There is an inexplicable human interest and concern for the instruments owned and played by our most loved composers and a natural desire to hear the stories where compositions were conceived. We cannot imagine the piano music of the 19th Century without Chopin, and we feel a uniquely spiritual connection when travelling to the venues and seeing the musical instruments that connect us with the greatest musicians in history.
Tonight we were brought into the heart and soul of Chopin and his music with a freshly designed and imaginative journey. We are thankful to Paul Kildea, Artistic Director for Musica Viva Australia, for bringing to life the story of one small piano said to be Chopin’s instrument, in his book Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism. On this instrument Chopin composed his 24 Preludes between 1838 and 1839. With Richard Pyros collaborating as Co-writer and Director, Kildea’s story grew from being a musically illustrated lecture into an extraordinary and captivating dramatic art form. While we knew brilliant pianist Aura Go would be performing the full set of Preludes, we were in awe of her depth of acting ability and personification of the varied roles she would play, and with a most remarkable partner in Jennifer Vuletic we were spellbound by the complex personal relationships presented in an emotionally engaging and musical perspective.
Even the Steinway Concert Grand Piano had to play various roles through the course of a hundred years, its persona amplified with dramatic creative illumination by designers Marty Shlansky and Richard Vabre and our own imaginative response.
With the stage in total darkness, Vuletic was first shown in a single spotlight in the role of the piano maker Juan Bauza, polishing and repairing the instrument, giving us the first part of the story in a monologue before Aura Go, as Chopin, played the opening Op 28 Prelude 1 in C, Agitato, giving us a positive, energetic and uplifting introduction. With highly dramatic lighting, the silhouettes of the performers created an essential timelessness in the intimacy of conversations and storytelling. Vuletic then became the most important person in Chopin’s life, the incomparable George Sand, connecting us through a most poignant and melodic Prelude No 2 in A minor, a piece closing with deepest chords and feeling. Sand was indeed Chopin’s joy and inspiration as felt in the ease of Aura Go’s fluency and lightness in Prelude No 3 in G, with the well-known Prelude No 4 in E minor showing most personal tenderness and intimacy in the broad questioning melodic and beautiful but intense and gently descending pulsating chords. Nobody in the audience dared to move, struck with the power of the scene and our dual engagement with admiration for Aura Go and Chopin the pianist. Lighter moments moved quickly as the role-playing introduced Franz Liszt and the music publisher Eugene Delacroix, while an excited Chopin struggled intensely at the piano, composing furiously and suffering from his increasing respiratory illness. An emotive Liszt told his friend, “You are a genius” – indeed evidenced by Prelude No 12 in G-sharp minor, Presto, performed most impressively by Aura Go in concert blacks and tailcoat. We knew his coming fate, and when George Sand related her last sighting of Chopin before he died and described his celebrated funeral in La Madeleine, Paris, sound designer Kelly Ryall deepened our emotional experience with faint pre-recorded organ music, so simple, fading, so powerfully ending Act 1, then returning us to full darkness.
Act 2 showed a new era with multi-characters and relationships taken on by both Vuletic and Go, so beautifully affective when paired in brilliant white costumes, sharing the poetry, the beauty and memory of Chopin’s work. The most-loved No 15 in D-flat major – referred to as “The Raindrop Prelude”, with its insistent repetition and central darker minor key change – led to a dramatic and fiery No 16 in B-flat minor, Presto con fuoco. Always passionate. Vuletic, as Wanda Landowska told the story of her pilgrimage to the monastery in Majorca, Spain, where she acquired the Bauza piano, which she was forced to leave behind in Paris in 1940. White smoke effects were sadly enveloping the concert grand piano before us, symbolically marking the presence of World War 2 and the painful loss of Chopin’s piano. We followed Landowska’s travels eventually to America, her death in 1959 taking us beautifully to Prelude No 23 in F major, a most delicate flight of the soul to heaven, almost programmatic, with waves of light arpeggios, always sensitively executed. Vuletic brought the historic presence of Peggy Guggenheim to the stage, honouring her as a collector and seeker of lost artworks. We know that the Bauza piano has been lost, but the final Prelude No 24 in D minor, Allegro Appassionato, celebrated the essential ongoing journey we have with Chopin’s music.
This was a truly wonderful and special collaboration, extremely moving and deeply heartfelt by all who experienced this magical re-creation of the spirit of Chopin.
Photo supplied.
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Julie McErlain reviewed “Chopin’s Piano”, presented by Musica Viva Australia at Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on July 8, 2023.
