Concert Review: Dr. Borah Kang: Friday, July 26, 2024
The Sound of Joy
Concert Review by Vincent Trauth
Joy. Noun. Per the Merriam Webster (online) Dictionary: “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires”.
If you have ever heard local maestro Dr. Borah Kang, then you know what I am about to tell you. And if you had attended the benefit concert/recital by her this past Friday evening July 26, 2024, at the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Urbana, IL, then you would have heard what “joy” sounds like. I know because I was there. The sanctuary of this building is a beautiful stained, knotty pine ceiling with upwards of, by my count, 60 or more beautiful (actually comfortable!) wooden pews.
The concert/recital was a benefit for PACE, Inc. (Persons Assuming Control of their Environment – the Center for Independent Living). Dr. Kang is a pianist who has achieved the highest levels of artistic success. Her story is one of having overcoming hardships in life from her earliest years in South Korea to her many years of music study, piano, and learning English in both Korea and America.
On this evening, she presented a program in two parts. On the first half she performed her arrangements of sacred and popular music and on the second half she played a Mozart piano sonata and three of Schubert’s eight impromptus.
To be honest, while I know the titles of many of the hymns that we heard, I may be unintentionally misrepresenting what I heard in terms of which songs were played as solos and which were blended into medleys. I know well the classical pieces played on the second half as I’ve played and taught them.
The program opened with the hymn “How Great Thou Art”. Per Wikipedia "How Great Thou Art" is a Christian hymn based on an original Swedish hymn entitled "O Store Gud" written in 1885 by Carl Boberg (1859–1940). The English version of the hymn and its title are a loose translation by the English missionary Stuart K. Hine from 1949. The hymn was popularized by George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows during Billy Graham's crusades. Dr. Kang’s arrangement featured rolling chords reminiscent of gospel-style piano with a clever key/register change.
Next up was “You Raise Me Up”. Trusting the Internet to provide accurate information is always a roll of the dice, so I must assume correctly or not that what I found about this song is accurate. Research (per Wikipedia again) shows that the tune was written in 2001 and has been recorded hundreds of times with the Josh Groban recording (perhaps) being the most famous one. It reminded me of the famous tune “Wind Beneath My Wings”. Initially the melody was played in octaves in the right hand with a couple of jazz chords as accompaniment. At one point the melody was carried by the left hand in a very classical manner reminiscent of something Beethoven might have done.
Also heard on the program were the tunes “What A Friend We Have in Jesus”, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” (seek out the most famous version by Mahalia Jackson which she recorded in 1956), “Just a Closer Walk With Thee”. This is where I get mixed up on which songs were played as a solo or in a medley. Regardless, I can offer that the arrangements were very clever. For example, Dr. Kang channeled the ragtime artists in one arrangement while closing one of these a with series of tremolo chords reminiscent of jazz pianist Errol Garner. We also heard in these arrangements hints at Harlem stride style piano.
In the popular music portion of the first half, we heard “You Are My Sunshine”, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, a medley from “The Sound of Music”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude”. There was a sly seamless segue from “…Sunshine” into “….Rainbow”. I would describe the arrangements as being ‘very well thought out’.
In the “Sound of Music” medley we heard the title tune, “My Favorite Things” (a waltz in a minor key!) and “Edelweiss”. At one point in the medley arrangement, we heard the melody in the left hand ‘answered’ by the right hand. This medley was extended by way of a key change within “Edelweiss”.
As a young teenage pianist, I grew up with the original version of “Bridge Over Trouble Water” with the great Larry Knechtel at piano and vocals by Simon and Garfunkel. It is a straight-up gospel style song. I even purchased the sheet music to learn what Knechtel was playing. Dr. Kang’s arrangement was faithful to the original. Without stopping, this song segued into her version of “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. There were some adroit moments in this version like at the beginning when the tune was presented over a tonic note pedal tone, melody presented in the tenor ‘voice’ and a very Liszt-like shift in the ending chorus. We were spared the four-minute coda that is found in the Beatles original recording (!)
After intermission, the artist presented four quintessential classical music pieces: Mozart’s famous C Major Piano Sonata (K.545) and three of Schubert’s four impromptus published as his Opus 90. Many an aspiring pianist has (tried to learn?) learned the Mozart work which Dr. Kang presented in a clear, straightforward manner, as it should be. There was a proper volume balance between the hands and the pace was a modest one. The second movement was the epitome of classical restraint. I was a bit surprised at the modest tempo in the final movement as sometimes one hears this work (my opinion) played too quickly.
Lastly, we heard the 2nd (in E-flat Major), 3rd (in G-flat Major), and 4th (in A-flat Major) of the Opus 90 Impromptus by Schubert. The works were written in 1827 near the end of the composer’s life. We often read about how sad his final years were, but you don’t hear that in these pieces. They are graceful and lyrical like his lieder (songs). Form-wise the 2nd and 4th are in ABA form, meaning the opening section (A) returns after a contrasting middle section (B).
The 2nd Impromptu is marked by right hand triplets that are continuous. They descend and ascend up and down the piano in straight-ahead E-flat major scales with the occasional turn where the first notes of the groups are going up or down in a chromatic manner (thus proving to those who have studied piano “why” we study scales!). The B section offers a more vertical and rhythmically vigorous sound.
One of the things that many of us enjoy about Schubert is his sense of harmonic relations. While the A section of this work is in E-flat Major, he deftly moves to B Minor in the B section (or is it really C-flat Minor which would be tremendously difficult to read and understand?) When the A section returns it brings a sense of closure as we hear pretty much note-for-note what we heard in the first iteration of the A section.
In the 3rd Impromptu in G-flat major the right-hand pinkie plays long-held notes while the lower part of the same hand plays shimmering sextuplets. I can assure you that doing so accurately and musically is tremendously difficult. The left-hand part proceeds with long held notes for the bulk of the work. Those long-held notes in the right hand need to be played with just the right amount of force so as to be heard above the sextuplets without being too loud or noisy. Dr. Kang was up to the challenge Schubert presents to pianists. (Imagine what an amazing pianist Schubert must have been!)
The 4th Impromptu in A-flat Major may very well be the most famous of this set (my opinion). The right-hand part is a series of descending broken chords over a waltz-like left hand part that alternates with vertical, chordal, contrasting measures. While the work is definitely in A-flat Major the composer starts us out in its parallel A-flat Minor. Much like Beethoven, Schubert moves harmonically by thirds rather than fifths (classic era harmonic motion was more often by fifths) as the A-flat opening gives way to a repetition on the main idea in C-flat Major. When he does get to his ‘theme’ in A-flat Major it sounds so perfect (because it is?) Schubert introduces a new melody in the second half of the opening A section by putting that new melody in the tenor voice.
The B section is much more chordal and dramatic in the key of C-sharp minor (or is it really D-flat Minor?) It is, at times, like a musical thunderstorm with thunderbolts and lightning. Was he influenced by Beethoven? Perhaps. When the A section returns it is the perfect antidote to what we heard in the middle section.
I was engrossed in watching the printed scores I brought with me, so much so that I didn’t make many notes at all to myself during the performance. As a result, I offer my greatest and strongest praise for the performance of these works. One could easily argue that they were presented in a manner that is on par with one of Dr. Kang’s favorite pianists, Murray Perahia.