Skip to main content

Awesome April music 2: Anna Tsybuleva at Hebden Bridge

This time it didn't rain! After a few years' gap we returned to Hebden Bridge for another sellout Piano Festival concert. I left it so late that we almost didn't get tickets for headliner Anna Tsybuleva! Understandably a sellout as Anna is the winner of the 2015 Leeds International Piano Competition.

A pretty impressive biography listed on the festival website - and the concert programme was equally impressive: Beethoven - Fantasy Op. 77; Schubert -  'Der Wanderer' Fantasy in C, D.760; Brahms -  '7 Fantasies' Op.116; and Liszt -  Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12

Described by Jonathan Biss as a little odd, the Fantasy Op. 77 is a multi-key, multi-meter, many-tempoed smorgasbord of writing, clearly showing Beethoven's genius as an improviser. Certainly parts of the Fantasy felt like a musical puppet show! Anna displayed the piece superbly (especially the quieter sections). 

Suitably warmed, we headed for the intense dark/light of the 'Wanderer' fantasy. It's extremely difficult to play - but Anna made the technical side sound easy and kept a very good sense of structure and connectivity throughout Schubert's slightly demented investigation of darkness and light. Extremely well received by the audience (hopefully including the person who had fallen asleep and was lightly snoring - how anyone could have fallen asleep is beyond me!). 

After the interval, through the Brahms Op. 116 Anna showed her prowess in meditative as well as virtuosic playing. I thought her performances of Nos 2, 4 and 6 of the 7 Fantasies were stunning. The event climaxed with Liszt's jaunty Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 - five intense and often funny folk themes therein. 

After all that - and some very rousing applause - we were treated to two encores. More Liszt  - Concert Étude No. 2 'La Leggierezza' and Saint-Saens' Etude en forme de Valse.  

Certainly an intense evening! Throughout all the pieces, Anna maintained a very clear sound and demonstrated her skill in steel and spun-sugar playing. For all the steel, I particularly enjoyed the simpler moments of the performance.

  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

New talent at Southminster

As a follow-on from last weekend's excellent Chopin concert, there is an afternoon of New Artists from the NAC's Summer Music Institute at Southminster United Church on 17th June. Entitled 'Dover Beach and other works for summertime', the concert features new artists Katarzyna Sadej , Emily Nenninger , Drew Santini, Hannah Min, Paul Casey , Karen Kang and Bryan Wagorn. I had the chance to hear Bryan Wagorn at one of University of Ottawa's Concerts at the NAC 4th Stage concerts back in February and thoroughly enjoyed his performance. The proposed programme is very enticing: MENDELSSOHN   String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 MONIUSZKO          Sen  (The Dream)                                       Prząśniczka (Spinner Girl) SZYMANOWSKI    Lecioły Zórazie (The Swans Were Flying)                                    Ściani Dumbek (The Dark Forest)    CHOPIN                   Piosnka Litewska (Lithuanian Folksong)                                    Moja Pieszczotka

Lang Lang: a little bit of stardust in Southam Hall

Lang Lang with Anita Pari Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good. No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of  Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice. Lang Lang with Tina Chong Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed