The Women’s Musical Club of Toronto (WMCT) featured acclaimed young Canadian pianist David Jalbert at U of T’s Walter Hall last Friday as part of its Music in the Afternoon series. The intimate setting of Walter Hall, along with its fine acoustics and Steinway grand piano, allowed the full house to become immersed in a stellar live performance.
Jalbert’s recital program included works that are not widely performed and spanned the romantic and modern genre. He began with the Five Fantasy Pieces by Sergei Rachmaninov, of which the second piece is the famous Prelude in C Sharp minor. The first piece, Elegie, boldly begins with the left hand and develops into a deeply expressive movement. Jalbert rendered a refreshing third movement, Melodie, with exquisite tonal colouring. He introduced the sprightly fourth movement, Poichinelle, with a comical start, which prompted giggles from the audience. The final piece, Serenade in B-flat minor, begins with a dominant right hand but quickly moves into an intricate work requiring dexterity with both hands as they interchange registers and roles. Jalbert surpassed the technical difficulty effortlessly to reveal the profound beauty embedded in this piece with an exotic tonal blend.
Next on the program was Piano-Soleil, composed by Denis Gougeon (a Quebecois composed from the 1970s). Jalbert produced crystal-clear notes with rapid, strong finger work. There were some reflective and trembling sections that contrasted well with other sections and came to a quiet end as the last piano notes were allowed to fade away into a distance.
The first half of the program concluded with North American Ballads Nos. 3 and 4 by Frederic Rzewski, which display his social and political activism in the ’60s and ’70s. The first of these two echoes the familiar spiritual Down By the Riverside, which became associated with the Vietnam peace movement. The next, Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, conveys the working conditions in North Carolina textile mills. Jalbert convincingly portrayed the monotonous noise of cranky old machinery as the lamenting blues struggled to overcome these sounds of labour, eventually winning over.
The second half of the program consisted of Gabriel Faure’s reflective, elegant Nocturnes, and Frederic Chopin’s grand Sonata in B minor. Following the breathtaking finale of the sonata, the concert came to a triumphant end with standing ovations.
The next concert in the Music in the Afternoon series features an afternoon of Brahms with Barry Shiffman (viola & violin), Micah Yui (piano) and Marianne Bindig (mezzo-soprano) on April 22 at 1:30 pm at Walter Hall. For more information, see www.wmct.on.ca.
