Special to the Aspen Times
Yefim Bronfman coaxed an ear-caressing range of tone from the Steinway grand piano on the stage of the Benedict Music Tent Tuesday evening. He applied breathtakingly precise technique to find expressive details in works by Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann and the iconoclastic Soviet-era composer Galina Ustvolskaya. Miraculously, it all came through indelibly in the spacious expanses of the tent, a space hardly ideal for solo piano music.
Bronfman always is all business, so it’s not surprising that he conquered both the music and the space. He does not gaze into the ether before he begins a piece. Once he settles onto the piano bench, the music launches without hesitation, whether it’s the lilting dance of Beethoven’s Sonata no.11, the sprinkling of fairy dust in the opening flourish of Chopin’s B minor Piano Sonata, or the hushed chords that started the most arresting piece of the recital Ustvolskaya’s disarmingly subtle fourth Piano Sonata.