Dan Franklin Smith, piano
Musica de Camara
Museum of the City of New York
May 2, 2010

Dan Franklin Smith is a pianist that any composer should feel lucky to have as an advocate. In “A Musical Tapestry for the Beginning of the 21st Century,” a program featuring eight composers ranging in age from their twenties to mid-eighties, Mr. Smith drew the best from each work. His artistry and versatility seemed to know no bounds.

Opening the program were two premieres starting with Three Dances for Piano (1995) by Susan Riley-Caldini (b. 1952). From the gently lyrical “Dusk” and “Dawn” to the syncopated center, “Dancing Hard in the Moonlight,” Smith’s interpretations had immediate appeal. Promising student David Robert Johnson (b. 1988) was represented next in his “Rhapsody and Postlude” (from Suite for Piano, 2006). An improvisatory work that could have seemed facile in lesser hands, it explored some romantic and impressionistic-sounding colors, which Smith brought out beautifully.

The famous “Blue Rondo a la Turk” (1960) by Dave Brubeck (b. 1920) might be thought of as an “old chestnut,” but it sprang to life, fresh as ever, partly due to a careful program order. Following in a jazz vein were three movements from “Portraits in Jazz” (2001) by Valerie Capers (b.1935). “Bossa Brasilia” and “Waltz for Miles” evoked jazz greats with a touch of nostalgia, but it was “Billie’s Song” that showed Capers to be something of a magician in evoking the singer’s pianistic timbres – with Smith as her able assistant.

Alison Nowak (b.1948) broke from the program’s predominant tonality with her Three Inventions for Piano (2008). Carefully crafted, sometimes approaching pointillism, the work was given a committed performance that seemed to delight the composer.

The “find” of the afternoon for this listener was a work entitled “The Star to Every Wandering Bark” (2003), by Richard Pearson Thomas (b. 1957). Inspired by Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, the work showed such ravishing lyricism and meaningful development, that I left the concert determined to obtain the score and anything else by this composer. Moments could be described as Coplandesque, but Mr. Thomas writes from an undeniably individual voice. Kudos to Mr. Smith for this excellent introduction!

Intermezzo (2006) by Francesco Lecce-Chong introduced another promising young artist in a work of considerable range and virtuosity. Smith handled it with polish and drama, capping it off with the marvelous set “Three South American Sketches” by Andre Previn (b. 1929). It was a brilliant close to an outstanding recital.

-Rorianne Schrade for New York Concert Review; New York, NY