A lready as a young student he [Schumann] had evolved a philosophy of history, a systematic framework for the evaluation of temporally discrete cultural phenomena. This historical outlook pervades Schumann’s writing at every turn... [a Schlegel-like, Heine-like] faith in a future informed by the spirit of progress....”D avid Hyung-Su Kim’s performance of Schumann’s ‘Davidsbündlertanze’, Op. 6, in one of the ‘fringe’ events in the Boston Early Music Festival yesterday was idiomatically perfect—beautifully embodying the spirit and musical intentions of this Romantic classic. Stylistically, one can sense in his dramatic playing some of the influences of Robert Levin and other of David’s piano teachers. David is currently a DMA doctoral candidate at New England Conservatory of Music.
— John Daverio, p. 118.
G ood interpretations of the Davidsbündlertänze reveal the essentials of Romantic Period aesthetics and philosophy: Insight derived from personal experience of fragments of life, Witz (humor/wit; provisional exploration; ad hoc reconsideration; fantasy/conjecture), and impulsive movement/arabesque. There is a Romantic ‘assuredness’ that the views you hold of what is true in the world are really true, absolutely true and immutable. Not ‘omniscient’, just ‘certain’, that’s all. Kim’s sensitive, emotionally expansive pianistic expressions achieve this very thing.
T he ‘Ungeduldig’ was as it should be: ‘impatient’, with the instrument’s hammer felts voiced not too hard, not too bright. The ‘Einfachs’ are just that: simple and earnest. We got a very cool, nocturne-like ‘Nicht schnell’, brooding, as though pondering the night sky. Kim’s ‘Zart und singend’ sang with great tenderness. ‘Mit gutem Humor’ did, in fact, amuse, and ‘Aus der Ferne’ was delivered with the right amount of detachment, remoteness… a sort of distance that evokes reminiscence with a touch of regret. David has a fabulous technique, plus fine insight into the composition and its inner motivations. Highlight of my day!
T he instrument itself, a 6.5-octave Viennese design made by R.J. Regier, was also a highlight—its rich, round tone perfect for this literature and for this intimate recital setting. (What is that little brass bell, though, over on the left side? I have not seen one of those before.)
N ote: This recital was performed in one of the small, carpeted first-floor rooms of the Goethe Institut in the Bay Bay area of Boston. The rectangular shape of the room and the tall ceiling height add to the acoustic challenges. In this instance, the fortepiano was positioned a few centimeters from one wall, in a stretch of the room where the wall has an irregular contour with a 25-centimeter-deep indentation/recess. Hardwood parquet flooring was the surface immediately below most of the instrument’s soundboard; only a little of the upper register was over carpet. The result was a surprisingly good sound, ample for the audience of about 100 people. If ever I were faced with a performance environment similar to the one at Goethe Institut, I would try to replicate that fortunate, highly-forgiving arrangement of the space!
- David Hyun-Su Kim webpage
- R. J. Regier Fortepianos, Freeport, ME
- Brown M. The Shape of German Romanticism. Cornell Univ, 1979.
- Daverio J. Robert Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age. Oxford Univ, 1997.
- Daverio J. Nineteenth-Century Music and the German Romantic Ideology. Schirmer, 1993.
- Rosen C. The Romantic Generation. Harvard Univ, 1995.
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