Music's story as vital as its tune

For pianist Joel Fan, playing music is about storytelling.

He joins the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra this week in a pair of concerts saturated in Russian music featuring spell-binding stories.

Fan will play Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," written in just four weeks in 1934.

Using the theme from "Caprice No. 24 in A Minor," the last one in Paganini's Op. 1 group of caprices for solo violin, Rachmaninoff wrote a set of 24 variations.

"It's a theme that has the most variations for it," Fan said in a telephone conversation last week, during which he was as excited to talk about what an extraordinary two weeks it has been to be in New York with the news of Osama bin Laden's death.

"I'm excited about bin Laden. It's remarkable being in New York this week," he said.

As for the Rachmaninoff, "It's glorious because of its virtuosity, great melodies, excitement, delicate interplay with the orchestra and the different emotions in each variation."

Variation 18 is one of Rachmaninoff's most famous melodies that is often played by young pianists as a solo piece.

There is also a darkness to the entire rhapsody since Rachmaninoff conceived it as telling the story of Paganini selling his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to perfect his art.

"People criticized Rachmaninoff as being anachronistic," Fan said, referring to the idea that Rachmaninoff was a 20th century composer who essentially wrote 19th century-style romantic music.

"But I think the Rhapsody is an absolute masterpiece. He was truly one of the great pianists and a master at getting around the keyboard."

Fan gets around a good bit on his own.

Not only does he play a broad range of classical music with orchestras and in recitals, including new, young composers' works, he is also a member of Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble that ventures into music of different cultures.

Asked if he would rather play program music that comes with a story, or music that is more abstract, Fan said, "In some sense, they are the same thing.

"Whether it's already there or you make it up in order to get a grip on a piece, the story is important."

Asked if he would sacrifice accuracy in order to get an emotional point across, Fan replied, "It's important to be accurate. But it's ultimately about the story you tell.

"I think there is a boundary - a fine line of control - that's exhilarating. Horowitz would play wrong notes just for their effect. When you are telling a story, that's what people remember.

"That's our job."

In addition to Rachmaninoff's telling of Paganini's deal with the devil, Nicholai Rimsky-Korsakov's sensuous story of Scheherezade casting her Arabian spell is on the program.

It's based on the collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories known as "One Thousand and One Nights" in which Scheherezade exerts her powers of persuasion over an egotistical sultan intent on an execution.

Rimsky-Korsakov explores the different settings of Scheherezade's tales with writing that gives the orchestra the opportunity to produce sounds that are continents away from what one expects classical music to sound like.

Completing the concerts will be Igor Stravinsky's suite from his ballet "The Firebird."

Written in 1910, before the revolutionary "Rite of Spring," it was the first of Stravinsky's large orchestral works with which he did his own transformation of what the classical music soundscape was like.

Based on the Russian fairytale of Prince Ivan who ventures into the magical realm of Kashchei the Immortal, whose kingdom includes magical objects, beautiful princesses and a Firebird.

The Firebird tells Ivan the secret to Kashchei's spell, enabling him to destroy Kashchei and rescue the princesses.

Harold Duckett is a freelance contributor to the News Sentinel.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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