Pianist Shames to play varied composers’ ‘Hidden Treasures’

For the opening program of this season’s Sunday at Central recital series, artistic director David Niwa had a guest performer and a title in mind, but nothing more.

Niwa, also the assistant concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony, had decided to bring in Oklahoma-based pianist Jonathan Shames on the basis of recommendations from colleagues who had heard Shames perform at Denison University in Granville.

“They said the recital was phenomenal,” Niwa said. “He has a pretty serious piano resume. … I mean, to be a finalist in the Tchaikovsky Competition is no small task.”

And Niwa had picked a title for the program: “Hidden Treasures.”

“I said, ‘Jonathan, I don’t want to bug you about your program four months in advance, but I titled it ‘Hidden Treasures’ — run with it,’” Niwa said.

The rest was up to Shames, who, in addition to Who: Jonathan Shames on piano What: Where:

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Admission: maintaining a performing career, serves as the director of orchestral studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

“It’s like writing the lyrics before the music, but it was a nice challenge,” Shames said. “Programs can go in so many different directions, so whatever accidental thing that happens is just interesting.”

The solo concert will take place Sunday afternoon at the Columbus Performing Arts Center.

The performance will feature four pieces — J.S. Bach’s “French Suite No. 5,” Alexander Scriabin’s “Sonata No. 7,” Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Klavierstuck IX” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 26” — that are, in one way or another, “hidden.”

For example, Stockhausen’s composition is not well-known among the general public.

“I’m not sure it’s ever even been played in Columbus,” Niwa said. “If it has been, it would be at OSU or at one of the universities where one of the professors decides that they want to really go outside the box.”

Part of the problem, Shames said, is that the piece can sound less than inviting.

“It kind of assaults the listener with over 100 restatements of the same chord,” said Shames, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, who studied at Yale University and the University of Michigan.

Yet the work concludes with “the most intimate of moments,” he said. “It’s quite an incredible kind of uncovering just in itself.”

On the other hand, Shames said, Bach’s “French Suite No. 5” reflects the private side of the composer — one hidden by his work activities.

“Not only is he maintaining all of these church programs and all these educational initiatives and developing instrumental works in all of the cantata series, but he is also involved ... in a family and in the teaching of his kids,” Shames said. “I think that’s all in this piece.”

Meanwhile, the pianist is still striving to understand the contradictions of Scriabin’s “Sonata No. 7.”

“The piece has been, for many years, kind of hidden to me,” he said. “It’s something that I’m really trying to figure out ... each time I play it.”

The concert will conclude with a widely recognized piece by Beethoven; nonetheless, as Shames describes it, the work fits the theme.

“This would be something which is hidden in plain view,” Shames said, “or something which is always surprising to us.”

No matter how “hidden” is defined, however, Niwa promises a compelling concert.

“Here’s a chance for us to present a world-class pianist,” he said, “with a world-class, slightly unusual program.”

“Hidden Treasures” Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave. 3 p.m. Sunday facebook.com/ sundayatcentral free