Concert Review

Pianist Allan Sternfield's recital last week in Jerusalem at the Hebrew Union College was definitely a noteworthy chamber music event.

By URY EPPSTEIN
Allan Sternfield Hebrew Union College January 17 Pianist Allan Sternfield's recital last week in Jerusalem at the Hebrew Union College was definitely a noteworthy chamber music event. What made this concert particularly attractive was Sternfield's musical personality, as he is one of the country's more outstanding pianists. Moreover, the program was both unconventional and listener-friendly. Bach, represented by his "Little Fugue" in G minor, is always a welcome start to any concert. Sternfield's rendition, far from being dry or academic, sounded lucid and transparent, highlighting the individuality of its intricate parts. Sternfield represented Israeli music with Haim Alexander's Six Israeli Dances (1955) in their original versions for piano solo - less well-known, though by no means less impressive, than their later versions for piano duo and for orchestra. Sternfield proved most convincingly that a single piano can be capable of more dance-like flexibility and briskness than heavier instrumentations. Particularly praiseworthy was the performance of Three Jazz Etudes, composed by Erwin Schulhoff, an uncommonly gifted Jewish composer whose short life ended in a German concentration camp. Written before the Nazi era (1922), these pieces display the composer's originality by using jazz rhythms while avoiding stereotypical jazz conventions, resulting in a remarkably personal and appealing style. Sternfield deserves gratitude for rescuing these captivating miniatures from oblivion. Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition were a veritable tour de force. Less well-known than the work's later orchestral arrangements, this original piano version demands brilliant virtuosity. It also provides challenges for delicate subtleties of expression in its continually changing moods: menacing grotesqueness, sparkling lightness, tongue-in-cheek satire, humor or old-time Russian pomp in the Great Gate of Kiev. Sternfield conveyed all these diverse characteristics with sensitivity and conviction.