MONTREAL — No question: Bourgie Hall is the premier setting in town for recitals and chamber concerts, by virtue of its central location, its historical ambiance — Tiffany windows adorn the otherwise somber interior of the former Erskine and American Church — and its formidable array of high-caliber bookings. On Oct. 2, the room opened its 15th season with a solid evening of standards performed by pianist Leif Ove Andsnes.
Pleasures and insights emerged mostly in Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28, after intermission. Each of the 24 masterpieces was sharply defined yet presented as part of a viable continuum of romantic sentiment. At 55, this Norwegian pianist is more an upholder of tradition than an experimentalist. Rubato was applied where appropriate, without slowing the narrative. Melodies and mottos were aptly balanced with chords and accompanying figures.
You could always hear what Chopin was doing. In the fiery Prelude No. 16 in B-flat minor, the listener’s attention was suitably divided between the pounding rhythmic figure in the left hand and the fiery running 16th-notes of the right. This was a technical tour de force, but we felt similarly satisfied by the balance of songful melody and “raindrop” repeated notes in the Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major. A touch of nobility redeemed the childlike ballet that is No. 7 in A major; the resolute Largo chords of No. 20 in C minor moved steadily from fortissimo to a whisper. Only 13 bars long and easily sight-read by an amateur, this powerful piece, in the hands of a master, emerged as a metaphor for life.
There were many other felicities. The three low Ds that conclude the set sounded like the tolling of a bell — an effect Chopin surely intended. We can debate the merits of historical instruments, but it is hard to quarrel with the intrinsic beauty of a good Hamburg Steinway.
It would be nice to say that the first half of the recital went just as well, but Grieg’s Sonata, Op. 7, and Schumann’s Carnaval were pretty much by the book. Sound was abundant, color less so. Curiously, Andsnes brought with him an extra-long prop stick to lift the lid of the piano higher than usual, evidently in the interest of magnifying the sound. Well, Bourgie Hall, with 465 seats, is not to be confused with the Hollywood Bowl.
Another footnote pertains to the acoustic differential between the parterre and the balcony. I was unhappy in Parterre Row F and sought out one of the few unoccupied balcony spots at intermission. The sound upstairs is both more spacious and more detailed. This might account in part for my perception of the two halves of this recital as apples and oranges.
Further observations: The lighting was too low to read the fine print, an important matter in a program featuring 21 short pieces (Schumann) followed by 24 (Chopin). It was also a little odd to discover in the afternoon, through a fortuitous glance at the online posting, a change of program that added Grieg’s Sonata and deleted Beethoven’s Op. 111 — hardly an equitable substitution.
All the same, the Chopin was a major opus, played accordingly. Andsnes rewarded the enthusiasm of the substantial crowd with a resonant performance of Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie and one of Grieg’s harmless Lyric Pieces.
