Louis Schwizgebel Returns

Charles T. Downey, Louis Schwizgebel at the Terrace Theater
Washington Post, May 3, 2012

Mendelssohn / Moszkowski / Mozart / Schulhoff, L. Schwizgebel-Wang (Pan Classics)

How much can an artist grow musically in five years? When pianist Louis Schwizgebel won first prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, in 2007, he (then styling his last name Schwizgebel-Wang) was introduced to Washington listeners in a recital at the Kennedy Center. On Tuesday night, YCA brought Schwizgebel, currently pursuing advanced studies at Juilliard, back to the Terrace Theater.

Schwizgebel, now 24, still played with fiery technical assurance, and he was willing to sacrifice some flashy acrobatics to emphasize coloristic effects, instead. His best efforts came in two arch-romantic works, especially a dreamy performance of the “Vallee d’Obermann” episode from the first book of Liszt’s “Annees de Pelerinage,” played with an operatic sense of scenography, both misty-eyed and irascibly dramatic. Those cinematographic instincts served him well in three Liszt arrangements of Schubert songs, especially “Der Erlkoenig.” [Continue reading]

Louis Schwizgebel, piano
Young Concert Artists
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

SEE ALSO:
Cecelia Porter, Louis Schwizgebel-Wang (Washington Post, November 8, 2007)

Steve Smith, Classical Flair With Vernacular Flourishes (New York Times, November 16, 2007)

Bob Briggs, Louis Schwizgebel-Wang at the Wigmore Hall (Seen and Heard International, September 22, 2008)