Ben Schoeman, one of South Africa’s most gifted young pianists gave the final recital of the year for the Grahamstown Music Society in the Guy Butler Theatre last Friday.
Ben Schoeman, one of South Africa’s most gifted young pianists gave the final recital of the year for the Grahamstown Music Society in the Guy Butler Theatre last Friday.
He has won a number prestigious awards and competitions including the first grand prize in the 2008 Unisa Vodacom International Competition in Pretoria. He was the first SA ever to win this prize, a feat which has launched him into a most promising career. Some of his teachers include Joseph Stanford, Boris Petrushansky and Louis Lortie. Music lovers may recall Petrushansky and his celebrated pupil Olga Kern delighting Grahamstown audiences a few years ago.
Schoeman commenced the programme with Beethoven’s Sonata in A major, op. 2, no.2. Beethoven’s first three sonatas were written with the aim of establishing himself as a formidable pianist in Vienna. Though more extrovert in nature than anything written previously by either Haydn or Mozart the young artist exaggerated dynamic levels a little beyond Beethoven‘s intentions. Nevertheless he revealed an understanding of the subtleties of classical style and performed the work with sparkling clarity, beauty of phrase and emotional contrast.
The first half concluded with a brilliant and impressive interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Variations on a theme of Corelli, op 42. This formidable set of 20 variations shows a wide cross-section of both pianistic and harmonic styles found at the end of the composer’s life. Here the artist showed not only his technical prowess, requiring almost every imaginable pianistic figuration together with extreme dynamics and tone-control but also a grasp of complex chord progressions making this work so challenging. Schoeman excelled himself in this performance and though the composition concluded quietly and calmly he was able to hold his audience almost spellbound until the last note was played. His unassuming yet commanding stage presence was clearly evident throughout the recital.
After the interval Schoeman commenced with a convincing performance of Mendelssohn’s short but striking Prelude and Fugue in E minor, op.35 no 1. The Prelude revealed many shades of rich and dramatic romanticism often foreshadowing Cesar Franck. This was followed by a masterly constructed Bach-like fugue. Liszt’s Sonata in B minor brought the recital to a dazzling conclusion. This famous and arguably one of the finest large-scale compositions of the nineteenth century was played with great insight, musicality and assurance. Though fast tempos were at times almost reckless – especially in the final fugue- the gamble paid off resulting in a stunning and breath-taking performance. However, it must be stated that speed, though often impressive, does remove deeper qualities from the music which in Liszt’s case plays a vital role. There is no doubt Liszt was indeed a showman but the profound aspects of his style deserve more attention. Schoeman was deservedly given a standing ovation.
As an encore he played the exquisite Romance in D flat by Sibelius.
