Three old composers sing in young hands Crisp fugal lines from quiet reflection to electric flair Bear of a piano, but clean control A distinguished looking young Juilliard graduate from Rome appeared in the polished wood paneled hall of the Italian Institute on Thursday and with the heavy curtains partially drawn against the rainy summer evening outside delivered a short program that perfectly satisfied those who long for young pianists to remember there are composers who lived before Schubert and Liszt who are worth reciting. In fact Mr Mentuccia chose three of the greatest composers for keyboard that ever lived - Bach, Haydn and Chopin, three geniuses who somehow managed to combine deep intellectual and emotional interest with ravishing pianism and immediately appealing and understandable melody and harmonic construction. Each are closer to the roots of Western music than those who created in later eras, and may seem less relevant to modern ears unwilling to rise above their contemporary lives, perhaps, but the musical and technical challenges their works pose are surely just as challenging as the virtuoso hurdles of Liszt or Scriabin, sometimes more so, many would say, because their compositions are so rooted in the pleasures of melody and harmony. Simplicity can be as musically challenging as complexity, or even more so, given its demands on the performer to penetrate its subtleties. After all the heart of all great music is the human heart, tuned to the passions of singing the song of life in all its variations, and the most profound music can send its arrow as quickly and accurately to the center of the emotions as the subtle smile of a beautiful woman or the vivid colors of a rich sunset, yet in the right hands effortlessly satisfying the intellect while plucking at our heartstrings at the most profound level of our being. Perhaps as a culture the Italians understand this truth with more empathy than most others and the Italian born Menduccia was certainly one to show it. Superficially more simple in construction yet profound in their musical meaning, such compositions take a pianist of warmth, musical intelligence, sensibility and control to articulate their many voices with full expression (particularly in Bach, where this performer fingered individual voices with as distinct separation as Glenn Gould), and bring out their inner ideas with bold clarity and charm, and Giuseppe Mentuccia conquered the challenge victorously. He allowed us to forget any technical challenges in the pieces - the Chopin Etude was as demanding as ever - even while shouldering the the extra burden of a piano which one has to admit has probably seen better days. He has both extraordinarily strong fingers and a strong mind to match them, and he carried off every piece with flair and insight, wringing a singing tone out of an instrument which is evidently more difficult to control that any Juilliard practice Steinway. Mentuccia proved an exciting pianist not only because he is good looking in the grand tradition of Liszt and other virtuosi who made the ladies swoon in the great era of early public concert performance but because he has the innate electricity which makes the ear listen to the music he has clearly taken to heart and adopted as his own and not at all to the technical demands which he is meeting, whether in the fingering or in the resistant keys and soundboard. Even so, one was left with the hope that next time we can hear him on a better instrument, since one in this state unfortunately biases every player willy nilly towards the forte side of the pianoforte and some subtlety and shading is inevitably lost that would otherwise bloom. As an event this had the intellectual intimacy, social warmth, artistic thoughtfulness and sincerity ofpurpose which marks the Italian Cultural Institute as a favorite venue for many in Manhattan, which otherwise is so much the home of strenuous competition for attention based on high powered public relations, big media coverage and other megacity fanfare. One of the oldest Western cultures, Italian civilization has the long history and rootedness of place that gives it the confidence to present itself on its own terms at its own cultural landmark, this Park Avenue townhouse. And Giuseppe Mentuccia, clearly already at 26 one of the stars of the musical world, was the perfect artist to accomplish the musical victory over time and place that it deserves. =============================================================================== The notice: Concert GIUSEPPE MENTUCCIA Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013 Hours: 6 pm Venue: Italian Cultural Institute of New York Organized by: ICI Italian pianist Giuseppe Mentuccia began his piano studies at five years of age. He first worked with Almerindo d'Amato and Elisabetta Pacelli at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome and with Sergio Perticaroli at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, graduating with highest honors. In the United States Giuseppe has been guest artist of the “Orlando Chamber Orchestra” (Florida) where he has was featured soloist in concertos of Mozart and Beethoven under the direction of the conductor Pasquale Valerio. In September of 2011, Giuseppe Mentuccia entered the Master’s program in Piano Performance at The Juilliard School under the guidance of Jerome Lowenthal.Fascinated by improvisation and contemporary music, he has been part of the Contemporary Ensemble of Rome, under the direction of Marco Angius. Continuing his interest in the works of living composers, he was recently selected as a member of The New Juilliard Ensemble under the direction of Joel Sachs. Info Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013 Hours: 6 pm Venue: Italian Cultural Institute of New York Organized by: ICI Program: Johann Sebastian Bach, Partita no. 6 in E Minor BWV 830 York Bowen, Toccata op. 155 Joseph Haydn, Sonata Divertimento in A major Hob XVI:12 Frederic Chopin, Impromptu op. 36 in F-sharp Major, Etude op. 25 no. 10 in B minor Nocturne op. 62 no. 1, Rondo a la Mazur op. 5