by Marvin J. Ward

Ashburnham, MA, 21 September 2008.  Constantine Finehouse offered a mostly Brahms program for his 1st performance on the Frederick Collection’s 24th Fall Season of Historical Piano Concerts held in the Community Church here this afternoon.

Finehouse chose to perform his program on the Collection’s 1871 Viennese Streicher piano, which is very similar to the 1868 model that Brahms had in his own studio for the last 25 years of his life.  He opened with the 5-movement Sonata in f, Op. 5, dating from 1854.  This is a massive, demanding, nearly 40-minute work with 3 fast movements surrounding 2 slow ones.  After the intermission, Finehouse played the Three Intermezzi in Eb, bb, and c#, Op. 117, from 1892 followed by the Intermezzo in A, Op. 118/2, from 1893.  These works have been recorded using the same instrument by Ira Braus, CD reviewed elsewhere in these pages.  Hearing the instrument ‘in the flesh’ is, however, much more revealing than hearing it in a recording.  The characteristics and details of its sonority are more noticeable and easier to appreciate fully.

To conclude, Finehouse chose Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie in Ab, Op. 61 from 1845-46, a quarter-century before the construction of the instrument, for variety and a change of pace.  Of course, these pianos were used in their day to play music of earlier periods, just as modern Steinways are today.  Here, however, there is a curious connection, since, as Mr. Frederick informed the audience, one of Chopin’s star pupils became the 2nd wife of the Streicher who was then owner of the company.  Presumably she played that composer on the products of her husband’s workshop.  The work sounded remarkable on this piano, to this listener’s ears, far better than on a modern Steinway.

Finehouse maximized the potential of the instrument to bring out its huge dynamic range from ppp or pppp to fff or ffff and the differing colors of the lower, mid and upper octaves.  His playing was superb, if not perfect – he admitted to a concentration lapse in the 2nd movement of the sonata, though he recovered so quickly that it was not noticeable, except perhaps to another pianist with the work in her/his repertoire.  His readings of the works were remarkably considered and coherent for a young man who only turned 30 in June.  There was no thrashing of the arms or flashy gestures, just serious concentration on the music, the structure of the works, and the sounds the instrument produced.  There were numerous times when broad smiles graced his face as he savored the results.  The audience clearly savored them, too.  This recital was remarkable for the riveted attention of the audience and its lack of fidgeting.  The only extraneous noises heard were the occasional shifting of bodies because the church’s pews are cushion-less.

We look forward to future returns to the series by Finehouse, with perhaps a different piano from among the 2 dozen in the Collection and different composers on the program.