(Hrachya Avanesyan)
The violinist was brilliant, so was the pianist. (Review by
Michael Green)
A programme of masterworks for violin and piano attracted a
big audience to the Durban Jewish Centre for the latest concert of the Friends
of Music.
Two gifted performers were equal to the considerable
technical demands of the music and gave a compelling presentation of its
emotional and intellectual content.
Hrachya Avanesyan is a 29-year-old Armenian-born violinist
who has built a big reputation in Europe and who won many admirers here in
Durban a few weeks ago when he played Carl Nielsen’s violin concerto with the
KZNPO.
The pianist in this Friends of Music recital was Pieter
Jacobs of Pretoria, one of our best young players. He also has a doctorate in
electronic engineering.
The high point of the evening was Beethoven’s Kreutzer
Sonata, written in 1803 and dedicated to a virtuoso named Rodolphe Kreutzer who
didn’t like it and never played it. It is a magnificent work, long, intense,
emotional, lyrical and bristling with difficulties.
Avanesyan and Jacobs gave a splendid performance, and
perhaps it should be emphasised that the pianist is an equal partner, not an
accompanist. The violinist was brilliant, so was the pianist.
The recital opened with Mozart’s lovely Rondo in C major
K.373, and after the interval we had two contrasting works: Brahms’s Sonata No.
1 in G major and Ravel’s Sonata.
The Brahms, which dates from 1879, is typical of the genial
warmth of the composer’s later works. The Ravel, written in 1927, is in the
composer’s distinctive idiom and has the additional spice of jazz. Ravel was
interested in American jazz and the middle movement of this sonata is called
Blues.
Its jagged rhythms and sharp dissonances were delivered by
the players with great skill and vigour, much to the enjoyment of the audience.
The evening’s Prelude Performer, supported by the National
Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, was Nina Kolev, a violinist who is a pupil at
St Mary’s School at Kloof. With Laura Rottcher at the piano she showed
accomplishment and real promise in music by Beethoven and Max Bruch. - Michael
Green
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