| CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY IN THE CONCERT HALL
20th December 2009
Pictures Reframed reaches the Sri Lankan press!
Sometimes when I push my luck too far, it inevitably works. After rushing through many corridors and passages, I managed to sneak in for a preview of something my eyes failed to comprehend. I pinched myself to know whether I was dreaming because such was the impact. And here I was at the citadel of classical music.
No; I was not dreaming; right in front of my eyes I was beholding a dramatically different scenario unfolding. Was I in the Royal Festival Hall or had I walked into a contemporary art gallery? Two great but different nationals were going through a dress rehearsal that was incredible. The stage was bare and dark. Powerful jets at focal points flickered in radiance to cast a mysterious effect. The piano (visual) and the paintings were in movement. There was magic in the air as well as mystery. Mussorgsky's voluptuous strains were in the air as well as merging visuals from an icon art gallery. One was passionately playing the keyboard cleverly visualised by the other while the stage was illuminated by a fleeting arabesque of colour. Clever and extraordinary lighting, set the artists apart.
Norwegian Pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes and the youthful South African artist, Robin Rhode redefined the piano recital, bringing the aesthetics of a contemporary art gallery to the concert hall. Together, they created a new version of Mussorgsky pictures at an exhibition. The original score accompanied paintings by Viktor Hartmann. Today's new version created images for a 21st century performance.
Their pianoforte performance is not confined only to the works of Mussorgsky's earlier scores but included a new work by Thomas Larcher, written to accompany visuals. Leif Ove Andsnes also performed Schumann's Kinierszenen.
This virtuoso pianist is an amazing artist with new-thinking and a sense of momentum within stasis that is intended. There is clarity and texture at the tip of his fingers and although he plays an imaginative piano, it seems so realastice, out of this world. He is one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century. Renowned for the purity of the Masters, he pays tribute to them in the highest calibre.
In a sense, he demonstrates a poetic sensibility and relies heavily on Robin Rhode for greater assurance.
Balancing against the transcending music of the Masters, Leif Ove Andsnes is a confident Master himself in fluent music-making unimpeded by others or their influence, no matter how greater a composer can be.
The scores he selected for tonight's pre-performance had something to do with pictures and paintings that involved both Mussorgsky and Schumann.
Schumann's Kinderszenen op. 15 (1818) is an album of childhood scenes through an adult's eyes. The thirteen brief musical pictures include the ever popular Traumerei (Daydreams) which every student of the piano would have encountered. This score too was visually projected in a magnificent manner with the South African at the keyboard.
Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) is one of the rare breed of composers. He was also one of the group known as the Mighty Handful especially for his forceful and original compositions. Widely accepted as the most perceptive and cultured thinker of his generation, Mussorgsky infused unusual brilliance to his scores that set him apart from the rest. Mussorgsky is difficult to digest unless one is into his music in a big way. His excellence and refinement in his music stemmed from the fact that Mussorgsky was a heel-clicking, impeccably dressed high society man from a landowning aristocracy.
Passionately fond of music from the time he was able to walk, his mother nurtured his talent with such fervour that he was able to play a John Field concerto by the time he was 13. A perfect intellect, both in music and academics, he became a heavy drinker that slowed his magnificent career.But Mussorgsky was well established in line with his contemporaries such as Bizet, Rheinberger, Sir John Steiner and Tchaikowsky among others.
He was as good as the rest. Fiercely loyal to his country, he depicted the Russian people in his music but with drinking in the process, his inspiration suffered a setback as he wrote pitifully small amount, often faultering.
Gwen Heart, 20th December 2009, Sunday Observer, Sri Lank'a English Newspaper
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/12/20/mon05.asp
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