By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Virtuoso pianist Peter Jablonski is back in Korea, and is giving recitals tonight in Seoul and Thursday in Busan.
The Swedish musician has been touring the country quite regularly since a fortunate ``mishap'' in 1995. Maestro Chung Myung-whun and the Philharmonia Orchestra were running an hour late due to unusually heavy traffic, and the pianist voluntarily played solo for the audience and live radio broadcast. The incident shot him to stardom here, and he has since been invited back for sellout recitals and concerts.
``The Korean audience is very warm,'' the pianist told The Korea Times, Friday, smiling, though he was clearly jetlagged and fatigued after a performance with KBS Symphony the previous night. ``Koreans are a very responsive crowd and it's always a great pleasure to play here,'' he said.
Born in Sweden, Jablonski made his name as a child drummer before devoting himself to the piano. After debuting with an orchestra at age 12, the pianist continued his studies in London where he is currently based. Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy took immediate notice of the budding teenager, who was soon recording for Decca and playing in major concert halls in Europe and America with music greats like Charles Dutoit and Valery Gergiev.
At 37, the artist said there is still a vast piano repertoire that may well take several lifetimes to explore. But he juggles many other projects, from directing an annual chamber festival in Sweden to having fun on two pianos with his brother Patrik, and most recently, conducting.
``Conducting, it's something else. It's a very special feeling to stand in the middle of all this sound,'' said the pianist, who made his conducting debut in Poland earlier this year. ``With the piano, you create everything, all the colorings and shades. But with an orchestra, you have to trust 90 other people to make the music. In a way, it's all about communication,'' he said.
The transition from instrumentalist to conductor seems like a logical step, as illustrated by many renowned classical musicians. For Jablonski, who had in fact studied conducting with the piano in college, it was a most natural choice. This leaves him with even more repertoire to cover in addition to the piano.
``It's like jumping in the pool and seeing if I float,'' he laughed. ``Ashkenazy said when he started (from being pianist to conductor) he was jumping into the Atlantic.'' But revisiting pieces he had made his own as a pianist, like Mussorgsky's ``Pictures at an Exhibition,'' enables him to speak with some authority.
Whether it's playing solo on the keys or standing before a 100-member ensemble, however, making music is a lonely process. While his love for music and determination have enabled him to continue, being a musician can be a rather ``unsocial'' and ``selfish'' pursuit as much as it can be pleasurable, he said.
Yet having a family to go back to makes the constant travel easier and more meaningful, the pianist explained, eyes brimming with affection at the mention of his six-year-old daughter Claudia. His daughter may perhaps take after her father as she recently became spellbound by the art of conducting, and even made a mini debut with a youth ensemble.
For the recitals, the pianist offers pieces he has grown up with, including sonatas by Haydn and Chopin. It will also be a rare occasion to hear the Grieg Sonata, which is one of the composer's earlier pieces and what Jablonski considers to be one of the best Nordic piano sonatas.
Tickets cost from 33,000 won to 77,000 for the Seoul performance at 7:30 p.m. at the Sejong Chamber Hall, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. Call (02) 780-5054. Those for Busan Arts Center are priced from 30,000 won to 70,000. Call (051) 747-1536.