THE
SUNKEN CATHEDRAL
AND OTHER STORIES
KSENIIA
VOKHMIANINA Piano Recital
Gallery
II, The Arts House
Sunday (16 October 2016 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 October 2016 with the title "Passion was all that counted".
It is not a coincidence that a number of
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Her hour-long recital at the Singapore
International Festival of Music was a testament to exceptional teaching and
artistry of the highest order. Beginning with the First Book of Preludes by
Claude Debussy, she revealed a wide range of colours, shades and nuances from
an instrument which the composer described as “a box of hammers and strings”.
Well-judged pedalling was the key to Dancers Of Delphi, which conjured an air
of grace and poise. Misty hues in Sails,
swirling eddies of Wind On The Plains,
a mystical aura that enveloped Sounds And
Scents Mingle In The Evening Air, and utter desolation in Footprints In The Snow, all pointed to
an acute sense of feeling different moods and styles. Debussy's evocative
titles in French had been added to each of these pieces after they had been
completed.
A comprehensive technique is sine qua non for the 12 pieces, and
there was no shying away from the pummelling force required for What The West Wind Saw or huge sonorous
chords that surmounted The Sunken
Cathedral. All these were supplied in abundance by Vokhmianina, not to
mention the simplicity of Girl With The
Flaxen Hair, and rhythmic subtleties in Interrupted
Serenade, Dance Of Puck and the
jazzy swagger of Minstrels.
Singaporean composer and Cultural
Medallion recipient Kelly Tang's Elegy (2015)
came in complete contrast from the earlier fare. It is the slow central
movement from his Piano Concerto In Three
Movements, composed for the SG50 celebrations and first performed by Lang
Lang at the National Stadium.
Written in memory of the nation's
founding first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, it was a heartfelt tribute that
included some bluesy harmonies a la Keith
Jarrett and the curious inclusion of the Fate motif from Rachmaninov's First Symphony. Perhaps the latter was
an acknowledgement that from failure (as the symphony's disastrous premiere
was) sometimes comes a destiny of hope.
The recital concluded with Alexander
Scriabin's single-movement Fifth Sonata,
also known as “Poem Of Ecstasy”. Its
rumbling opening bars and volcanic eruptions are startling, and Vokhmianina
delivered this with true vigour and conviction.
Rarely has a work seen the piano's keys
being caressed and yet brutalised within the same page. For a while, she played
safe with its orgiastic outpourings when a more unfettered approach would have
been preferred. However when push came to shove, she let it rip and a few
missed notes were the result. No matter, passion was what counted most and
there was no shortage of it.
 |
| With her piano guru Boris Kraljevic. |
 |
| With Singaporean composer Kelly Tang. |
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