By Eileen Wingard
SAN DIEGO –Pianist Daniel Wnukowski performed the remarkable fete of playing all five Beethoven Piano Concerti on three consecutive nights with the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO) under the direction of David Amos.
Attending the Monday and Tuesday evening concerts in the Cohen Social Hall of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, we were impressed by the high quality of the soloist and the ambitious enterprise undertaken by the orchestra. TICO accompanied all five concertis and, in addition, performed four movements from Beethoven’s Creatures of Prometheus Ballet Music at Monday night’s concert.
With music as glorious as that of the Beethoven Piano Concerti, and with a young, energetic soloist like Daniel Wnukowski, the musicians were obviously inspired to meet the challenges. Under the secure direction of Amos, the orchestra did, indeed shine during many moments.
Monday evening, the Ballet Music had some admirable dynamic shading and the basset horn, an authentic period instrument related to the clarinet, was beautifully played by Jim George. Other admirable solos were performed by the oboe and clarinet. The slow movement of Piano Concerto No. 4 had the unison strings watching the baton carefully as they executed pizzicato passages with exact precision.
On Tuesday evening, the sublime music box theme in the Emperor Concerto’s first movement was delicately accompanied to allow the soloist to evoke its magic. The pianist performed with power and security. His rippling runs contrasted with tender passages and massive chords to convey Beethoven’s creative spirit.
This young, newly married Wnukowski, of Polish descent, brought to mind the Polish-born pianist who helped the JCC Music Committee purchase the Baldwin Grand Piano on which he played. Ignatz Hilsberg, born in Warsaw, had taught at the Juilliard School in New York City before moving to Los Angeles. In LA, this respected pianist and pedagogue had a large class of students, served on the judge’s panel of the Young Musicians Foundation and was a contractor for movie orchestras. After his second wife died, he moved to San Diego where he was an adjunct professor at UCSD and became involved with the JCC Music Committee. He helped select this piano, which once was used by the San Diego Symphony, and he performed recitals on it. He was also instrumental in engaging some of his illustrious friends to perform and speak at the JCC, people like the great violinist, Louis Kaufman and the famous musicologist and composer, Nicolas Slonimsky.
After the concert, when asked what he thought of the piano, Daniel Wnukowski responsed with an enthusiastic, “fine!”
On Tuesday evening, following the stellar performances of two demanding piano concerti, Wnukowski offered an encore: Vladimir Horowitz’ arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. He dedicated it to his smiling young bride. It was such a tour de force that it brought the audience to its feet for a prolonged ovation.
*
Wingard is a former violinist with the San Diego Symphony and a freelance writer. She may be contacted at eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com