I went to a piano recital at Carnegie Hall last Friday night, Feb. 10th. The pianists are David Abbott and his wife Lia Fensen Abbott. The first part of the concert is Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s “Das Jahr” played by Lia Fensen Abbott. After the intermission, David played two pieces by Robert Schumann: “Papillons, Op. 2,” “Fantasie in C major, Op. 17,” and the “Two Legends” by Franz Liszt. My report will focus more on Hensel’s composition “Das Jahr.”

Before I got the actual program, I thought the music was written by Felix Mendelssohn rather than his sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel who is the oldest of four Children in her family. However, despite her obvious prodigy in music, as a women, she got pressure from society to be a composer, so some of her works were published under her brother Felix’s name. “Das Jahr” is program music depicting the twelve months of a year; each month is accompanied by a short poem. This reminds me of Vivaldi’s violin concerto “Four Seasons” which is also program music accompanied by poem. So, I was waiting to hear the difference.

However, 10 seconds after Lia Fensen Abbott started, I totally forgot about Vivaldi, because the slow melody of minor chords in low pitches with contrast of single high note made me think of Beethoven’s piano sonata “Tempest” and this feeling kept coming back as I heard a lot of similar techniques. Both of these openings give a feeling of a cold winter night, the calm before storm.  In “Tempest,” there’s contrast of both tempo and dynamic; while in “Das Jahr,” the beautiful melody keeps the slow mood, without much change in dynamic. Then the melody returns to the very beginning followed by fast long arpeggio, which sounds like water running out of broken ice in the river. Then, this movement ends suddenly.

Februar Presto keeps the ending mood of Januar. It starts and keeps a very light happy melody giving me a feeling that all small animals such as birds and squirrels are coming out for spring.

Marz starts in medium tempo with sad melody like some of Chopin’s music, which makes it my favorite movement. There are variations of the main melody using different techniques. The last variation must be the most challenging to play with all the rapid chords in left hand as accompaniment. April Allegretto is in the same mood with different melody.

Mai Allegro Vivace e gioioso sounds like spring part for me. But I feel it’s a very female composition of spring; I can easy imaging a girl dancing with flowers. And it’s clear different with Vivaldi’s violin concerto, which starts with very excited melody and then ritornellos and soloist intertwines with each other. June and July stays in the same type of melody until…

August Allegro, it changes to a little fast and syncopated rhythm with right hand playing melody and left hand switching among chords, Alberti bass and very fast arpeggiated chords. September Andante con moto has the same motion and the arpeggiated accompaniment, but both hands switch roles once in a while, which makes you feel a river is flowing forever without end.

October Allegro con spirito has a theme for harvest and victory starting with very bright major chords in a cheerful sound.

There’s a swift shift of tone in November Mesto and the mood goes back to the very beginning of the whole piece with minor chords. However, at the second half it changes to fast tempo, which last to the December Allegro molto. And it reminds me about “Tempest” again, the third movement when the storm finally comes.

Then there’s the final piece Nachspiel (Choral) that is my second favorite. I love all the small notes between chords, which both ornament the chords but also brings out the melody of the music.

I like this piece a lot, but my interpretation is a little different from what’s written in the poem. But I feel this is where the beauty of music lies which brings out people’s different emotion and reaction.

After the intermission, David Schumann played Schumann and Liszt’s composition. But somehow I just don’t like the two pieces by Schumann. Liszt’s “Two Legends” are not the type of classical music that I usually listen to as well.

Overall, I enjoyed the concert a lot, especially the first part. It’s definitely a different experience for me, since most of classical music I listen to is from the Baroque period with a lot of ornaments, contrasts, modulations and polyphonies. Music at this concert is easier to accept and catch audience’s emotion. However the piece by Liszt, and some other romantic composer such as Debussy’s work is still too much for me because I feel the emotion it carries is too ambiguous and hard to catch, predict or explain. It’s different from the on going melody from Baroque area, which I love. However, this concert makes a very good example of music in the Romantic area.