Eduardus Halim Master Class for the Associated Music Teachers League
Steinway Hall, New York City
List of Repertoire, and Pianists
Chopin – Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23
Robert Bronchard – student of Quynh Nguyen
Mendelssohn – Fantasy in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 28 – first movement
Serina Chang – student of Elena Belli
Liszt – Transcendental Etude No. 10 in F Minor
Pastorales Liu – student of Ingrid Clarfield
Chopin – Ballade No. 4 in G Minor, Op. 52
Liam Kaplan – student of Marcia Eckert
A very stimulating master class was presented last Saturday evening at Steinway Hall by pianist Eduardus Halim for the Associated Music Teachers League. The AMTL is an organization which has been providing educational and performing opportunities to music students and their teachers since 1925. (This writer is a proud long-time member, and currently serves as Treasurer.)
Eduardus Halim is a brilliant pianist whose teachers included Sascha Gorodnitzky and Rudolf Firkusny, among others, and he was the last student of Vladimir Horowitz, to whom he often referred, and who obviously made a huge impression on him.
All the students who performed are already pianistically impressive. Mr. Halim tended to speak very quickly and spontaneously to them, as if everything they did generated new ideas he wished to immediately share with them. Though occasionally one could not hear every single word he spoke, the audience paid rapt attention to his interactions with the students. All of his comments to them were delivered with kindness, enthusiasm and encouragement.
Robert Bronchard, who is a sophomore Muse scholar at Hunter College, gave a sensitive and nuanced performance of Chopin’s G Minor Ballade. Mr. Halim recommended that he make his reading more heated, and intense.
Seventeen year old Serina Chang, who studies at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege, offered a very fluid and somewhat dreamy interpretation of the first movement of the Mendelssohn F-Sharp Minor Fantasy. Mr. Halim encouraged her to play more agitato, and said that with the phrases in one section becoming shorter “Mendelssohn agitates for you!” His playing (he demonstrated frequently at the piano) showed his ideas quite specifically, and he got her to do some beautiful, distinguished phrasing.
His asides expressed some of his other interesting ideas. For instance: “We have physical limits but not emotional limits!”
Also: At one point he spoke of trying to learn from Horowitz’s mastery of pedal technique. Horowitz suggested he watch the master’s feet while he played, but Mr. Halim couldn’t learn anything from just watching his shoe go up and down. Then Horowitz reminded him: “Your ear will tell you what to do.”
Pastorales Liu, also seventeen, and a senior at West Windsor Plainsboro High School North, gave a very strong performance of Liszt’s 10th Transcendental Etude. Mr. Halim got him to play some things even better, by working with him on the drama not only in, but also between phrases, on how to express hushed emotions more effectively, and how to produce a long, slow buildup.
Liam Kaplan, who is sixteen, and a student in the Honors Program at Mannes Prep, gave a lovely and warm account of the Fourth Ballade of Chopin. The coda was particularly impressive. Mr. Halim encouraged him to emphasize the dreaminess and sensuality of one section to maximize expressivity. And he sang some sections, to show the arch of the phrases. He also worked with him to make the line last longer.
This event, chaired by Christiane Pors-Sadoff, was followed by a lovely reception, at which the audience could speak with, and get to know Mr. Halim, and the gifted young musicians who had performed, better.
Post by Donald Isler