American Record Guide

What a strange title for a recital of three pieces that seem to have little relationship to love. As this Chinese-born pianist explains in considerable depth, it is dedicated to Seymour Lipkin, her teacher at the Curtis Institute, but it is stretching things a bit if we look for “love” in the traditional sense from the works themselves.

The first selection is the aria from the Goldberg Variations by Bach, here lavished with so much expression and lethargy I began to wonder if she would ever reach the theme’s closing bars. This is followed by III from the Ives Concord Sonata. Her rationale was that Lipkin was a Beethoven specialist, and this section extensively quotes the opening of Beethoven’s Symphony 5. The tempo, while hardly flowing, does work at a more acceptable pace.

Schumann’s Kreisieriana is the major work here, and Jenny Q Chai shows her mastery in a sweeping performance that emphasizes all of the Florestan and Eusebius dual personalities of the music. It’s almost as an act of redemption the music comes alive and breathes a freshness few performances are able to capture. The pianist is on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, an alumni mentor at the Curtis Institute of Music, and an official career mentor at the Manhattan School of Music; but there is yet not a whiff of academia in her playing. Her Fazioli sounds forth with power and all the color one could wish for, and the notes are interesting. Buy this one for the great Schumann; the rest is superfluous.

—Alan Becker