Misfires and Enchantment at Bargemusic

Elena Ulyanova studied the piano in her native Crimea before entering the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow, eventually receiving her Master of Music degree from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. On Friday evening, she gave a recital before a packed house aboard Bargemusic at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn.

Fittingly for a concert held on the water, the highlight of this soiree was Ms. Ulyanova's delicate performance of Claude Debussy's "Ondine." She wove a diaphanous web for her aquatic sprite, suggestion rather than declamation fingered lovingly. As the little concert hall rocked back and forth, Ms. Ulyanova crept into the complex harmonic world of "Brouillards (Mists)" and kept her listeners afloat and a bit enchantingly lost in the fog. This was very lovely music making.

Ms. Ulyanova studied Rachmaninoff with Howard Shelley, an acknowledged expert of the complete repertory, and presented two of the composer's quieter works with significant artistry. The familiar and beautiful Prelude in G Major, Op. 32, No. 5 was marvelously understated, the Barcarolle in G Minor, Op. 10, No. 3 a Slavic version of watery imagery. However, when she attempted the considerably louder Prelude in D Minor, Op. 23, No. 2, she had difficulties avoiding a tendency to bang rather than project. Much of this piece seemed to be a discourse on volume for its own sake.

In Germanic music, Ms. Ulyanova was considerably less successful. Opening the program with the normally playful E Flat Major Sonata, Hob. 16:49 of Haydn may have been a tactical error, since this pianist exhibited a rather odd habit of slowing down phrases when she was not enunciating them clearly, occasionally even pausing for a split second, wreaking havoc on the desired clockwork rhythms of the piece. This was not rubato so much as hesitancy, and often did not lead to the desired effect of the accurate making of phrases.

These quirky pauses were more acceptable in Book II of the "Variations on a Theme of Paganini" by Brahms, as the form allows for intervals of quietude between individual variations. Ms. Ulyanova was good at varying her style for each new invention, a refreshing change from many young aspirants who spit out this piece rather woodenly, but her waywardness and lack of concentration in the fuller, more powerful passages led only to listener impatience. This set is one of the most difficult in the entire literature, and was probably a stretch for this particular performing artist.

Although Ms. Ulyanova played a fine Andante con moto in Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata, the outer movements were equivocal at best. While the left hand was traversing the melody in the first movement, jumping about the keyboard reasonably successfully, the right, intended to be the steadying influence in these Sturm und Drang passages, was often faltering and inconsistent. Combine this with some misdirected landings, and this was sadly an unfortunate experience. Perhaps Ms. Ulyanova needs to rethink her repertoire and make some more realistic choices of material before launching her next recital.