Piano Masterpieces at the School of Music, Auckland University

By TARA WERNER

Lizst's great Sonata in B minor has always evoked mixed responses. When the work was first presented in 1853, lack of interest was universal.

Brahms, then aged 20 and a protege of Liszt, is said to have fallen asleep when the maestro played it to him.

Schumann, to whom the sonata was dedicated, reacted to the music with horrified and stony silence.

Even the usually supportive Chopin heaped praise on Lizst the pianist but withheld it from Liszt the composer.

But Wagner thought it lovely, deep and noble, and the piece has subsequently been considered the sonata to end all sonatas, one with few equals in the piano repertoire.

Constructed as one gigantic cyclic movement that builds all the material on four interrelated themes stated within the first few bars, the music calls for a spotless technique and intellectual depth.

Both qualities were shown in abundance by Stephen Glaser, an associate professor of piano at the Ohio State University School of Music.

By the end of 30 minutes of intense playing he emerged looking a little exhausted, but exalted. Not surprising, given that he had earlier performed two other sonatas that stand as dignified masterpieces in their own right - Beethoven's Sonata No 31 in A flat major Op 110 and Sonata No 32 in C minor Op 111.

Glaser went for a cool and measured approach in Sonata No 31, hallmarked by precise phrasing and clarity. The weightiest musical working is reserved for the last movement, and he tackled the strict three-part fugue with an understated discipline.

The essential paradox that is Beethoven's last piano sonata - a two-movement work highly complex and yet strikingly direct - was given a dramatic performance.

All this virtuosity was complemented by a melodious interpretation of Brahms' Variations on a theme of Haydn in its two-piano form.

Here, Glaser was smoothly accompanied by Tamas Vesmas, and even a strident mobile phone ringing half-way through the work did not put the pianists off their stride.