I remember seeing Ms. Oppens play this for the first time at Symphony Space in NYC. It was the last piece on the program. The audience kept calling her out back out for an encore, and she was having none of it. I, who was standing down front near the stage, caught her eye, pointed at the piano and mouthed the words "Do it again!" She shook her head at me and said, "No, it's too hard!" So maybe it wasn't so much fun back then.
So profound. To hear Carter discussed and then played with such elan and dignity - gives hope that a new gen of performers will approach Carter with the same wonder and awe that advanced students bring to the piano works of Chopin and Prokofiev.
Enchanting! Ursula plays this as real music, unlike some slicker, more robotic players. One of my most prized possessions is the score of 'Night Fantasies', a work of absurd difficulty, signed by both Ursula and the composer, Tanglewood, 1988!
Carter has from the earliest made deliberate use of the unison to enhance other contrasts, which here show up necessarily as repeated notes, to thrilling effect.
This is wonderful! She plays so playfully that I feel like the piano is having as much fun as she is. To me, this piece sounds like the internet. Great music, great musician.
Playing this piece non-legato is a "problem"?? I'm guessing if you look up "non legato" in the Harvard Dictionary of Music (assuming it's still in print), they have a picture of this score. BTW, she couldn't afford a page turner?
