NEW YORK CONCERT REVIEWER (Harris Goldsmith)
Carnegie Recital Hall
October 16, 2000

Petronel Malan, the First Prize winner of the Missouri Southern International Music Competition for 2000 in Joplin, Missouri, left no doubt that she is a formidable virtuoso at her Weill Hall recital on October 16th. Ms. Malan, who was born in Pretoria, South Africa, studied with Cliburn Gold medalists Steven de Groote and Ralph Votapek and - since giving solo recitals at the age of seven and making her concerto debut at 10 and capturing her first national gold medal at 12 and her first international gold in Marsala's International Competition two years later - has apparently been enjoying dizzying "upswing", winning awards and prizes right and left (among her trophies are the Grace Welsh, Bellini International, Young Texas Artists, the Louise McMahon, Hilton Head and New Orleans International Piano Competitions). Ms. Malan earned her bachelor's degree from Michigan State and graduate degrees at the University of North Texas. She is presently working on her DMA there.
The daunting and unusual program commenced with the Prelude and Fugue in E Major from Book II of J. S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and from her very first rapt phrases, this attentive listener was completely drawn into a spellbinding, multicolored world of tone: Ms. Malan has that rare ability to whisper and make you listen. Her phrasing was songful, concentrated and utterly affecting in its simplicity. Perhaps I was not quite so convinced by her account of Mozart's Sonata in D Major, K. 576, which Ms Malan's insolently effortless, lighter-than-air execution sometimes seemed a mite giddy and frivolous in the same way that the young Martha Argerich sometimes did (and still does). Purists could no doubt quibble, but no matter - this was exceptional pianism and the fast tempi and purling figurations fell graciously on the ear. Busoni's infrequently heard Sonatina Seconda (1912), with its slightly sinister musical persona, produced a more characterful impact, but the extraordinary rendition of Ravel's La Valse had this mesmerized writer cheering hoarsely at the top of his lungs. The analogy with Argerich was even more striking: Ms. Malan for once began softly enough and although her phrasing was utterly flexible, flirtatiously capricious, this musical counterpart of Picasso's Guernica resolutely moved unflinchingly in an unbroken vortex. 
Hoards of audacious pianists of late have been taking on the challenge of Ravel's solo piano arrangement of this behemoth but this was the most magical and exciting account and was far and away the most convincing and exciting I have ever encountered: We shant be hearing its like again too often! It was thoroughly intoxicating and stylistically, absolutely right: With such magical nuance and prestidigitation, the resources of a full symphony orchestra weren't even missed.
The second portion of the concert gave evidence of Ms. Malan's adventurous bent for program building. I might have wished that we could have known about one "A. Van Wyk (1916 - 1983)", whose Ricordanza seemed substantive and communicative in its well-crafted, conservative idiom (I would guess that he was a South African composer). Ms. Malan followed it with Alfred Cortot's transcription of Franz Schubert's Heidenroslein, (a welcome change of pace from all those flashy and ubiquitous Liszt vandalizations that blight our musical life) and then she showed herself to have the requisite fleetness and volatile elegance to take on Rachmaninoff's celebrated arrangement of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream Scherzo.
Readers of this journal are doubtless tired of hearing of my aversion to Rachmaninoff's Sonata no. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 36 so I will spare the da capo repeat of my litany. And I am glad, anyway, that Ms. Malan opted for the Spartan 1931 reworking of the more sprawling 1913 original. Bombast was miraculously circumvented and a shimmering lyricism (especially in the second movement) was convincingly nurtured in this tasteful recreation.
Petronel Malan is scheduled for a 2001 South African tour that will launch her new CD release on "BMG Records Africa" label. I daresay that we will be hearing a lot more of her potent artistry.