Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Thrill of Change
…filled the role of a conductor bringing forth changing emotions through … phrasing and line.
The Thrill of Change
Dan Franklin Smith Juggles Jazz and Classics
The Music Director of the Elysium, Dan Franklin Smith, had his hands full again during the course of the Bernrieder Festival. There was hardly a performance in which he was not seated at the piano. This afternoon belonged to Smith alone, which beckoned a large number of listeners to the Baroque room of the Bernrieder Closter. The thematic choice not only made this varied program possible, but also the many-faceted compositions of this genre. Rachmaninoff’s Variations of an almost sacredly contemplative theme by Corelli, Opus 42, put forth less the workings of the original intention than the change in character of the variations; at once narrative, then furious, then strongly expressive, excited, hymnal, melancholy, virtuous or effusive. Smith laid out the dramatic theory in an arching line, which gradually condensed and carried the flow back.
It was a different take from Manuel Infante (1883-1958), in his carefully thought-out El Vito Variations. There, everything revolved around the temperamental Spanish themes, which Smith played with clarity and transparency of sound and contrasted the virtuosic, yet homogenous, as well. The tricky rhythms of the strongly expressed theme didn’t make it easy, as Infante often stopped the flow of the variation. This seeming contrast was what created the thrill of the phrases.
There were also subtle nuances in the variations in the program, whose relationship to this genre was somewhat unclear, but the program managed to build a connection nonetheless, through the change of theme. Chopin’s Ballade in F Minor, Op.52, was a play with magnitude that went from quiet simple melody and extended to symphonic proportions. Here as well, Smith showed himself to be less a chamber music fuss-budget focusing on details, but rather he filled the role of a conductor bringing forth changing emotions through his attention to phrasing and line. Similarly in the Sonata, Opus 49, by Viktor Ullmann, which bore only a distant relationship to the variation form; Ullmann was much more concerned with cohesiveness of the four movements in the symphonic sense by creating thematic repetitions and relationships.
A peculiar feature in the program’s theme was certainly Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo a la Turk, which attempted to bridge the contrast. The theme was ‘connection,’ which remained difficult to relate to, and finally the relationship of an almost classical scherzo with the blues was difficult to see. However, Smith seemed to be very much at home with this genre and managed to juggle classical and jazz with bravado and thereby reached the limit of the variation theme. Enthusiastic applause followed and an encore from Smith.
—Süddeutsche Zeitung, Elysium Festival 2007, Munich, Germany