ILYA RASHKOVSKIY Piano Recital / Review

 

ILYA RASHKOVSKIY Piano Recital 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Friday (5 July 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 June 2024 with the title "Pianist Ilya Rashkovskiy plays with facility and clarity".

Much has been written about the rise of Asian pianists on the world stage, but the traditional Russian virtuoso should never be diminished. From the 19th century Rubinstein brothers (Anton and Nicholas) through Serge Rachmaninov to present day greats like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Kissin and Denis Matsuev, they still represent a formidable force in music. 

Siberia-born pianist Ilya Rashkovskiy, presently based in Seoul, South Korea, belongs to this illustrious school. The only pianist to have been awarded first prize at East Asia’s two most prestigious piano competitions, Hong Kong (2005) and Hamamatsu, Japan (2012), is no mere common garden virtuoso. 

A true artist is more than a virtuoso. Going beyond the many notes on a score, he is also a visionary with an unusually broad church. In Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata in A minor (K.310), one of two sonatas in the minor key, Rashkovskiy brought an urgency and undertow of agitation on the C.Bechstein grand. 

The technically taxing music was laid bare with unusual clarity. While finding singing lyricism in the slow movement, it was the finale’s Presto that got under one’s skin. Its transition from minor to major key and back, so trenchantly rendered, lent the proceedings an added gravitas. 

Photo: Zi Wen / Bechstein Music World

In Sergei Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations, Rashkovskiy let the music stew in proverbial Russian juices. Its Iberian theme, the familiar La Folia, was played with deadly seriousness, before unfolding in a series of fantastic variations. The composer infamously excluded variations if he thought his listeners inattentive or distracting. Thankfully, this audience got to hear the work intact despite being noisy in many parts. 

Rashkovskiy pursued its agenda with a single-mindedness which bordered on relentlessness, which made his reading a thrilling one. The cadenza-like prestidigitation of the Intermezzo leading into stately Variation 14 and the gentle quasi-waltz of Variation 15 provided moments of beauty and levity. After 20 eventful variations, he delivered the closing coda with a spirit of quiet devastation. 

The very demanding programme was to get even more frenetic, with Frederic Chopin’s Preludes (Op.28) in the second half. Chopin played a small selection in salons, and to perform all 24 in a single sweep was a tough ask, but Rashkovskiy duly delivered. Alternating between major and minor keys, the set was given a kaleidoscopic overview, yet with each piece polished like an individual gem. 

The poignant E minor (No.4) and B minor (No.6) numbers wore desolation on the sleeve, and the transitions from Nos.14 to 17 (including the famous Raindrop Prelude in D flat major) were a roller-coaster of emotions and disparate nuances. Nothing sounded trite or routine under Rashkovskiy’s fingers, leading to the final Prelude (in D minor), where desperation was given a definitive face with its three concluding low Ds. 

Rashkovskiy’s three encores could not have been more diverse: Johannes Brahms’ lyrical Intermezzo in A major (Op.118 No.2), contrasted with Rachmaninov’s tempestuous Musical Moment (Op.16 No.4) before retiring with Claude Debussy’s elegant The Girl with the Flaxen Hair. That is range for you.

Ilya Rashkovskiy was presented 

by Bechstein Music World.