Robert Thies made a name for himself in the piano world in the most dramatic way imaginable—by winning the gold medal in Russia’s Prokofiev Competition.
It was 1995. He was 24. The account he gives of the occasion is both human and harrowing. “This was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I say this not just because
I was chosen to be the gold medal winner,” Thies confides in
an e-mail. “Certainly that was an honor that I deeply cherish and appreciate. But the experience of competing in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the bitter cold of December was rich with so many emotions.
“Physically I lost about 7 pounds in the 2.5 weeks I was there. There was simply no food, and I went to bed hungry every night.
“We were warned not to drink the water in the hotel room. I shared a room with a fellow competitor. The sun set by 4 p. m. I played 3.5 hours of the most difficult repertoire I’ve ever played. The stress levels were high, as were emotions.”
Perhaps it was that baptism of fire, but Thies has turned into a pianist known for his strength. He specializes in big, stormy concertos: Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Brahms. He likes to play a variety of them every season, topping out at 13 one year.
But there is another side to him, too — a side Buffalo audiences will see this week at Artpark, when Thies plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in DMinor, K. 466.
The Mozart concerto is mercurial, with a nervous tension contrasting with interludes of lyrical tenderness.
It brims with the kind of subtlety that Thies finds inspiring.
“What I especially love about playing Mozart concerti are those moments where I get to ‘accompany’ the orchestra, and particularly the wind players in their solos,” he explains. “There is such a beautiful dialogue between orchestra and soloist, and I love how Mozart integrates the two forces.”
Thursday’s concert featuring Thies — pronounced “Theece” — in among a trio of Thursdays the BPO is presenting at Artpark. All of them have an intimate summer feel.
The first concert, besides the Mozart, also includes the incidental music to Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
On July 21, “The Best of Italian Opera” features two singers, James Flora and Sari Gruber, in an evening of arias by Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni.
And July 28, the audience gets to see the artistry of the winner of the most recent JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Competition, Artyom Dervoed. Dervoed is playing the airy, atmospheric “Concierto de Aranjuez,” by Joaquin Rodrigo.
Matthew Kraemer, the BPO’s associate conductor, leads the first two concerts. JoAnn Falletta, the BPO’s music director, conducts the third.
Falletta, currently out of town, probably wishes she were conducting the first concert. On Thies’ website, she gives the pianist a hearty “bravo.”
“Conducting the Brahms Second Piano Concerto with Robert Thies was one of the most beautiful and deeply satisfying musical experiences of my life,” she is quoted as saying. They performed the piece with the Louisville Symphony in 2008.
‘Music I cannot touch’
Thies is, in some ways, a thoroughly modern pianist. Electronics are his friend.
He makes recordings for the Yamaha Disklavier that render him, in effect, invisible.
He confesses that he prefers an e-mail interview because he likes to think over his answers and lessen the odds of being misquoted.
In other ways, though, Thies looks back to a rich tradition.
He studied with two pianists who both studied, in turn, with famed pedagogues Josef and Rosina Lhevinne.
“What is so important to me about coming from this lineage is that the major focus of the Lhevinnes was always tone production — in other words, playing with a good sound,” he explains. “The other focus of Rosina and Josef Lhevinne was developing technique in order to serve the music.
“My problem with some of today’s superstars” — he puts the word in quotes — “is that they use music as a vehicle to show off their technique. And so the music suffers.”
Thies’ repertoire unapologetically embraces Rachmaninoff, a composer often maligned by modernists.
“As a pianist, I feel very close to Rachmaninoff and his language,” he reflects. “He is a very underrated composer who is ironically ignored by musicologists. And yet he is probably the reason I play the piano.
“But I don’t listen to much piano music. I love listening to music I cannot touch, and so often I gravitate towards the symphonies of Beethoven, Mahler and Shostakovich. I am blown away by the genius of Debussy, Ravel and Prokofiev. I am drawn in by the intimacy of Schumann and Schubert.”
Is there a performance Thies recalls with special pleasure?
“The performances I feel best about are those where I feel completely in control, completely ‘in the moment’—utterly focused and in such control of the performance that there is even room for spontaneity,” he types.
“Unfortunately these moments don’t happen too often. Why? Because I am human, not a machine, and I am influenced by the environment in which I make music.”
Thies has never been to this area—he is hoping to see Niagara Falls while he is here. So there is no predicting how Artpark will affect him.
But part of the joy of music, he suggests, is its unpredictability.
“I once did a Community Concert tour, and I recall there was a performance maybe in the middle of Kansas, when I felt so good about the performance,” he confides. “And I recall asking myself when I went back to my motel, ‘I wonder if any one else in the audience felt this performance to be special too?’
“Live music making is so fleeting. It’s not like a recording where you can edit sections until they are ‘perfect.’ With live performance, there is no going back, and what you experience is so much more honest.”
Preview: The BPO at Artpark
Where: Artpark, Mainstage Theater.
Admission: $25 -$45.
Lawn tickets: $10, or $25 for all three concerts.
Call 754-4375 for more information.
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