A Performance of Passion and Energy by Pianist Bryan Wallick

by Claudia Colli

 Classical pianist, Bryan Wallick who played at the College last season to high acclaim, returned to the B.V.I. last Friday to perform at the HLSCC's annual Mother's Day Concert. Once again the young pianist put on a performance brimming in passion and energy.

He began the programme with Three Sonatas by Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 to 1725). Wallick's fingers skimmed the keys as he played this series of vibrant sonatas. In the next piece, another sonata, this time by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 to 1791), Wallick demonstrated how far this sparkling musical form had developed in the years between Scarlatti and Mozart. Before playing the piece, Wallick asked the audience to listen to the differences in Mozart's Sonata in D Major as compared to the previous three he had played by Scarlatti. All the pieces were light-hearted and lovely, although the Mozart was more complex and bursting with life. The final piece of the first half of the concert was Franz Liszt's Funeraille.

Somber and powerful, the work is about the death of nine peasants in Hungary. Wallick's fiery and theatrical interpretation conveyed Liszt's feelings of sorrow and anger in graphic musical terms.

Wallick began the second half of the concert with a musical change of pace, Excursions Op. 20 by 20th century composer, Samuel Barber who was born in Pennsylvania in 1910. In contrast to the previous 18th century works, this modern piece was a pastiche of musical styles, including blues, jazz and even a touch of western hoedown. Wallick's final piece was by Johann Sebastian Bach, the famed Baroque composer who was born in Germany in 1685 and died in 1750. The piece, Chaconne in D Minor, was written by Bach as a solo violin work, but later arranged in a romantic style by Ferruccio Busoni, for the piano. Busoni was born in 1866 of a German pianist mother and an Italian musician father. Once again, Wallick approached the piece with verve and passion.

For such a young artist, Bryan Wallick has had an outstanding career. A graduate of the Julliard School of Music in New York, he is currently an International Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is the winner of the Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition in Kiev, Ukraine and has played two command performances at Ledrebory Palace in Denmark for Princess Marie Gabrielle Luxembourg and Prince Philip Bourbon de Parme.

Wallick's visit to Tortola was brief, a mere two days, although he managed to find time to go to the beach briefly the day of the concert. He said he would have liked to have spent more time here (in his previous visit he was here over a week) but a busy concert schedule prevented him.

Hopefully Mr. Wallick will make Tortola a regular stop on his concert itinerary.