Last night, I heard the Manila debut of a petite, 22-year old Russian pianist Ilya Rashkovskiy at the Philam Life Theatre in UN Avenue. He won the grand prize at the 1st Hong Kong International Piano Competition with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Gary Graffman, among others, as jurors. What prompted me to watch the concert was that I read somewhere the pianist studied under Vladimir Krainev in Germany, a Tchaikovsky grand prize winner (and whose Chopin interpretations I always listen to at the classical archives website) and who’s currently an eminent Russian pedagogue at the Moscow Conservatory.
I was keenly aware of the formidable program as well: all Piano Fantasies, from Mozart to Balakirev, spanning the classical to romantic repertoires.
Rashkovskiy opened with the rather somber Mozart Fantasy in C Minor, KV475. Quite unlike you would expect from Mozart, this piece isn’t filled with bright and gay tunes. In fact, the tempo ranges from adagio, andante and at most, to moderato. There aren’t much rapid passages as well. Mozart wrote this at a later stage in his life maybe when he felt more introspective.
For some reason, the Russian’s rendition failed to engage me. It simply didn’t connect with me at all, maybe because of the usual distraction from audience members who cannot sit still on a classical music performance, who kept on whispering, rummaging through hand bags, opening a candy wrapper, and even sending SMS! Or was it the grand piano, which I felt needed a little tuning up.
His take on Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy in C Major, however erased all initial doubts about his ability. The formidable piece, always a showpiece of virtuosos, showcased the awesome technical skills demanded from such a difficult but popular piece. The Schubert already provided the fireworks that electrified the audience to its feet.
The first part of the program ended with Alexander Scriabin’s Fantasy in B Minor, the only piece I am not familiar with. As can be expected from Scriabin, the piece is supposed to be full of fire, passion and turmoil, even anger. I would have wanted a more passionate and sensitive reading of the piece. Maybe when Rashkovskiy gets a little older, he’ll be able to interpret this piece with more heart and soul.
After the intermission, Rashkovskiy immediately launched into Liszt’s infernal Dante Sonata. A massively difficult piece, the Russian managed to convey the diabolical and frightening images of hell as depicted in Dante’s literary masterpiece. Bravo!
The Chopin Fantasy in F Minor, although no less difficult than the Liszt, came as a perfect neutralizer because of its natural grace and lyricism, brought to new heights by the Russian’s complex shading and vibrant coloring of this Chopin masterpiece.
And of course, the piece de resistance, Mily Balakirev’s Islamey, probably among the most difficult in the piano repertoire (along with Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit) and which intrigued me so much I decided at the last minute to buy the one-grand ticket instead of the seven-hundred bucks. He had difficulty in the final bars and I thought the opening theme was a bit too fast. Islamey is supposed to sound like there are four people pounding the piano, instead of one. And the extreme virtuosity demanded by this piece is so astounding, most pianists avoid this.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t satisfied with his rendition, despite the fact that Balakirev is a Russian and the piece interpreted by a fellow Russian could have lent justice to the hidden nuances in this extremely difficult war-horse. The challenge, much like Scriabin, is to let the melody and the theme emerge from the turmoil created by the fiery outbursts, to make the instrument sing, as if a shaman were dancing dervish, trance-like and barefoot, on top of burning coals. In fact, Islamey’s other name is Oriental Fantasy. Obviously, Balakirev had maybe Turkey or Central Asia in mind when he composed this.
After a rousing ovation, Rashkovskiy obliged with Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu. I thought it was a no-brainer, I mean I play this piece.
He obliged the audience with another encore. This time however, I got surprised: Robert Schumann’s Toccata. This is not an easy piece to play. Although he got through the end unscathed, I still prefer other pianists’ rendition, especially our very own Cecile Licad in her all-Schumann recording (unfortunately I lost my copy).
No comments:
Post a Comment