Outer Banks Onstage

As the waxing gibbous moon illuminated the First Flight High School, the auditorium filled with patrons ready to hear Christopher Kypros play the piano at the Outer Banks Forum For the Lively Arts.

Kypros, from Norfolk, is a Julliard graduate who has played with several string quartets and symphonies, including the Virginia Symphony (which will visit the Forum in March). He has performed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

The Forum's grand piano awaited Kypros before the royal blue front curtain on a stage flanked by a pair of colorful floral arrangements donated by Seabreeze Florist.

A metal stacking-chair stood on the left side of the stage. On the right, Forum president John Tucker stepped to the microphone.

He welcomed the audience and acknowledged the underwriters of the evening: Mollie A. Fearing & Associates, Southern Shores Realty, Century 21. He then read a resolution from the Forum Board of Directors honoring Vic James, Forum President from 2002-2003, and naming him Director Emeritus of the Forum.

He recognized the individual Directors, who were in the audience, contributing individuals and businesses, and dedicated the concert to the memory of Judy McCarthy and Peggy Shea. (The piano had been donated last year to the Forum by family and community organizations in their names.)

Tucker then announced Christopher Kypros, who strode to the piano, bowed, and removed his morning-coat, dropping it onto the stacking-chair. He took the bench of the piano in an attitude of concentration.

The top of the piano was raised, its mirror showing the illuminated soundboard to the audience. Its strings began to vibrate as Kypros started his first piece, three movements from Isaac Albeniz' "Iberia."

His powerful technique was evident from the first movement, Evocacion, from Book I. It began contemplatively and rose to a dawning crescendo, fading to a murmur again.

The second movement, El Puerto, also from Book I, introduced flamenco to the mix as Kypros' fingers deftly danced across the keys, and Triana from Book II was a fitting kaleidoscopic finale from the Spanish piano master.

Beethoven's familiar "Moonlight" sonata was next, and Kypros' unadorned limpidity illustrated why Beethoven, the colossus of the symphonic form, was also unparalleled as a pure composer for the piano.

Over ascending moderato triplets, a single note was repeated, very gradually modulating to a simple tune that took many measures to resolve, with variations. Not many notes were needed to produce this beautiful and quite memorable piece.

The dancing, hesitating Allegretto had many tapping their toes to the mock-waltz, and the businesslike Presto agitato was taken with a quick tempo that avoided sloppiness and so, worked well.

Traveling to the twentieth century from the nineteenth and eighteenth of the first two pieces, Kypros played the traditionally classical-sounding "Jeux d'Eau" and the Toccata from the modernistic "Le Tombeau de Couperin," both by Maurice Ravel, who died in 1937.

Kypros showed his love of the piano, mastering disparate styles throughout the evening.

After the intermission Kypros devoted the rest of the program to a rare Chopin sonata. Chopin is often regarded as the genius of the piano, largely on the strength of his shorter pieces, the Preludes and Impromptus, but here we heard the poetic "Sonata No. 3 in B minor" in four movements.

It was like a piano symphony and Kypros displayed the range across the keys to keep it endlessly interesting. As the final notes of the Finale faded, the audience burst into applause.

Kypros stood, bowed to the audience, and loped offstage, scooping his morning-coat from the chair on the way.

After a curtain call the audience continued applauding, and Kypros returned to the piano with his coat still on, beginning the third movement of Claude Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque," the justly famous Claire de lune, or "light of the moon."

In this reviewer's opinion, Claire de lune is one of the most perfect evocations in music. Sit in a room at night with the moonlight streaming in and listen to this exquisite piece to see what I mean. Kypros' version was salutary, not too fast or too slow, too faint or too loud; he achieved perfect clarity.

He bowed and left the stage again, this time into the clear light of that moon.



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