The Aptos Keyboard Series again scored with a fine young pianist, the 24-year-old UC Berkeley multi-talented senior Theodora Serbanescu-Martin. On Feb 21 at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church she treated us to an excellent program of 19th century Romantic music on the resonant Steinway “B,” a perfect fit for this venue.
Not only has she won competitions but is doing one honors thesis on Brahms, and another on Sir Thomas Wyatt, the famous English Renaissance poet, a courtier of Henry VIII and one who kept his head.
In selecting Theodora for the 3rd recital in his new series, Director Josef Sekon again picked a winner.
Beethoven’s Sonata No. 28 in A major (1816) is the first in his “late period,” and our ears were pleased by Theodora’s own brief improvisational preface, which the composer would have loved. Following his own elaborate instructions in native German, the four movements begin with an unusual unhurried lament, done with a melting sensitivity, followed by a stomping lively march of “bad boys,” then a whispered longing, and ending with a fast fugue as homage to J.S. Bach and as a foretaste of the composer’s final sonatas. Then this exceptional Beethoven pianist took us back to a couple of his early “Bagatelles” (1801), which already show his humor, innovation, whimsy.
Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat major (1846), a super famous work, is a hybrid, beginning with a heavy dose of nationalism, which Theodora gave a lush and lively sound palette, followed by a “free form” that was unfolded as if she were creating it, her beautiful sounds concealing a tight structure.
Then on to Brahms, with his late Seven Fantasies (1892), most of them meditative and reflective “Intermezzi,” the others “Capriccios” that contain elements of his famous early “storm & stress,” played perhaps a bit too loudly for this hall.
The encore, a Liszt “Consolation” (1850) was not a late or exploratory work, and Theodora made this quiet lament all but weep and sigh as her tender goodbye to a rapt audience.