Exceptionally talented young pianists seem to be popping up everywhere, like Sean Chen, who is the 2013 DeHaan Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association and also the Crystal Award winner of the 14th Van Cliburn Competition, from which these live performances stem.
Chen plays the Brahms Op. 21 No. 1 Variations beautifully. He orchestrates the thick textures with a full-bodied tone and cogently contoured lines, unifying the movements with seamless and logical tempo relationships. He may not start the Beethoven “Hammerklavier” first movement at the composer’s optimistically brisk metronome marking, but there’s great vitality and forward sweep. Chen, incidentally, opts for the “genius misprint” A-sharp reading in the ascending upward alternating sequence just before the recapitulation. The pianist launches the Scherzo in a light, almost offhanded way, creating a sharp contrast in character to the broader, more massively inflected Trio. However, he loses steam in the transition where broken chords lead into rapid, upward F major scales.
My main issue with the sensitive and superbly paced Adagio sostenuto concerns Chen’s breaking of hands—a legitimate expressive device associated with old school pianists, but arguably overdone here. A few rhythmic bobbles in the Largo’s accelerating broken chords notwithstanding, Chen delivers an impressively unflappable Fugue. In time, one hopes that Chen’s “Hammerklavier” will acquire more dramatic fervency and a wider dynamic range. This also applies to his technically brilliant and colorful Bartók Op. 18 Etudes; they need to plunge into darker, more savage waters from the start. Was Chen was holding back under competition pressure? I say this because I once heard Chen play a dazzling Scriabin Fifth Sonata in concert, and he took great musical risks without compromising one iota of pianistic sheen. In sum, the Brahms is the keeper, but the Beethoven and Bartók reveal a pianist of world-class capabilities.
