Harold Duckett
features@knews.com
Monday, December 3, 2007

I once asked pianist Cecille Licad if the piano was her lover, to which she matter-of-factly replied, "It's the only one I have."
In the case of the brilliant young pianist Orion Weiss, who was at Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge Saturday night, the relationship of pianist to piano seems to be something quite different.
Once Weiss sat down at the piano and touched his hands to the keys, the instrument was so in awe of his talent, it simply began to sing. Or so it seemed because the music was so effortlessly flawless.
From the opening notes of Beethoven's intimate, two-movement "Sonata in F Sharp Major," Op. 78, it was clear that something special was happening.
At least to this listening, Weiss made it clear why this little sonata was one of Beethoven's favorites. Written in 1809, after Beethoven had stayed away from writing piano sonatas for almost four years, the first movement is delicately lyrical, while the second has lighthearted tinges of humor.
Except for the thundering moments extracted from Beethoven's incidental music to "The Ruins of Athens" in Beethoven's "Six Variations on an Original Theme in D Major," Op. 76, which followed the "F Sharp Sonata," the concert had the feel of listening in on a very personal exchange between pianist and piano.
One could visibly see Weiss quietly singing to the piano and clearly hear the piano responding with notes that were not only perfect, but also full of expressive nuances.
Following the "Variations" came a luminous performance of Beethoven's "Sonata in D Major," Op. 28. Written in 1801, it was a tender emotional and conceptual pastoral landscape.
Although its four movements make it more than twice as long as the Opus 78, it is just as quietly thoughtful and, in the "Scherzo," just as amusing.
No one could have played either of them better.
Then, after intermission, Weiss continued his personal venture with 17 of Edvard Grieg's "Lyric Pieces" in another kind of narrative.
By the choices Weiss made from the 66 little pieces Grieg wrote over a period spanning from 1864, when "Arietta," Op. 12 No. 1 was written, to 1901, when Grieg returned to the first thematic material in "Remembrances," Op. 71, No. 1, Weiss constructed an intuitive and expressive arch.
If Grieg had been a painter, his "Lyric Pieces" would have been quick little drawings in stacks of sketchbooks. As they are, they have the same effect as those fascinating little studies one sees in the sketchbooks of Michelangelo Buonarroti or Leonardo da Vinci.
They show that even when a great master isn't hard at work, his mind is far from idle.
The same could be said for Weiss. He could have simply dashed off the short pieces, albeit note perfectly, and no one would have objected. Instead, he endowed each of them with the color and articulation of miniature masterpieces.