Symphony review
Pianist performs Beethoven flawlessly

By Gregory Shepherd
Advertiser classical music critic

It would be hard to imagine a more definitive interpretation of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 than that turned in by John Kimura Parker Saturday with the Honolulu Symphony. With flawless technical ability a given, Parker proceeded to bring out one unexpected nuance after another.

There is not one unnecessary note in this work, and even the most technically challenging sections grow organically and inevitably out of the thematic seeds that Beethoven plants. Similarly, Parker's immaculate playing knows not a hint of vulgarity and has an inevitable quality all its own. So perfectly matched was piece and performer that, at times, it was as if the two were mirror images of each other.

Parker's scales up the keyboard thundered in the low notes, only to gradually evaporate like mist from a rainbow as he ascended. He is somehow able to use the sustain pedal to wrap each note of softer passages in sonic velvet, while his trills seemed to pulsate with an inner life. There are several passages where the right hand plays with one touch quality while the left plays with its diametric opposite quality. Parker's independence of hands as well as fingers made these passages sound like an ingeniously crafted operatic duet.

The piano seems to plead with the unison-playing orchestra in the second movement, and Parker's plaintive quality came quite close to sounding human, if that can be imagined. In this movement as in the first, he uses the pedal to somehow envelop the notes in a nimbus of light. The cat-and-mouse playfulness of the third and final movement was the perfect culmination of a performance that melded Parker's consummate artistry with the inspired collaboration of Samuel Wong and the orchestra.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 was a field day for the string section which played brilliantly. The brass notes, however, kept one apprehensive as to when the next note would crack or not be fully formed.

The composer's "Coriolan" overture is not nearly of the same quality as the other two works on the program, and although the orchestra played it well, the overture somehow seemed out of place and frankly boring on a program otherwise devoted to masterpieces.

Gregory Shepherd has been the Advertiser's classical music critic since 1987.