Rita Moran: Pianist Haochen Zhang dazzles with technical prowess at Ventura Music Festival


With the stamina of a long-distance runner and the daring of a pole vaulter, Haochen Zhang made the piano meditate and thunder to equal effect at Thursday night's Ventura Music Festival concert in Ventura Missionary Church.

Zhang, who four years ago at 19 was the youngest winner of the quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, is slight of build but huge in talent. In a concert noteworthy for its emphasis on the character of each work, Zhang seemed to shrug off the near impossible technical qualities required, zeroing in on each offering's distinctive essence while allowing any visual drama to develop through his consummate ease with technical demands rather than with any superfluous pyrotechnics.

For his program, Zhang chose works by composers who were themselves probing and innovative pianists, beginning with Beethoven and continuing through Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Mily Balakirev. From Beethoven's late creative period, when his hearing was disintegrating and he was in poor health, came his Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, inventive in style yet blessed with Beethoven's bold spirit in both its moments of passion and pensive passages. From Chopin, who thrived on a more intimate experience as a performer, Zhang brought forth the lyricism and wit, but also rushes of power in Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor. Amazingly fleet and sure fingers were the soloist's ally throughout the evening.

With the lurking thunder of its underpinning and its embrace of the keyboard's span, Liszt's Ballade No. 2 offered Zhang an opportunity to dazzle with his pianistic prowess. Finally, in a substitution for the programmed Three Movements from "Petrushka," Zhang delivered a brilliant rendition of Balakirev's "Islamey," subtitled "Oriental Fantasy" and based on folk materials familiar to the composer. If there had been any doubt Zhang could handle anything in the realm of piano, Balakirev's gem put it to rest.

It's not just that the soloist finds the keyboard a joyous playing field. He adds interpretive powers that would be admirable in a pianist of any age, bolstered by an ability to make playing some of the world's most difficult piano pieces seem like second nature to such an extent that audiences can share the textured ride with the artist, relishing the nuances along with the assured command.

Called back to the stage by a dazzled audience, Zhang evoked the sense of a soft summer day with Debussy's brief bit of pianistic poetry, "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair."

Tonight's festival finale will be a performance by the a cappella jazz-pop sextet m-pact at 8 p.m. at the Majestic Ventura Theater.

Ventura Music Festival

The 19th annual festival will wrap up with a concert by a cappella jazz-pop sextet m-pact at 8 tonight at the Majestic Ventura Theater, 26 S. Chestnut St. Tickets are $15-$45. Call 648-3146 or visit http://www.venturamusicfestival.org.