Anton Gerzenberg is a young and versatile pianist whose repertoire casts a wide net through many periods and styles.

In Sunday evening’s concert for the Miami International Piano Festival at the Wolfsonian Museum, Gerzenberg performed staples of the piano repertoire by Chopin and a first half that consisted of a melange of waltzes, which the pianist called “a few encores.”

Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales opened the curtain for the evening. Gerzenberg’s interpretation of these 1911 vignettes, which Ravel intended as homages to Franz Schubert, conjured up a plethora of colors and imagery. He brought out the individuality of each waltz from the fanfare opening of the first, to the quirky rhythmic inflections of the sixth, and an enchanting nocturnal sound world in the final epilogue.

In a reverberant and challenging acoustic, Gerzenberg showed restraint and an acute ear for nuance as he pedaled masterfully to allow for both blending and clarity as needed. This was particularly obvious in the Chopin Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 42 where his pearly playing abounded as did his sophistication of musical thought.

Vienna is one of the areas where the waltz originated in the 13th century in the folk forms of ländler and dreher. As an homage to this city, Gerzenberg chose transcriptions of Fritz Kreisler’s and Johann Strauss’ music by Rachmaninoff and Godowsky, both steeped in the tradition of late-Romantic pianism. Liebesleid and Liebesfreud illuminate two sides of the same coin, “Love’s Sorrow” and “Love’s Joy.” Gerzenberg’s tasteful rubato resembled the swirls and sweeps of modern-day Viennese waltzes, while his attention to the contrapuntal lines in lyrical moments created an enveloping warmth of tone.

While Rachmaninoff’s transcriptions retain their association with the airiness of the style, Godowsky’s Symphonic Metamorphoses on Die Fledermaus challenges both performer and listener to parse out the continually evolving themes inside a dense texture. Known for his excruciatingly difficult piano writing (listen to his 53 arrangements of Chopin’s etudes), Godowsky places musical and technical demands on the performer that make this transcription a tour de force. Gerzenberg was always clear in projecting the numerous themes from the opera with verve and clarity. The nearly dream-like sequences of motives clashing into one another created a powerful sonic impact, which Gerzenberg paced expertly.

In a stark contrast to the playful first half, the second immediately grabbed the listener’s attention for its bolder and darker tones in the music of Chopin. Gerzenberg plunged into the drama of the Scherzo in B-flat minor, Op. 31, which Schumann compared to a Byronic poem describing it as “overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt.” Eloquent phrases, excellent tempo balance between sections, and confident contrast between undulating and gentle moments versus more incisive and passionate ones were evident throughout. Gerzenberg followed with the Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, no. 1 where he once again showed thoughtful phrasing and original choices in voicing, which brought a freshness to this familiar work.

The program ended with the Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58. Gerzenberg approached the falling gesture that begins the Allegro maestoso with a generous forte. The treatment of layers and phrasing was pleasantly different in the repeat of the first section. He was able to constantly shift gears between extroverted and inward expressions in the fragmented episodes. Elements of the second theme make one wonder if Chopin was seeking something otherworldly, and Gerzenberg’s timbre reflected this sense of awe.

The fiendish Scherzo proved to be a breeze for Gerzenberg with his fingers dancing through the wide-spanning passages while a calmer character made its way in the trio section. In the Largo, he invoked depth of expression through the melody while maintaining a cushioned accompaniment. Bell-line tones stemmed from the arpeggiations, and the overall emotional approach of the movement gave it both gravitas and levity, a sort of “ode to life” moment.

In the final Presto, Gerzenberg remained sturdy in his delivery of the character. He brought out the bass line often and inflected it in an exciting manner, which further enriched the flighty right hand. Gerzenberg reaffirmed his stamp of musical maturity and finesse as he navigated the character changes from stormy, to playful, impassioned, and brooding, with emotional and technical ease.

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