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Pianist
Gekic commanding in Mozart fest
By Lawrence A. Johnson Classical Music Writer
May 29, 2002
Late May
traditionally marks the start of the fallow season
for classical music in South Florida, a time to
clean out files and reorganize CD collections.
Fortunately, there's also the Mainly Mozart Festival
in Coral Gables, which for nine years has presented
a diverting array of chamber music centered on
the Austrian composer.
Sunday
afternoon's concert at the Omni Colonnade Hotel
attracted an overflow holiday crowd for an adventurous
program of music for piano and strings, played
by Kemal Gekic and members of the Bergonzi String
Quartet.
Of the
four works on the program, only Mozart's Piano
Quartet in E-flat major is a regular visitor to
the concert hall. Sparked by the understated virtuosity
of Gekic, it also provided the most satisfying
performance. The Croatian pianist's light touch
and nimble fingerwork made an apt fortepiano-like
sound on the modern instrument. With imaginative
phrasing in the Larghetto and scintillating virtuosity
in the finale, Gekic created new wonder for Mozart's
endless font of musical imagination.
The Mozart
work was preceded by a real rarity, the single
Piano Quartet movement of Gustav Mahler. Written
at age 16, it's a fascinating bit of juvenilia
by a composer who would go on to write almost
exclusively for the orchestra and voice. Though
not a mature work, the brooding Romantic gloom
is surely conveyed, even if it's apparent Mahler
is striving to contain ideas in a chamber forum
that cry out for a larger canvas.
Gekic
was just as commanding here, but in both works
the same couldn't be said for the Bergonzi players.
Granted, the Omni conference room is more suited
to an investment seminar than to chamber music,
with a bone-dry acoustic that tends to magnify
the players' edgy string tone. But the repeated
and glaring bouts of wayward intonation made the
performances an unequal partnership, with the
rough-hewn strings no match for Gekic's polished
piano work.
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