REVIEWS

It was one keyboard -- and four hands: Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle, September 22, 2005

The first question to emerge at Context's recital Sunday afternoon — during the Astros game, I must note — concerned the odd layout of furniture on the Rice University stage.

The concert involved music for piano four hands — two people playing at one keyboard — and two of today's big, fancy, stuffed, adjustable benches were turned end-wise toward an 1825 Conrad Graf piano.

Compared to modern Steinways, the Graf is modest in size, with a narrower keyboard. Since double-wide benches aren't common today, Brian Connelly and Riko Fukuda opted for the odd, ad hoc solution to fit into the instrument, as it were.

Piano music for two players was major entertainment in the late 18th and 19th centuries, Connelly said during the concert. People wanting to entertain friends often played with other friends (using much less luxurious benches or chairs). Musicians curious about the latest symphony or string quartet bought reductions for piano four hands. People got cozy for serious purposes.

Connelly and Fukuda offered two of the best works in the genre, each played on an appropriate instrument: Schubert's great Fantasy in F Minor, K. 940 on the Graf, and Mozart's Sonata in C Major, K. 521, performed on a restored piano built around 1810 by Michael Rosenberger.

It's dangerous to read autobiographical meaning into a specific piece of music, but on Sunday, Schubert's Fantasy made it tempting.

The plaintive quality of opening, minor mode theme is well-known, but the melancholy and despair that can also be read into it was the most vivid I've heard.

The Graf piano made that possible. Schubert wrote the Fantasy for instruments like it, exploiting the sound and colors heard in that type of piano. The Graf's sound — and Connelly — brought out those qualities.

But the theme is Janus-like. Schubert repeats it in the major mode, sketching the the buoyant side that emerges throughout the work — but framed by the opening measures and achingly sad chords that conclude the piece.

Fukuda and Connelly explored the Fantasy's kaleidoscope of ideas with concise thought and crisp musicianship. The taut, involved playing had just the right scale and intensity. The magical performance pulled the listener deeply into the music.

The Rosenberger piano — with a lighter, less meaty sound — has a sparkling upper register. It made the performance of the Mozart sonata glisten. It also allowed a delicate range of mood, including the childlike opening of the last movement. The music danced.

The pianists paired small works with the two major pieces: the Andante and Allegro, Op. 92 by Mendelssohn, on the Graf, and two excerpts from Weber's Eight Pieces, Op. 66.

Viennese instruments from that era produced flexible and subtle sound via a multitude of pedals. The Rosenberger has six, including the drum stop that the Viennese loved. It certainly made an impact Sunday. When Connelly applied the Rosenberger's drum pedal at the end of the Weber piece, I almost jumped out of my chair.