Classical Music
Two young pianists with a bright future

By Melinda Bargreen
Seattle Times music critic

Simon Trpceski, 25, will perform in the Northwest this weekend. The London Times called his virtuosity "delightfully ego-free."

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Hard to spell, easy to love: the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski (tirp-CHESS-ky) is returning to the Benaroya Hall audiences that gave him a standing ovation in his last appearance here.

Just turned 25, Trpceski began winning international prizes in piano competitions as a 15-year-old. His concert schedule now extends from London and Bilbao to Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, and his reviews range from great to ecstatic. The London Times wrote last summer: "It was without doubt Trpceski who filled and thrilled the hall. His virtuosity is delightfully ego-free. It's as though everything is being done out of sheer joy — both in the musical fun of the composer's fantasy, and in the sheer beauty with which Trpceski is able to magic what is essentially a percussion instrument into a variegated palette of tones and voices."

Concert previews Seattle Symphony, with Simon Trpceski, pianist, 8 tonight, Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma; $16-$50 (253-272-0809 or www.broadwaycenter.org); and 8 p.m. tomorrow and 2 p.m. Sunday, Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; $15-$85 (206-215-4747 or www.seattlesymphony.org). Northwest Sinfonietta, 8 tonight, Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle, $10-$38; and 8 p.m. tomorrow, Pantages Theater, Tacoma, $10-$45 (888-356-6040 or www.nwsinfonietta.com).

Trpceski now is spotlighted in a series of Seattle Symphony concerts featuring Rachmaninoff's well-loved "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini." Schwarz also leads the orchestra in Mozart's Symphony No. 19 and the mighty Bruckner Sixth Symphony. Concert dates are 8 tonight in Tacoma's Pantages Theater, 8 p.m. tomorrow and 2 p.m. Sunday in Seattle's Benaroya Hall.

Beus on his way up

The young Northwest pianist Stephen Beus, just 22, may be off on a path that will take him to international concert stages. He'll be heard here in the delectable Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Northwest Sinfonietta, in two concerts with Christophe Chagnard conducting. Concert times are 8 tonight in Seattle's Town Hall, and 8 p.m. tomorrow in Tacoma's Pantages Theater.

Last April, Beus (his name is pronounced "boose") was named the second-prize winner in the 2004 Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition. He also won the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, Utah, receiving a Steinway Model M grand piano as his prize. A native of Othello, Wash., Beus has studied piano at Whitman College following his return from a mission for his church in Finland. He already has a long string of awards and competition wins to his credit.

Beus' performance of the Chopin concerto is part of an Eastern European program. The concert also will feature Dvorák's "Czech Suite" (Op. 39) and the Symphony in D of 19th-century Czech composer Jan Vaclav Hugo Vorisek. This little-known composer/pianist, influenced by Beethoven in his sojourn in Vienna, died at 34, leaving behind music that also spoke strongly of the Czech themes so prominent in the music of Dvorák.

The Chopin concerto also evokes that composer's Polish heritage, especially in the dancelike Mazurka finale. Excellent program notes, by the way, are available online at www.nwsinfonietta.org.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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