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Pianist excels at private, non secular interpretations that elevate the music from the composer’s web page
Whereas all of the winners of the Honens Worldwide Piano Competitors have been worthy pianists, some stick within the public creativeness greater than others. Considered one of these is Pavel Kolesnikov, the laureate of the 2012 competitors, whose delicate accompanying, imaginative solo taking part in, and good remaining concerto efficiency galvanized the judges and earned him the highest prize.
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Within the succeeding years, Kolesnikov has lived as much as the promise of his competitors success. He has had an unbroken stream of well-received recitals, made nice CD recordings, and has appeared with lots of the world’s main orchestras. Not having appeared in Calgary since 2016, his return to the town in a solo recital co-sponsored by The College of Calgary’s Faculty of Inventive and Performing Arts and the Honens Worldwide Piano Competitors drew a sold-out viewers on the College of Calgary’s Rozsa Centre.
As a pianist in a crowded skilled world, Kolesnikov has positioned himself as an artist with a particular, particular person character. Whereas he usually performs the usual concerto repertoire, he’s higher recognized for his solo recitals, characterised by gentleness and refinement, for his sensitivity to the fantastic thing about piano sound, and his private, extremely particular person interpretations of acquainted repertoire.
His recital Tuesday night ventured into no new floor by way of repertoire. What was provided was probably the most carried out of Schubert’s piano sonatas, in addition to a sequence of brief, acquainted works by Chopin, works that many individuals within the viewers themselves can play — if by taking part in one means to easily get down the notes.
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For such a program to succeed as a solo live performance, there must be one thing additional within the efficiency. It was right here that Kolesnikov demonstrated his particular skills and expertise. All of the works have been carried out with probably the most luxurious fantastic thing about tone, the softest of taking part in, dancing fingerwork, and massive, daring textures when the music wanted them.
Kolesnikov has a large palate of sound that he can draw from a piano, all delivered with the best doable ease and bodily co-ordination. It takes an amazing quantity of preparation to carry out this music in order that its execution is totally fluent and easy. Kolesnikov spared nothing in cautious preparation. The main focus of the taking part in was solely on how the music speaks, not its floor physicality.
As with many pianists, the music of Chopin lies near Kolesnikov’s musical coronary heart. Essentially a lyricist, Kolesnikov has a particular really feel and private affiliation with Chopin’s music, particularly with the music of smaller items that want distinctive, particular person characterization. Framing the three teams dedicated to mazurkas, nocturnes, and waltzes, have been two items that inhabit Chopin’s mystical, poetic world in a particular method: the one Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45, and the Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4.
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Kolesnikov’s strategy to musical interpretation harkens again to an older mode of Chopin efficiency from earlier than the Second World Warfare, one through which the artist’s character was foregrounded, and through which liberties in rhythm and characterization have been taken as an indication of individuality and private inspiration. By as we speak’s requirements, such an strategy can sometimes seem wilful and over-personal
Immediately, Chopin tends to be performed in a drier, extra goal method, as was heard at Jan Lisiecki’s current recital. In contrast, Kolesnikov provided much more private, distinctive accounts of Chopin’s music, interpretations of larger originality maybe, but additionally requiring a listener aware of the music to regulate to new and totally different concepts of how the music would possibly go.
The distinction between the 2 pianists was simply seen, for instance, within the Raindrop Prelude, carried out twice by Lisiecki and in addition serving as Kolesnikov’s encore. In Kolesnikov’s palms, the prelude is conceived as considerably extra dramatic and containing a a lot wider emotional scope. But, its inherent lyric underpinning was on no account misplaced, the return of the primary theme and the ending taking up an added degree of poignancy due to the drama of the center part. The 2 artists view Chopin’s music fairly otherwise and the performances have been sharply contrasted.
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For myself, I used to be particularly drawn to the efficiency of the three nocturnes, all of which I play myself (to my very own amazement, after all). The ultimate nocturne, the Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1, is amongst Chopin’s biggest works. I’ve by no means heard it performed so movingly or so fantastically; the underlying tragic emotion was utterly realized. The live performance would have been price attending if just for simply this one merchandise. The identical is perhaps stated concerning the framing prelude and mazurka, items set off within the live performance as “particular,” and which obtained indelible performances of the deepest focus and emotional richness, as if coming into a world of cosmic “play.”
As transferring as these performances have been, nevertheless, it was within the Schubert Sonata in B-flat Main, D. 960, that Kolesnikov excelled himself. That is probably the most non secular of the final three sonatas by Schubert, its combination of lyricism, pathos, and (in locations) attraction completely suited to Kolesnikov’s strategy to creating music. This was a efficiency that would hardly be bettered. (My CD assortment consists of about 20 performances of this work by the world’s biggest pianists.)
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Among the many many excellences on this efficiency, one would possibly cite the rapt depth of the sluggish motion, the playfulness and fancy of the scherzo, and the characterization of the finale, maybe the capstone to the live performance in each sense. The majestic opening motion, one of many longest in the usual repertory, was offered with a combination of lyricism and drama, the underlying construction all the time clear and well-paced. Kolesnikov’s character as a performer was much less instantly foregrounded right here, and one had the sense of Schubert talking on to the viewers, the pianist merely the proper transmitter of the music’s essence.
Taken collectively, this was a memorable, vivid recital, executed with spectacular pianistic fluency and beauty. It was a chance to savour the expansive richness of Kolesnikov’s musical creativeness — an creativeness that drew the viewers right into a magical place the place, perchance, one would possibly dream.
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