Since its origins, the Miami International Piano Festival's ''Discovery Series'' has been a showcase principally for young 20-something artists at the beginning of their careers ---- and sometimes even those in their teens, in the case of the French pianist Lise de la Salle who performed here a year ago.
Gulsin Onay and Aleksandar Madzar don't quite fit the profile of up-and-coming young musicians in terms of age. Yet both are little known in the U.S., and by virtue of their very impressive performances in separate recitals last weekend, the two pianists certainly qualify as significant musical discoveries.
Onay is a celebrated figure in her native Turkey and though she has collaborated with several major conductors in Europe has a fairly low profile on this side of the pond. That's unfortunate because Onay showed herself a greatly gifted musician with a keenly polished technique and notable interpretive depth in her intelligent program Friday night at the Lincoln Theatre.
Onay's artistry was most compelling in the three sets of variations that led off her program. In Schumann's Abegg Variations she was completely in synch with the composer's world, her supple rubato and shading conjuring up the music's light caprice and fantasy.
Darker and deeper than many of his piano works, Mendelssohn's Variations serieuse has a decidedly Schumann-like expression. Onay's performance here was first-class, alive to the considerable virtuosic demands as much as the bleak melancholy in a performance of deeply felt eloquence.
Chopin's equally demanding Variations brillantes received a polished and idiomatic reading yet it was in the ensuing Ballade No. 3 that Onay showed her finest Chopin interpretation. The bardic opening had the apt, evocative ''Once upon a time,'' feel, and throughout Onay was a master of the long line, finding an ideal blend between drama and refinement.
Her second half offered varied takes on the East. In Book 2 of Images, Onay proved sensitive to the atmospheric writing and hazy Impressionism, though her Debussy was not quite as minutely colored as the finest players. Inspired by a Mediterranean cruise, Elgar's miniature Smyrna is imbued with the composer's introspective melancholy, and was sensitively rendered.
The shadow of Ravel looms heavily over the Sonatine by Onay's teacher Ahmed Adnan Saygun, but Onay gave the music worthy advocacy with the more original Horon finale thrown off with striking dexterity and brilliance. Her encores included elegant Bach/Busoni, a beautifully colored Chopin Nocturne and an exotic, if also Ravelian, Saygun Prelude.
Saturday night marked Aleksandar Madzar's U.S. recital debut and the Serbian pianist leapt in at the deep end of the pool with Beethoven's massive Diabelli Variations. The riches Beethoven mined from Anton Diabelli's banal little waltz, are astounding, spanning 33 variations and great digital complexity, with a galaxy of expression from bumptious humor to dark tragedy.
Madzar's technical arsenal is complete and the most knuckle-busting passages held no fear for him. Initially the Serbian pianist's playing felt a bit too tight, rhythmically overemphatic and literal, missing some of the charm and wry humor of Beethoven's earlier variations.
Yet as the vast work unfolded Madzar seemed to find his groove, playing with much greater sensitivity and varied expression. The interior passages had a confiding intimacy as impressive as the explosive bravura of the more brilliant variations. Madzar was at his finest in the homestretch, probing the searching depths of Variations 29-31 very spaciously and bringing dazzling dexterity to the concluding section.
If Madzar's Beethoven was a remarkable achievement his Debussy was simply phenomenal. Rarely will one hear the Children's Corner Suite played with such acute tonal delicacy, and innocence, his playing so tender and gently colored that his fingers barely seemed to be touching the keys.
His whirlwind performance of Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise demonstrated a superb Chopin touch, exciting while keeping the musical essence to the fore. Madzar went from strength to strength in his encores with a flowing Bach Capriccio, followed by some world-class Ravel playing, first with a wonderfully vibrant Alborado del gracioso, then a hushed, atmospheric and haunting Une barque sur l'ocean.
