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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > March > 30 > Entry
Anton Nel: A luscious Long Center showing
The audience wouldn’t let Anton Nel leave the Long Center stage Sunday afternoon.
That seemed just fine with Nel. The celebrated Austin pianist exudes an elegant joy when he performs. And he clearly preferred to be nowhere else but performing for a hometown audience and on the stellar nine-foot Hamburg Steinway he helped the Long Center select.
The admiration was mutual. And Nel rewarded the audience’s appreciation and ovations with three encores after a particularly rich — and rigorous — program.
Indeed the concert was a bit of Austin arts history in the making. Since opening a year ago, the Long Center — Austin’s first civic performing arts center — hasn’t yet had a solo classical recital grace the stage of the acoustically exquisite Dell Hall. Fitting perhaps then Nel played the first such concert. The South African-born pianist and now proud Austinite has been eager supporter of the Long Center despite his own hectic schedule of teaching at the University of Texas and concertizing around the world. Nel made the Dell Hall and its Steinway shimmer Sunday.
Brilliantly virtuosic in his technical ability, Nel so smartly eschews showiness. He’s far too sophisticated a musician to be aggressive with the flourishes. Emotional tone and color is what he draws out with style and nuance.
Nel drew the intricacies out of Brahms’ Vier Klavierstucke and out of Schubert’s Fantasy in C Major, Nel extracted an ethereal mood. The selections from Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words Nel offered like distinct little jewels, each with its very different shine. And he played Mendellsohn’s Fantasy in F Sharp with a kind of affecting intensity which made the profound and deep moments all the more exquisite.
Nel’s a jewel himself. Would that we could have a Long Center recital by him an annual event. Please?
Comments
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By Steve
April 1, 2009 10:19 AM | Link to this
A Virtuoso performance on a majestic instrument. It would have made Henry Steinway burst with pride to hear such a great performance on one of his legendary pianos. Bravo Anton!! Bravo Steinway! A match made in heaven!
By Monica
April 1, 2009 8:34 AM | Link to this
Great performance! Wow! BRAVO ANTON!!!
By Andrew Heller
March 31, 2009 10:34 PM | Link to this
I second tghe proposal to make this an annual event-Anton not only played brilliantly but won the hearts and souls of his audience. Encore myestro Anton