Pianist shares remarkable artistry

MOAB MUSIC FESTIVAL, through Sept. 14 (435-259-7003; moabmusicfest.org)

MOAB — Last weekend, the Moab Music Festival opened its 17th season with an eclectic array of concerts.

Among the featured performers was Cuban pianist Jorge-Luis Prats, who was given ample opportunity to put his remarkable artistry on display.

Prats is quite simply a pianist's pianist. His formidable technical prowess is matched only by his sublime musicality. He is an expressive performer who brings passion and feeling to his playing. And as he showed this past weekend, he is equally at home as a soloist and as a chamber musician.

The 53-year-old pianist, who now makes his home in the United States, is well known for his performances of the works by his fellow countrymen. And he played a nice sampling of Cuban classical music to start last Sunday's open air concert at Red Cliffs Adventure Lodge outside Moab.

While the names of most 20th century Cuban composers are unknown in this country, the music is certainly familiar. And Prats put the spotlight on some delectable musical morsels by Ignacio Cervantes (a suite from "Danzas Cubanas") and Ernesto Lecuona (a selection of five Cuban dances).

In between these two, Prats also played a tango, "Altagracia," written for him by the late Carlos Farinas.

While the contemporary tango has been personified by the works of Astor Piazzolla, there are also other tangos that are equally as rich and descriptive as those, but at the same time more abstract and dramatic. And that's where Farinas' piece falls.

With only the slightest hint of tango rhythms, "Altagracia" is a sophisticated and intense piece and highly virtuosic. And Prats gave a wonderfully vivid and driven reading that captured its vitality and adventurous character.

Before the Cuban pieces, Prats opened the concert with Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasilieras No. 4, which he played with richly textured expressiveness and coloration.

To end the concert, Prats was joined by a young trio of string players (violinist Ayano Ninomiya; violist Arnaud Sussmann; cellist Peter Sanders) for a voluptuous reading of Joaquin Turina's Piano Quartet in A minor, op. 67.

Prats also made a brief appearance at last Friday's opening night concert in downtown Moab's Star Hall, playing Francis Poulenc's early Sonata for Piano Four Hands, with festival founder and director Michael Barrett; and Ninomiya was featured in Camille Saint-Sa?s' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (with Barrett at the piano), with which she dazzled the audience with her violinistic pyrotechnics.

Also on Friday's concert was Ernest Chausson's Piano Quartet in A major, op. 30, played by violinist L.P. How; violist Leslie Tomkins; cellist Tanya Tomkins; and pianist Eric Zivian.

However, the highlight Friday was a deliciously choreographed performance of Eric Satie's seldom played "Sports et Divertissements," with Barrett at the piano and featuring choreographer/performer Michelle Ellsworth and narrator/performer Steven Goldstein.

Irreverent, witty and racy, their performance captured the uninhibited and nonsensical nature of the work. It was the "Marx Brothers Meet Satie," and it was hilarious.

e-mail: ereichel@desnews.com