ILYA
RASHKOVSKIY Piano Recital
The
Joy of Music Festival
Hong
Kong City Hall Concert Hall
Wednesday
(14 October 2015)
It is hard to believe
that ten years ago, in 2005, 20-year-old Russian pianist Ilya Rashkovskiy was
awarded First Prize at the First Hong Kong International Piano Competition.
Then I predicted he would go on on win further prizes in further
major competitions. This he duly obliged, garnering First Prize at the 2012
Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, and coming close at the Queen
Elisabeth (Brussels), Vianna da Motta (Lisbon), Enesco (Bucharest) and Arthur
Rubinstein (Tel Aviv) competitions. At 30, he's all done with concours,
but what a journey! Listening to his latest recital, he has also matured. Mere
technical proficiency has given way to a
certain fearlessness and the ability to “mix it in” with the music, without
fearing what the jury might think.
Just to put things in
perspective: in Hamatmatsu where he so convincingly triumphed, 4th
placing went to the fellow Russian Anna Tcybuleva. Today, Tcybeuleva is the
latest winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition, which just
concluded last month.
Rashkovskiy's present
repertoire has begun to reflect the inner musician in him. The Russian warhorses
still remain, but he has been able to include works that bring out qualities
other than outright virtuosity. In a selection of five Rachmaninov Preludes
from Op.23, it was the slower ones – Nos.1 (F sharp minor), E flat major (No.6)
and G flat major (No.10) – that shone out with an innate lumincescence. Of
course, he could still barnstorm in the popular G minor (No.5) and C minor
(Op.7) Preludes like before.
Ravel's slender Sonatine
was a curious choice, but that was prime opportunity to display restraint and
plain good taste. This finely-honed musicality was balanced by the whirlwind of
a finale, which showed he could summon the fireworks at will. Even better was
Georges Enesco's First Sonata, a rarity if any, which deserves to be
heard more often than his First Romanian Rhapsody. It is a three-
movement masterpiece of colour and myriad shades, about 18 minutes long, once
likened to Dante's Purgatorio, Inferno and Paradiso in
miniature.
The nocturnal mood of
the opening movement was captured most beautifully, with flickering half-lights
amid long shadows, punctuated with violent asides, and the skittish
scherzo-like middle movement, which flitted about like the mysterious wisp o'
the wisp. The final slow movement, gripping in its intensity and alive with
expectancy, capped the finest performance of the evening.
There were two
obligatory showpieces in single movements, Scriabin's Fifth Sonata and
Prokofiev's Third Sonata. No recording quite matches live performances
of the Scriabin, and this listener would gladly experience Rashkovskiy's
volatile and highly-charged reading in a concert hall than sit in front of the
stereo for Horowitz or Richter. Never has the right hand's chords flown with
such mercurial speed and lightness, but being there in person was the price of
believing such sleights of hand were indeed possible. Similarly, the Prokofiev
was given a thunderous outing, where the abrupt shifts between motoric drive
and smooth lyricism where made possible by a superior technique.
Rashkovskiy was joined
by fellow Hong Kong winner Jinsang Lee (the 2008 edition of the competition) in
Arno Babadjanian's Armenian Rhapsody, which was an enjoyable romp from its
melancholic opening to a riproaring dance-like finale. The applause had barely
died down, when Rashkovskiy's encore silenced them completely. In the face of
such overwhelming virtuosity, it was refreshing to hear some “simple” Chopin,
the gentle lilt of his Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2). Simply ravishing
too.
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