Exhibiting a striking combination of strength and grace, thought and emotion, Xiaopei Xu played a formidable program, consisting of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Beethoven’s Sonata in F. Minor Op. 57, the “Appassionata,” and Frederic Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52, Friday, Jan. 23 at the Pa. Academy of Music.
Taking on one of the monuments of baroque keyboard music, the 18-year-old Xu negotiated the complexities of Bach’s Goldberg Variations with apparent ease. The Variations begin with deceptive simplicity, with the Aria that begins and ends the piece as a sort of entry and exit gate. In between those gates lies a universe of mirrors and mazes, 30 variations that form a sort of musical labyrinth for the pianist and listener. And Xu led us through that labyrinth with grace and a grasp of the overall line that never faltered.
Beethoven started composing the “Appassionata” in 1803, a little more than 60 years after the Goldberg Variations, but it seems to take place in a wholly different universe of swirling storm and intense emotion. Xu became the source of the tempest, throwing out wave upon wave of sound, clouds yielding to sun yielding to clouds again. Chopin’s Ballade, composed in 1842, is another work of billowing emotional intensity, building slowly to a shattering climax, and it’s a tribute to Xu’s commitment and energy that she was able to bring the program to such an intense conclusion. (Much less perform an encore, which she did.)
Xu, a native of China, is a student at Linden Hall and in the Certificate Program at the Pa. Academy of Music, and has been studying with piano department chair Xun Pan since 2007 (read more about Xu here.) She has won a number of competitions and is obviously a talent to watch.
