Olga Kern brings powerful, personal insight to famous concerto

Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23” is the most popular and the most familiar of piano concertos, a warhorse of the repertoire whose distinctive opening chords and soaring, anthem-like melody are so familiar that they were turned into a pop song, “Tonight We Love,” and used in countless other pop culture references.

To the great pianist Olga Kern, who returns to Honolulu to perform the work with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra this weekend, those chords are about as good as it gets, no matter how often she plays the piece.

“It’s such a great feeling, sometimes it gives me goose bumps,” she said. “Just to have that sound, and those chords, to have a beautiful piano together with the orchestra and the melody, it’s amazing.”

Her connections to the piece run long and deep. Kern’s great-great-great grandmother was a pianist and a good friend of Tchaikovsky; the family has letters that they exchanged, and Tchaikovsky dedicated several of his solo piano works to her.

Kern is planning to include some of those piano works in her future recitals. Since she now has a few students at the Manhattan School of Music, Kern advises them to play the works as well, for understanding of Tchaikovsky’s work, whether or not the budding pianists plan to perform the solo pieces on stage.

“I always tell them you can’t just focus on the one piece you’re working on,” Kern said. “You need to know a composer’s symphonic pieces, and with Tchaikovsky, of course, his ballets and his fantastic operas.

“It’s very important to know everything. It gives you so much perspective on what he loved, like, he loved Wagner’s music a lot. He even went to Germany to hear a ‘Ring’ cycle. That is so special! It makes you think how to play this grand, fundamental piece as his first piano concerto.”

Kern’s other connection to the work is through Van Cliburn, the American pianist who took Moscow by storm in 1958 when he won the first International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition playing the concerto.

More than a half century later, Kern would become the first – and still the only – woman to win the Van Cliburn International Competition, which Cliburn established in 1962.

Kern’s parents were at Cliburn’s 1958 performance and were so inspired that they got a recording of it and played it constantly in the family home.

“His Tchaikovsky concerto was such a revelation at the time,” Kern said. “He really started to make real music and make it sing at the piano. It was such a singing sound, a beautiful, warm, romantic sound, which he showed to all nations. No one did it it that way before. It was always technical and fast, that kind of interpretation. … He showed the Russians that it can sound totally different, more romantic, more melodic, (when played) slower.”

WHILE KERN has much personal history to draw on, Hawaii audiences might have to draw on their own imaginations to see what she sees when she plays the piece, particularly in the graceful second movement.

She imagines it as depicting a winter morning in her native Russia, with the sun reflecting off the snow-covered plains of its expansive countryside.

“It’s so bright and so beautiful, and suddenly a bird starts singing,” Kern said. “It definitely says Nature to me, and definitely a winter type of Nature. Tchaikovsky loved a lot of winter Nature, like with ‘Nutcracker’ and many of his other compositions. A lot of Nature is magical, and I feel it that way.”

Off stage, Kern has been busy with her own piano competition, which had its inaugural in Albuquerque two years ago. The competition for pianists aged 18 to 32 is to be held every three years, with winners getting prize money as well as concert opportunities.

“It was a very high level,” she said. “It was a huge success, and the first prize winner (Chen Guang of China) got many engagements, which I am very happy about. He was in many places in the States, and he played in Italy and South Africa.”

She also has several other projects in the works: not only her teaching, but a Rachmaninoff recording, and trying to bring top music instructors to China. Last year, she became an American citizen, which has motivated her to play more music by American composers. She’s recently performed Samuel Barber, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

She obviously is a person who seeks emotional ties to her art. “It’s all about feelings,” she said. “It’s all about heart and soul. Music is this language.”

The symphony program features an all-Tchaikovsky program, beginning with his waltz from “Eugen Onegin” – those who attended this year’s Hawaii Opera Theatre performances of the work will recognize its light-hearted gaiety – and his “Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64.” The symphony is considered an inspiring work, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, having been performed in Leningrad while the city was under attack by Nazi Germany.

Carlos Prieto, who as music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra helped lead the revival of classical music in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, returns to the podium three years after leading a delightful concert of Latin music.

Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. performance also features a special pre-concert dining event, in cooperation with Doraku Izakaya and Sushi: With a $75 ticket, patrons can combine the concert with a 5 p.m. pupu party at Doraku. The menu includes Eggplant Miso, Chicken Kara’age, Firecracker Shrimp and a God of Fire Roll, with a beverage list featuring Doraku’s Moscow Mule, a Cranberry Stoli and lime cocktail and a vodka martini.

The refreshments will be available until 6:15 p.m., after which patrons can attend a pre-concert talk by the performers at 6:30 p.m. Doraku is located at 1009 Kapiolani Blvd.; get tickets there or online at hawaiisymphonyorchestra.org/sas69.

The symphony is planning similar kinds of events for all Saturday concerts next season.