Francesco Tristano - On Early Music English Review

    It is unlikely that RBSO to hosted international pianist recital. The last time it was organized like this was in 2019 when Severin von Eckardstein performed with RBSO first and Recital the next day. This time audience almost fill the ground floor of the Main Hall, Thailand Cultural Center. But are not many really interested audiences coming because most of the audiences are invited by the Embassy of Luxembourg, perhaps because of the support from the government itself, causing a large number of foreigners to come. This might be a good thing to Luxembourg government, which despite being a small nation, has encouraged classical musicians to perform more internationally places. Not just only funding at the beginning only, but also giving an opportunity to perform in different places. What caught my attention at this concert was that aside from the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, we don't know much about solo work for a pre-classical keyboard instrument. So from this Luxembourger performance which he had the opportunity to collaborate with many European musicians before, should have been eye-opening for me and most listeners as well.

    He came in casual all-black outfit to perform on a Yamaha piano, albeit at a slower starting time, but in a single 75-minute recital with no breaks at all. That is when he finish the piece he will continue to perform the next immediately. Some people may not even realize what he's playing if they are not familiar with some of those works before. I even thought to myself that because Thai people don't care about the applause custom, so he perform continually to concentrate the performance. Most of the works performed here are alternating between the original Baroque works and his very contemporary works in the classical style in a new modified concept from the Baroque period. Many works were composed by the pianist himself, despite the fact that his two preferred styles belonged to very different period of the music era. He also performed like it doesn't care about tempo at all however it is fortunate that the tempo in all works is similar.

    During the concert, it was probably because the sequence of his performances had crossed through the eras throughout the program that I sometimes couldn't keep up. But the pieces that I recognize are playing without mistakes. I'll try to explain as a separately. As for the original works even though he doesn't improvise the melody much but he plays like he's so emotionless that sometimes I even think to myself if he perform like a robot too much. At some point there was even a dull rhythm that some listeners fell asleep. In other side he still played rather flowingly, seemingly not focusing on the notes so much that I wondered if he was playing it right.

    In terms of modern works that are all his own composition, I think it's not bad at all in my personally. His own performance almost flowed like a river. His own works are improvised the melody very often. There is a style of playing that is so unconventional that it has become Experimental Music already, such as standing plucking the piano strings and also stomping feet, in his works that seem to be very out of the box. Maybe not monotonous, but I feel that it will change the crossover genre like playing the Solo Piano in a quick way. But to be honest, the solo piano style is a musical genre that is open to interpretation and can be played differently can be interpret in a new style without looking out of the tradition at all. But the audience base is much smaller than classical music. Maybe because of this, he tried to mix this approach with traditional music not to look too strange.

    Overall, this Luxembourg pianist might be considered mediocre compared to other international pianists. However, he is still better than many international Thai pianists. both in terms of natural performance and music making artistry. Also including that he's not overlooking the slightest in any piece. Although I don't like his performance and the way he presented is too short, oppress and succinct. But I have to admit that all of this is his own show.