Highly eminent concert pianist, Spencer Myer, Steinway artist and associate professor of piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, arrived at Varner Recital Hall on Feb. 22 to perform a recital and present a masterclass.
After a 30-minute delay caused by a shouting fire alarm, Myer sat down and went straight to work. His program offered a diversified palette of sound to satisfy each attendee’s taste. Opening with Haydn’s Fantasia in C Major, Hob. XVII: 4, he captured the essence of the classical era with overwhelmingly clear articulation in this bright work.
Haydn, an early composer in the classical period, transitioned from harpsichords and clavichords to the emerging pianoforte — the beginning stages of the piano that exists today. When playing these works, the pianist must have a light touch with crisp articulation, mimicking the approach needed on the previous instruments.
Myer’s execution was positively brilliant. Excessive ornamentation in a Presto tempo typically poses a challenge to staying in time and character. That, of course, would be an amateur mistake for Myer. The extent of control in his dynamics while still hearing every note was a characteristic found in every piece that afternoon.
Transitioning to French Impressionism, the artist played the five-movement suite “Miroirs” by Maurice Ravel. French music, particularly by composers like Ravel and Debussy, is different from standard “classical repertoire.” It is not about developing a standard form with classic harmony realization. Rather, it aims to create a specific soundscape, often emulating nature.
The first movement, “Noctuelles” (“Night Moths”), focuses on the sporadic fluttering of moths at night. While the piano has a percussive reputation, Myer achieved a sound as light as strings. He maintained that effect through all movements, gradually playing with the ebbs and flows of volume and harmony. Two standout movements included “Une barque sur l’océan” (“A Boat on the Ocean”) and “Alborada del gracioso” (“Morning Song of the Jester”).
In “Une barque sur l’océan,” Myer produced waves of sound that progressively rose and fell — capturing a feeling of sailing, rather than a poignant vocal line. His playing was effortless, the kind that makes one want to go to a practice room and recreate the near-perfect performance he gave concertgoers.
Myer’s intersectionality of dexterity and control sent the audience into transitory hypnosis.
“When he [Myer] played ‘Une barque sur l’océan,’ I couldn’t even fathom how smooth and tranquil the sound was coming out of the piano. He is incredible,” Martyna Gogołkiewicz, junior double major in Piano Performance and Pedagogy with a minor in Jazz Studies, said.
One of the flashiest moments of the afternoon was the Liszt set, playing “Tre Sonetti del Petrarca” (“Three Petrarch Sonnets”). The movement and sound produced with the utmost ease were extraordinarily decadent.
“The Petrarch Sonnets are pieces that I played about 15 years ago that I just love, and I just wanted to come back to them,” Myer said.
To end, he played Carl Vine’s Piano Sonata No. 1 and delivered an encore of Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 62 No. 1 in B Major.
Afterward, Tony Perez-Chavez and Jillian Comistock, undergraduate and graduate piano students, performed the first movement of Haydn’s Sonata in B minor, Hob. XVI: 32 and the first two movements of Beethoven’s Sonata in F-sharp Major, Op. 78.
Perez-Chavez commented on the fantastic direction he was given for the Haydn Sonata.
“I was highly impressed by the level of expertise that he [Myer] had in both his playing and teaching. He solved many of my major issues quickly, and I hope to bring that level of professionalism to my own piano students,” Perez-Chavez said.
