was definitely a Holiday atmosphere.
I arrived at the building and took a brief elevator ride to a white-painted space lined with pianos. While Yamaha does not have a show room here, artists visit to play different models. This evening, there was a space at one end, surrounded by windows whose purple tinged darkness accented the lighted performance space. Rubbing shoulders with composers and classical cognoscenti, the program was poised to begin.
Bonnie Barrett, Director, read briefly from the original press release from Yamaha when Adler had initially signed on with them. She pointed out that he is so much more and we were ready. Starting with Henco Espag’s “Mistieke Feetjies (Mythical Fairies)” our journey began. The music describes adventure and play and set the tone well for the evening. The composer, Espag, was on hand and Adler brought him up for a bow. The piece is dedicated to Adler whose hands played, literally and figuratively, with the keyboard in a dance of delight.
Paul Turok’s “Passacaglia” was next and while it is based on Bach’s C minor Passacaglia, Turok’s vibrates with modern, bold energy. At times chaotic, yet with its own sense of order, it rises then dissolves with notes that reverberate like entropy in sound. Adler’s interpretation of his close friend’s music was exhilarating. Adler brought Susan Turok up in gratitude during the applause, as well.
Adler noted in his introduction to Robert Schumann’s “Kinderszenen” that he had been playing it since his childhood. Many of us begin with portions of the 13 pieces that made it to the final cut, yet in the hands of a master, we can hear the design of a piece that grows as the skill of the player grows. Nuance in dynamics and technique made this feel like hearing familiar music for the very first time.
After a moment to set up, Adler’s “Beautiful Garden”, lyrics by James Griener, added gifted singer/actor Michael Buchanan with Denise Končelik on flute. The world limned in the song is so delicately beautiful, and the images so needed right now, I needed to catch my breath. The voices of human, flute and piano lingered in the memory and there was an extra moment of grace before the applause began.
Adler’s Alma Mater is Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, and they are celebrating a century of musical excellence. They asked key alums to create something special for the anniversary and thus “A Curtis Reflection for Piano Solo” was born from Adler’s agile brain. There are three Movements, each characteristic of the joy in clever aural puns that composers gift us on rare occasions. The first, “222” is the address of his apartment on Rittenhouse Square and is written in keys F Major and G Major, the first indicating a calmness of sorts, while the second signifies gratitude and peace. The early days making one’s way and happy for what comes of effort. The next Movement “Parkway House”, where love, life and heartbreak happened, in D flat Major with accents of the low A flat. Movement III is “1726”, so named for the physical address of the Curtis Institute of Music. Taking the notes of the diatonic C scale with the notes C-B-D-A, with the B being natural, Adler creates a theme that is memorable and evocative of the time spent during his studies – a montage in sound that brings back several themes from “222” including one dedicated to his sister Sherry who had passed during his time at Curtis. Adler celebrates his life and we along with him in this work. I am grateful to Adler’s brilliant program notes for the musical reasons why everything sounds the way it does.
“Deux Arabesques” was accompanied by a story Adler told of his teenage brother working on that piece, then challenging the 6-year-old Jimmy to give it a whirl. According to his brother, it was perfectly executed at which point Adler the elder determined he would go into science, while his brother became the musician. And thus it has come to be. The beauty and delicacy of these pieces resonated and set the scene for a grand finale.
Variations on a Theme from Carmen by Vladimir Horowitz exists in several transcriptions and it is a bravura piece that Horowitz regularly played throughout his career. Adler invoked the name of our dear, departed friend and my mentor Bruce-Michael, as he donned the set of beads with Mardi Gras harlequins to play the piece. Bruce-Michael had once reminded him that the gypsies dance more slowly at the end in the dance in Bizet’s opera, but as with the “Mistieke Feetjies” at the start, the finish is every bit as energetic. And when the audience wanted an encore, we were graced with Dmitri Kabalevsky’s “A Little Joke”. The joy of this piece is that it echoes the beginning of the program with happy energy, and historically Adler won his very first competition at age 12 with this piece. All in all, a satisfying meal to the last morsel! Want to learn more? Visit https://www.adleroaksmusic.com/ to get your copy of “That Star in Picture” and to learn more about James Adler and his work.