Concert Review: Harmony Zhu at the Folly Theater

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Sixteen-year-old Harmony Zhu displayed disarming poise and unlimited potential at the Folly Theater on Sunday, November 13.  The same couldn’t be said for dozens of members of the audience of more than 500 at the Harriman-Jewell Series' free Discovery Concert.

Cacophonous clatter occasionally overwhelmed the pianist’s recital.  Babies babbled.  Toddlers yammered.  Children rolled metal drink canisters on the floor, tossed programs and played with the springs in creaky theater seats.  Minors weren’t the only offenders.  A few older people hacked and wheezed as if they were in their death throes.  

Zhu rose above the tumult as she played four Frédéric Chopin compositions as well as selections by Claude Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nikolai Kapustin.  Her affinity for Chopin’s deliciously morbid laments is unexpected in a bright young talent who has probably never misbehaved in a concert hall.

Album Review: Gerald Clayton- Bells On Sand

Bells on Sand probably wouldn’t have meant much to me had it been released five years ago. Gerald Clayton’s spare song cycle might have struck me as overly fragile. Yet my sonic world expanded during the pandemic. In addition to developing a taste for drones and noise, I grasped the previously elusive appeal of European composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Clayton’s sensitive interpretations of Federico Mompou’s compositions- the second and third tracks on Bells On Sand- set the contemplative tone for Clayton’s new album for Blue Note Records. I’d been only vaguely familiar with the Spanish composer through recordings by the likes of pianist Daniil Trifinov. Some may call me soft, but I’m pleased with my enhanced sensibility.