Did you see the show?

Posted by arts_reviews

Posted: May 23, 2008 - 1:09 pm

Josaphat D. Chambers
Memorial Weekend is often a slow one for arts happenings in Anchorage. Half the town is out of town. But there are still things to see and do.

For instance, UAA piano student Josaphat Chambers presented a free recital of Brahms and Beethoven in the UAA Arts Building Recital Hall on Friday night. You don't go to a Junior piano recital expecting to hear Wilhelm Kempff, of course. But I went because it was free, the program seemed ambitious and J.D. did a pretty good job of promoting himself.

Why he chose to include Beethoven's hand-crossing melee, the "Tempest" Sonata, is a mystery. Courage, I guess. The playing bore many of the thumbprints of student performers: quite nervous, a little stiff, a little underdeveloped in the expression department and a little over-pedaled. But one part was masterful; he had just begun the slow movement - one of Beethoven's most intensely meditative pieces - when bumpkins came in an seated themselves in a display of noise similar to a truck loaded with steel pipe rumbling across a potholed gravel road. Chambers didn't flinch and didn't lose his place. Now THAT took concentration.

More frustration cam at the end of the "Tempest" when he headed for the on stage exit door and found it locked. So it took additional courage - and determination to finish the academic quarter - for him to come out for the Brahms Op. 119 piano pieces that concluded the program. Of these the E Minor Intermezzo and the Rhapsodie were most agreeably performed. He launched into the latter straight out of the penultimate C Major Intermezzo with good effect.

As the audience applauded at the end, he bowed and again moved toward the exit door. For a moment, as he reached for the handle, the applause went silent in expectation. But as the obstacle swung open at his hand, the clapping started again and he came out for a second bow.

That's what I saw. What performance or art show have you caught lately? Tell us about it here.

- Mike Dunham

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