Music / “Ballads from Chopin to Today”, Edward Neeman. At Wesley Music Centre, July 30. Reviewed by ROB KENNEDY.

EXTENDING Chopin’s love of the ballad with music spanning two centuries, this concert explored the diversity of this form for solo piano.

Edward Neeman is an Australian-American concert pianist who has won numerous international piano competitions. What judges of music competitions look for is technical proficiency, evidence of originality and independent thought and stage presence. Neeman has all these in spades, and he can play almost any form of music convincingly and with flair.

His strong connection to the music he performs is evident in his distinctive style and in the way he can relate stories and knowledge about the music he plays.

Listening to a pianist of Neeman’s quality perform these intricate and profound works and for almost all the concert without sheet music is an extraordinary experience. His ability to relate not just the memorised notes, but the story of the music is something that stays with a listener for a long time.

To the largest audience this reviewer has seen in the Wesley Music Centre, Neeman performed the “Ballade No. 1 in G minor”, Op. 23, by Frédéric Chopin, then “Ballade in D flat Major”, Op. 6, by Amy Beach and the “Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song”, Op. 24, by Edvard Grieg in the first half.

After the interval, the “Ballade”, Op. 66, by Ignaz Friedman, was a passionate and driving work. It starts with a flurry and then moves into a retrospective frame. Full of inner melodies around an expansive sphere of notes, this moody piece makes a unique musical statement. It’s also a restless, complex and emotional story. What a work.

American composer,Michael Ippolito, who is a friend of the pianist, is also the associate professor of composition at Texas State University. His work “Tutto en un punto” (All at One Point) from “Le cosmicomiche”, which was a world premiere, began with a line of single legato notes that built in its progressive musical language to a smashing cacophony. It experimented with sound quality through a repeated single note ringing out at various dynamics and tempos, then slipped back into its unique style before coming to an abrupt halt.

“Elegy for the Nameless” and “Dreams of Flight”, by Reinaldo Moya from “The Way North”, an Australian premiere is about the grief and struggle of people migrating to freer lands. This soft, sad eulogy for nameless people looking for a way to escape from fear to freedom touched the heart with its falling melodious tune. Like tears or raindrops, the notes fell as images of struggle, then perhaps relief. It contained an inner world of frustration and beauty.

To come full circle, back to Chopin, the program ended with his “Ballade No. 3 in A flat Major”, Op. 47. This joyful and uplifting tune was like so much of Chopin’s music, a lesson in perfection. This faultless, rounded composition, with its forthright themes mixed with an undertone of reflection, was just right from beginning to end, as was the playing.

The capacity audience clapped, cheered and one young girl walked to the stage and gave him flowers. But then Neeman encored with another work by Ignaz Friedman based on a piece by Bach.