It’s All About the Pianist Upstage
How gratifying, that the musician in the back row can be the star of the performance, whether the percussionist, or the lady harpist, or the pianist. This time, it turned out to be the South-African-born guest pianist Anton Nel, unobtrusively hidden behind the row of S.F. Symphony string players in an all-French chamber program. Nel, who had been a Naumberg Award winner three decades ago, brings to the keyboard a deft and nimble touch, a thousand shadings of dynamics, and…