KONSTANTIN
SCHERBAKOV Piano Recital
Yong
Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Wednesday
(3 February 2016 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 February 2016 with the title "Gripping display of pianism".
The last time Siberia-born and
Switzerland-based pianist Konstantin Scherbakov gave a recital in Singapore
The Six
Bagatelles Op.126 are shavings from a master's work-table, and in these
miniatures he amply displayed their variegated colours and contrasts.
Alternating between wistful and vigorous, each piece was made to sound vital,
distilling the same visionary thoughts to be found in his late sonatas and
string quartets.
A much earlier work is Beethoven's Eroica Variations Op.35, so named
because it uses as its theme the same dance from the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus which also
appears in his Eroica Symphony. These variations border on over-elaboration
while frequently skirting with the vulgar, but only a genius knows how to craft
a relative masterpiece from the trite and banal.
It was Scherbakov's keen sense of
proportion and acute understanding of its irony that made this sometimes
unwieldy work come across as coherent and even humourous. His crisp
articulation and immaculate fingerwork made light of its digital difficulties,
and there was nary a dull moment.
Its concluding E flat major chord also
formed the resonant opening chords of the second half's tour de force, which
was the Third Symphony, better known
as the “Eroica Symphony”. In Liszt's
ridiculously demanding and almost unplayable transcription, Scherbakov's
transcendental technique was to find a formidable equal.
His secret was to regard this as a piano
work on its own right, and not attempt to simulate the orchestra's sound and
textures. There was no compulsion to go headlong for volume, but instead to
ride on its rhythmic pulse and drive. When the development and inevitable
climaxes came, they did so with a palpably frightening intensity.
The second movement's Funeral March was no less gripping, its
sombre subject finding a rare nobility in its procession from human tragedy to
luminous beauty. The dynamics then shifted dramatically to the Scherzo's
mercurial scintillations, where Scherbakov's lightness of touch and ultimate
control of its projectile thrusts held sway.
The well-planned programme came full
circle with the finale's joyous dance from Prometheus,
this time with a separate set of variations and fugal discourse. Again its wit
and humour winningly shone but through a different prism. For its 50-minute
duration, Scherbakov did not once make one long for the orchestra.
There have been excellent recordings of
this symphony by Cyprien Katsaris, Idil Biret and Scherbakov himself, but
nothing quite tops this live perfomance, which was accorded a chorus of bravos.
There was no encore, but after this superhuman display of pianism, none was
needed.
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| Two Naumovists reunite: Konstantin Scherbakov with Boris Kraljevic. Both were students of Lev Naumov's famed piano studio at the Moscow Conservatory during the 1980s, and both served as his assistant at different times. |
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