20/04/2009 Gilmore Rising Star Roberto Plano shows impressive style, strength in Sunday performance, di C. J. Gianakaris

KALAMAZOO -- Italian pianist Roberto Plano performed the final Gilmore Rising Stars Recital for the season Sunday evening at the Wellspring Theatre. And like other Gilmore Rising Stars, he brought his own impressive strengths and style. Through performing selections from various periods--classical, romantic and modern -- the 30-year-old musician confirmed a bona fide talent deserving of attention from the musical world. One facet of Plano's abilities was on display when he performed Robert Schumann's charming Arabeske in C Major, Op. 18. The score is pure Schumann, so that the music reflects a light and almost child-like simplicity. Plano's hands here rarely lifted far above the keyboard; he stroked the keys rather than strike them. Schumann's longer and more complex "Davidsbundlertanze" ("Dance of the Band of David"), Op. 6, followed. It involved 18 separate sections that manifest contrasting moods and personality expressions. Schumann's own complicated psyche enjoyed interesting representation within these musical snapshots. The opening two pieces indicative: "Lebhaft" (lively) and "Innig" (affectionate). When the uninhibited side of the composer's nature was on display, Plano's playing became louder and assertive. Blazingly fast octave runs and chord clusters used more percussive striking of keys than in calmerˆ, more decorous sections. Schumann alternates these two main psyche polarities throughout the 18 parts of "Davidsbundlertanze." Mozart's Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 333, allowed Plano to show his impressive firm control of the keyboard. Mozart's score calls for orderliness and perfect clarity in performing the music. Plan's trills were stunning, and his rapid runs, chromatic and otherwise, emerged crystalline and unblemished. Still, his approach seemed slightly perfunctory, given his musical horsepower he was not permitted to use here. The final three numbers on the program -- Bartok's Sonata (1926) and Dohnanyi's "From the Concert Etudes," Op. 28, Nos. 4 and 6 -- mandated an entirely different performance style. Plano here exhibited amazing music athleticism. Bartok's sonata shares a dominant percussiveness also heard in Stravinsky's writings, and Plano had the hands and strength for allegro fortissimo chords struck seemingly in aleatoric fashion. Plano excelled in playing Dohnanyi's two works where, again, rapid-fire octave chords were prescribed. Plano's hands turned to a blur as he approached the climax of the Dohnanyi works. The staccatos were incredible in velocity and precision, provoking a quiet gasp in the audience. Plano indulged the audience with a wholly different piece as encore, Piazzolla's charming "Milonga." The Gilmore once again has spotlighted a genuine talent.