Pianist Elizabeth Brauss seamlessly switches from simplicity to ridiculousness to swing ★★★☆☆

In England and Germany, the German pianist Elisabeth Brauss (27) is already widely praised for her versatility and intelligent playing. Her name is now also starting to buzz in the Netherlands. The Edesche Concert Hall, the renovated Noorderkerk in Ede, has attracted Brauss as artist in residence. She gives three concerts (in the spring with violinist Noa Wildschut and cellist Alexander Warenberg), for which she was allowed to determine the program herself.

The purple-lit walls stood out against the wooden church carcass and the large Ypma organ. On the Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano with its full, buttery sound, Brauss began with Bach’s keyboard transcription of the oboe concerto by contemporary Alessandro Marcello. Her attack was on the plump side. The thoughtful, dark middle part sounded too mechanical and the third part had too little flair to really be struck by it.

In the following Variations serious by Mendelssohn, her subtlety showed itself. The main theme isn’t the most interesting, it’s the seventeen short variations with a range of tempo changes and mood changes that are captivating. Likewise Brauss’ playing: she used subtle dynamics in, for example, the sixth variation; soft and hard in the dialogue between low and high. She rolled out the loops more and more sharply until she started the baroque fugue of the eighth variation in a balanced way.

The collection of miniatures of In one night by Paul Hindemith is a whirlwind of confusing dreams and nocturnal fantasies. The capriciousness was Brauss’s fault: she smoothly switched from simplicity to ludicrousness to swing (jazzy intervals, a rough foxtrot). Characterized by rashness, her pianistic subtlety lacked – in Liszts Dante Sonatato Dantes La divina commedia, she hammered from hell to paradise. But remember her name, because Brauss is a refreshing musician.