Friday, February 21, 2014, was the first time that I had the pleasure of sitting in on a piano recital in Merrill Hall. It was a concert by Hye Jin Cho, a young lady from Korea, performing three extensive pieces of music for her graduate recital. I was fortunate enough to be present to watch this budding master at work. The pieces that she played were Joseph Haydn's 52nd Sonata in E-Flat Major, Robert Schumann's Opus 11 Sonata in F-Sharp Minor (my personal favorite!) and Lowell Liebermann's Gargoyles, Opus 29. As Hye Jin Cho ascended the stage, she bowed towards the audience in an introductory manner, sat down at the piano with a surprisingly hunched back, and began to play the opening of Haydn's 52nd Sonata. Haydn's Sonata in E-Flat Major, Hob. XVI: 52 (Written in 1794) As the recital commenced, Cho allowed her hands to fly across the keyboard with a quick tempo, evoking a sort of Tom and Jerry-esque image in my mind. Of course, having already done my homework by reading up on the pieces which I was going to be privy to during the performance, I was well aware that this particular sonata of Haydn's was written in a contredanse style, meaning that it was, in all likelihood, intended for ballroom dancing. I couldn't quite imagine any aristocratic couple attempting to dance to the music, however, as the tempo was simply too quick for anyone to be able to move their feet about fast enough to keep pace with it! Playing in Allegro tempo, I was surprised to see Cho play the piece so effortlessly. Although there were a few minor hiccups during part one of Haydn's piece, in which Cho seemed to slam her feet down a little too hard on the grand piano's pedals, hence causing odd loud clicks in time with her playing, she seemed to have everything else under control. Part one was played very cheerfully, and in a very upbeat “albeit irregular" manner, causing the energy in the room to be magnified in intensity. As Part 2 of the piece came around, however, and was played at an Adagio tempo, I was better able to envision the pairs dance to the music. Cho displayed lots of emotion here, and the piece was filled with a lot more suspense as her fingers began veering towards the lower end of the keyboard, and she also began to hold down the keys for a quarter of a note longer than she did in part one. I could also detect quite a few keys being held down at once across several occasions. One small error was committed within this phase, as I feel that some of her notes were played a little too hurriedly “she should have held her keys down for two beats of four rather than one" but other than that, she played the piece well. I could sense a conclusio