Imagine a 10-day Fall festival of Shakespearean plays. In the theatre and in the park. With college and local talent partnering with professional actors. Like the idea? 
Serenity at the Sottile
MANY MUSICIANS SEEM to merge with their instrument as they play. It becomes a physical extension of their interpretation and expression. This seems inevitable, but it can also become a barrier to listening. Put simply, the audience comes to hear the music and the musician gets in the way.
Hartmut Sauer, however, is a fascinating exception with his detached style of playing. He has an assured, elegant touch that yields a wonderfully intricate, delicate, and dynamic sound that is very polished—an almost crystalline command.
But most interesting to me is how his hands play on top of the keyboard—almost directly above it—as he sits relaxed, seemingly removed from the complex task that his fingers are carrying out. Meanwhile, a richness of feeling pours into his fingers, onto the keyboard, and through the piano. Rather than merging with the instrument, he serenely imparts sound to it through fingers that impartially manipulate the keys.
When Hartmut first walked onto the Sottile stage, his gait gave the impression of someone strolling to a restaurant for dinner. And he left the same way—after taking us and himself on a demanding roller coaster ride through Schubert, Hoiby, and Chopin.
During the intermission, I asked a pianist what she thought of the concert thus far and she hesitatingly replied, “I wish he would play more for me and less for himself.” I took her comment with me as a filter for listening to the rest of the program, but I could not endorse it. Whereas Hartmut may have seemed self-indulgent to some listeners, I had the vivid impression that he was uniquely immersed in the depths of the music, striving to explore and deliver as much of it as he could. There was something zen-like in his approach: focused, yet yielding; passionate, yet uninvolved. He himself remained a mystery to the audience, but not to himself it seemed.
This quality is clearly his own, but I also had the impression that his understated manner of playing is something characteristic of most if not all of Enrique Graf’s students who consistently display remarkable focus, clean interpretation, and a composure that could serve as a standard for stage performers in any of the arts.
Yes, this International Piano Series at the College is something special. •
Read Lindsay Koob’s review of this performance.
