Bergamo. It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If with words we can deceive, manipulate or betray, with a look all this is impossible. Not even the face of Haochen Zhang, an internationally renowned Chinese pianist, was able to lie. Tuesday April 30thguest of Donizetti theatredebuted at 61st International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamodedicated to Vienna and to all the composers who owe their glory to this city.
He presented himself as a composed, disciplined and very calm boy, and he could have been seen as such if it hadn’t been for his slightly rebellious eyes, which perhaps deliberately betrayed the artist’s intentions. Connected directly to the heart and soul, every muscle in his face was carried by the music throughout the concert.
The rest of the body obeyed the technique, but the gaze followed the passion. Zhang’s is pure love for music, which he savors down to the last vibration of the instrument’s strings at the end of each movement. Behind the tuxedo, there is a world of emotions.
The performance confirmed the level of a highly respectable biography of the artist, who in recent seasons debuted with the New York PhilharmonicL’Atlanta SymphonyL’Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia and the Lucerne Festival Orchestrahe performed with the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestrathe NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Berlin and toured in Asia with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
For the Bergamo public he chose a repertoire that goes against the grain, challenging for the artist and difficult to listen to for an untrained public. The evening opened with the Sonata n.29 in B flat major op. 106 of Ludwig van Beethoven, considered the largest and most complex of all the German composer’s sonatas. Fruit of the maturity of Beethoven’s career, this composition is characterized by almost superhuman technical difficulties, but also moments of enchanting lyricism and sweet serenity.
In the second half the level was further raised with the music of the “pianist par excellence” Franz Liszt. Playing the B minor Sonata S.178, which Liszt dedicated to Schumann, Zhang enhanced the uniqueness of a one-of-a-kind composition, which surpasses the tradition of the time. The Chinese artist put himself and the audience to the test, who accepted and appreciated the challenge by calling the pianist back on stage four times.
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