Yixiang Hou: Carnival
KNS Classical

Look no further than Yixiang Hou's performance of “Mässige Viertel,” the central piece in Arnold Schoenberg's Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 (1909), for a terrific example of the Chinese pianist's artistry. In another's hands, the material might exude a cool austerity; Hou, by comparison, amplifies the setting's twilight lyricism and consequently imbues the setting with an exquisite textural quality; while tender isn't the first word that comes to mind when Schoenberg's name is mentioned, it's applicable in this case. In fact, every piece Hou performs on the release, from Orlando Gibbons' Pavan in G minor to Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9, shows a lucid grasp of the material and a treatment meticulously fashioned in accordance with that understanding. Carnival might be his debut recording, but it presents a pianist who's arrived fully formed.

The foundation for the album has, admittedly, been years in the making. Extensive study, competitions, public performances, and awards preceded the album's recording, which occurred on a single day in December 2022 at the University of Cincinnati's Werner Hall. At the age of ten, he was awarded a prize in the Shanghai Haydn Piano Competition and has since added to it with many others, including first prize at the 2022 New York International Artists Piano Competition. At the time of the album's release, Hou was pursuing his DMA degree at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music under the direction of Ran Dank.

While Hou's early engagement with the piano was fostered by his exposure to Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations recording, Bach isn't part of Carnival. Instead, Hou has opted for an eclectic set-list that extends from the late Renaissance to the twentieth century and says much about his curatorial sensibility. Performing on a Steinway, Hou's playing is characterized by crisp articulation, fluidity, and sensitive attention to pacing and dynamics. Whether the material in question is Charles-Valentin Alkan's Le festin d'Ésope, Op. 39, No. 12 or Alexander Scriabin's sombre Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 (aka the “Black Mass Sonata”), Hou's treatments are commanding.

His artistry is evident the moment Gibbons' Pavan in G minor (ca. 1610) introduces the set with expertly controlled expressions of solemnity and longing. The pianist eloquently articulates the emotional essence of the piece as its progresses through its variations in a performance that neither rushes nor drags. Written in 1857, the twelfth etude from Alkan's Le festin d'Ésope, Op. 39 begins impishly and after the voicing of its march-like theme moves onto twenty-five variations. The work is based on the ancient Greek fable wherein Aesop invites animals to a feast, the result a wild portrait of the animal kingdom. It's a no-holds-barred treatment that for eleven mischievous minutes oscillates between bombast, tenderness, and everything in between, and Hou handles its torrential runs, hammering chords, florid displays, and hushed lyricism with authority. Certain moments suggests a particular animal's being represented—a “barking” section, for example—but the piece would still beguile in the absence of any such programmatic detail.

One of Schoenberg's earliest works in his atonal style, Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 shifts the focus away from the wildness of Alkan's setting for a more reserved presentation. Atonal the three definitely are, but, as earlier stated, they're not without lyricism, especially in Hou's handling. The patience and care with which these probing pieces are rendered gives them the character of introspective self-examinations translated into expressive musical form. Compare the poetic hush of the second to the turbulence of the third for one example of the dramatic contrasts that differentiate the settings. From 1913 comes Scriabin's nerves-fraying Piano Sonata No. 9, which pulls the listener into the darkest of undertows with an array of chromatic harmonies, percussive effects, and unsettling tonal shifts. Imagine Poe's “The Cask of Amontillado” translated into musical form and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the Russian composer produced.

March 2024