As the lights dimmed in the Gildenhorn Recital Hall an older man made his way onto the stage to the grand piano at the center. The man fumbled for a minute to turn his microphone on, a few people in the audience chuckled as he successfully flicked the “on” switch and exclaimed “Yes, indeed.”
This man was Donald Manildi, who has been curator of the International Piano Archives at Maryland since 1993. He was starring in the first half of “Reflections from the Keyboard,” a performance at The Clarice that occurs each semester.
Manildi explained he would be performing “pieces that are less often heard.” He ended his short introduction and sat down at the bench in front of the piano. The room was absolutely silent for a few seconds before his fingers touched the keys, and he began to play “The Salon” by Leopold Godowsky.
Manildi went on to perform nine other short pieces, each different from the last.
His piano performance was unique in that he would tell a short story, give some sort of background on the composer or how he came to learn the piece before playing. The few sentences he spoke between pieces made the performance seem more intimate and helped the audience connect with the music he was playing.
The encore pieces he played each had their own identity and seemed to tell short little stories in the notes that swelled throughout the recital hall. The short spoken interludes between pieces were helpful in telling part of the story, but it was the music that seamlessly and successfully told the rest.
At one point, Manildi played “Boite a musique” by French composer Pierre Sancan. The piece’s arrangement, which mimicks a broken music box still attempting to play songs it was constructed to play, made the audience laugh, an uncommon occurrence at a traditional piano recital.
The second performer was Daniel Pereira, who holds a doctorate in musical arts from this university and has performed in piano festivals and master classes around the world. Pereira started by playing pieces by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
“My love and my connection to Villa-Lobos goes back many years ago,” Pereira said at the beginning of his performance.
“The last time I played this was with 25 dancers onstage,” he continued with a chuckle.
Pereira’s playing style juxtaposed nicely against Manildi’s: Pereira played much longer pieces, all with Latin influences. His dedication and love for the piano was evident in every note he played and could be viewed in the way he moved his entire torso when playing parts of the piece.
Overall, this semester’s “Reflections from the Keyboard” presented a nuanced approach to the piano recital, one that proved uncommonly entertaining while reiterating the talents of its stars.
The performance ended, of course, with an encore. As Manildi put it when ending his series of short pieces, it was “a final encore after which no more encores would be possible.”
