TELL-tale ‘baby-grand’ or not, the moment you entered the door, you immediately knew that this was not your everyday evening out.

For one thing, all the seats were almost taken, and you still had a good deal of time left before show-time, which was so unlike the age-old Guyanese habit to be fashionably late.

Then there was the décor - the overall muted lighting; the soft flicker of a candle here and there; a huge menorah-like candelabra off to one side; a sprinkling of healthy-looking potted palms and other genus of flora strategically placed so as to give an outdoorsy effect; a few select pieces from the avant-garde French artist, Roselyne Charles - all so utterly romantic.

And, let’s not forget that unshakable dress code - formal; but elegant!

The occasion?

Last Sunday night’s premier at Le Meridien Pegasus of the piano recital, titled ‘Romance in May’ in honour of ‘Mother’s Day’ and featuring renowned American concert pianist, John Vanneste.

That he gave us Schubert, the irascible Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov, White and Brahms, in that precise order, was no accident, he told the Sunday Chronicle immediately after the concert.

By way of an explanation, he said: “Our theme was ‘Romance in May’, so, it was a bit of play on words…. though not all [of the selections] were romantic, in the true sense of the word….some of it was pretty solid and heavy and dark. But that was romance with a capital ‘R’, as in Romantic Period music. So what we were doing basically was Romantic Period music in May.”

From Schubert, whom he swears was perhaps the most romantic of all the composers of his time, he gave us an impromptu in A Flat Major, which would be the only selection he would render from this particular artiste that evening.

Described as almost a contemporary of Beethoven’s, Vanneste said that though Schubert was revered for the more than 600 lieder he composed in the 31 short years he walked this earth, among them the world-renowned Ave Maria, he was also known to write “beautiful piano music”.

Beethoven, on the other hand, who came next and happens to be Vanneste’s favourite composer, is said to have “basically changed the course of music history,” with his heavy-handed, almost demonic-type energy that he put into his compositions - like his Sonata in C Minor and Grave Allegro Molto all of which formed part of the night’s repertoire.

Gone tone deaf by the time he died at 57 in 1827, he is once known to have said: “Music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears to the eyes of woman.”

A section of the audience at the John Vanneste concert at Le Meridien Pegasus.
Born in the former East German capital, Bonn, of Flemish parents just as the Classical Period was coming to an end, it is said that “the outstanding characteristic of his music is the quality of volcanic energy; the free, impulsive, mysterious spirit; the underlying conception of music as a mode of self-expression which later fascinated the Romantic generation.”

So in awe were they of his prowess that colleagues said of him: “Beethoven’s music sets in motion the lever of fear; awe; and suffering; and awakens just that infinite longing which is the essence of romanticism.”

Coming like the proverbial calm after a storm, Chopin was, by contrast, of a gentler nature. As he had occasion to say once: “Beethoven may have embraced the universe with the power of his spirit…I do not climb so high. A long time ago, I decided that my universe will be the heart and soul of Man.”

A born Pole, it is said that though Chopin lived most of his adult life in Paris, he always looked upon his native Poland as home.

His work, however, was to be so greatly influenced by Paris’ affluence that he was at one time thought of as displaying a refinement and clarity that was the hallmark of the best among the French keyboardists.

Said Vanneste: “He played almost exclusively piano. He specialised in short pieces, especially for piano, in small settings. I call tonight small, but it wasn’t really…more like intimate. His music isn’t really for the big concert hall, but for small recital pieces; his short pieces are very enjoyable and also for people’s living rooms…which they used to do back then before TV and radio….when amateur pianists would get together and play for the family and that sort of thing. Chopin wrote a lot of music for that sort of genre.”

But for all his acclaim, like everyone else, he too had a down side.

According to programme notes compiled by Vanneste: “Long years of sickliness and nervous irritability did not always permit him the necessary repose for the concert hall, nor for displaying the full wealth of his resources. However, no-one understood the piano better than Chopin did. He could make it sound more truly romantic and poetic than anybody else. He also wrote for it more sympathetically than any other composer.”

Which calls to mind the inimitable Rachmaninov, whom we in the Guyana would call ‘double-jointed’ because of his unusually large hands, which latter peculiarity was largely responsible for his seeming abuse of the keyboards, so intense were his compositions.

Born in Semyonovo, Russia into impoverished Russian aristocracy, Rachmaninov is said to have been well-educated in spite of his family’s dire circumstances, and to have lived at a time when the type of music he was churning out, in spite of its brilliance, was no longer in vogue.

But he was always very well-liked, Vanneste said.

“He was a brilliant concert pianist with huge hands, which affected both his writing and playing. He wrote his own music, using very large chords - which accounts for the intensity of his pieces - and very difficult passages that require lots of stretching of the hands and the occasional lean into, and pound of, the keys” as evidenced in his Vanneste’s interpretation of Rachmaninov’s ‘Prelude in C Sharp Minor.

This same piece, which Rachmaninov wrote when just 19, is said to have been responsible for his being catapulted to fame almost overnight and to have established the general style and mood of his music, namely rather dark; melancholy and brooding.

For him to properly execute and do justice to this piece, Vanneste said, he has had to frequent the gym in order to tone up his muscles. “That piece is my excuse for going to the gym all the time, because I need some muscle.”

Incidentally, this piece was so well-liked, Vanneste said, that there was hardly a performance that Rachmaninov gave that he didn’t have to render it. He died in exile in 1943 in, of all places, Beverly Hills, in the USA. He was 70.

From Jose White, the celebrated, turn-of-the-Century, Cuban concert violinist, came the unmistakably Latin-flavoured La Bella Cubana, which, according to Vanneste, is an allegory for Cuba itself, and was originally scored for both the violin and the piano.

Born in Matanzas, Cuba, White not only distinguished himself as a soloist throughout the length and breadth of Latin America and Europe, but also taught at the prestigious Paris Conservatory in France, where he made his home until his death in 1918 at the ripe old age of 82.

From Brahms, came his famous Ballade in D Minor among other compositions in his considerable repertoire, which includes such gems as the German Requiem reputedly the first of its kind “that did not follow the catholic order of Mass.”

Though he wrote primarily for the piano, Vanneste said, Brahms also composed “brilliant symphonies, and violin concertos.”

After a rich diet such as this, small wonder it was then that he was called back again and again, as is the unwritten code of ethics among die-hard concert goers.

Hailed from St. Paul, Minnesota “in the cold mid-west,” Vanneste began his formal training at the tender age of ten, later going on to study music and composition at Augsburg College and the University of Minnesota and winning in the process numerous regional awards including the Young Artist Award in 1982.

Since then, he has travelled extensively, performing at various recitals and venues including the IMF International Concert series and Charles Sumner School Museum as both soloist and accompanist.

He is currently working on his own music and has for the past three years made Trinidad - where he has formed a strategic alliance with British painter - Sarah Beckett, his new home.

His sojourn here was courtesy of another strategic alliance, this time among Gems Theatre Productions (GTP), Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel, and regional carrier, British West Indies Airways (BWIA).

He gave of his time and talent free of charge. The hog of the proceeds from the concert will go towards the local charity, United Women for Special Children (UWSC) in helping kids with special needs become more productive members of society.