Bold pianist fills UM hall with energy

In that moment when a pianist sits down to play for an audience — when the room is still stunningly quiet, there’s an exciting anticipation of discovery. What will the pianist reveal through music about the composer? What will the pianist reveal about the piano? And, quite importantly, what does the pianist want the audience to know about himself or herself as a musician?

At a solo concert, the stakes are even higher. But there’s no question about what William Grant Nabore, who performed Sunday at Minsky Recital Hall at the University of Maine, wants an audience to know. He is a bold pianist. In an intimate chamber music hall such as Minsky, you may think the biggest thing in the room is the piano. But, really, it’s Nabore.

From the very first phrase in the opening performance of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Trois Pieces pour Calvecin,” Nabore was a musician to be reckoned with. He was loud and fierce, occasionally tender, but always a big presence. Even the softest of notes and the most delicate of embellishments wailed into the room.

But it wasn’t until Schubert’s Sonata No. 20 in A Major that Nabore really opened up. Some listeners were surely put off by his unsubtle manner and interference with the flow of the music. Others may have admired the fearlessness with which he attached his own thumb print to the musicality of Schubert. Nabore will never be accused of being cramped as a player. It might be said that he lacks vulnerability, but he has an undeniable attack and drive. Perhaps Nabore exhibited somewhat too much abandon in Chopin’s Bacarolle, which got muddy in places. Many pianists are tempted to play Chopin with maudlin slowness, but Nabore could not be accused of this. Although he takes his pauses seriously, he doesn’t dawdle through Chopin. If anything, Nabore made the Chopin impetuous, rocky, and without much appeal.

The two most enjoyable pieces on the program were a last-minute addition of Eric Satie’s eccentric “Embroyons Desseches,” also called “Dried Embryos,” and Alexander Scriabin’s Sonata No. 4 in F Sharp Major. The Satie, which is accompanied by poetic musings on crustaceans, is zany and amusing. In turn, Nabore was good-humored and entertaining. The Scriabin ended the concert with an intrepid flourish.

No one would have rushed home for a stimulating cup of coffee after this performance, which lasted about 90 minutes. Nabore is a pianist who demands a wide-eyed audience. He’s not up there tickling the ivories. He’s grabbing them and whirling them and settling them into his hands for an audacious visit with sound.