(Keyboard
phenomenon Valentina Lisitsa photographed by Gilbert Francois)
Pianist Valentina Lisitsa triumphs in the third
Late Spring Season concert of the KwaZulu-Natal’s 2017 Word Symphony Series.
(Review by William Charlton-Perkins)
She came. She played. She conquered.
Ukrainian-American pianist Valentina Lisitsa - the first classical artist who,
in less than a decade, has converted her uncanny internet success (50 million
hits and counting on Youtube) into a triumphant career spanning great concert
halls across the globe - has taken Durban’s concert going public by storm, and
she has captured all hearts.
Rightly so. In an age that has spawned
bogus or ultra-flamboyant celebrities the likes of showman Andre Rieu and piano
whiz Lang Lang, it is indeed gratifying to honour the integrity of this genuine
artist. Lisitsa is a super gifted and honest musician whose youthful appearance
belies the four decades she has spent working at honing her art through
diligence and hard work. She neither seeks to impose her persona on her public,
nor on the music that she so magnificently interprets.
Her technical command of the piano is
awe-inspiring. It encompasses barnstorming keyboard virtuosity of the highest
order, boasting a massive tonal spectrum that ranges from the most ferociously
dispatched fortissimo climaxes to the dying cadence of the finest wisp of a
pianissimo phrase. Ms Lisitsa’s formidable artistic arsenal was brought to bear
in her performance of Rachmaninoff’s ubiquitous Piano Concerto No 2, one of her
signature works, in the Durban City Hall on Thursday (November 9).
In this she was superbly partnered by the
conductor Justus Frantz at the helm of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra who, to
the last player, were on top form throughout the evening. Collectively they
achieved the near-impossible feat of making Rachmaninoff’s effulgence of
sentiment and the crowd-pleasing rigor of this well-tried chestnut sound new
and fresh.
The storm of applause that greeted its
conclusion was richly deserved, as was the audience’s whole-hearted response to
both the opening and the closing items on the programme. These offered a
life-enhancing performance of Smetana’s great paean to nature and his homeland,
From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests from Ma Vlast; and an all-enveloping
re-encounter with the far-flung perspectives of another of the concert
repertoire’s staples, Dvorak’s ever-fresh New World Symphony.
It seems invidious to single out key
moments for special mention in either work, but the rumbustious jollity
overflowing with sheer happiness in the peasant dance in the Smetana was
immensely endearing; while the rapturous beauty of the oboe, swelling then
dissolving as it wistfully introduced the famous air of longing conveyed in the
second movement passage of the Dvorak was almost unbearably poignant. As was
the tender loveliness of the hushed clarinet and glowing French horn in
response, picked up by the silken sounds of the strings’ quiet balm.
Hats off to Maestro Frantz et al for a masterly
evening of music-making. – William Charlton-Perkins.
(To
link direct to the KZN Philharmonic’s website click on the orchestra’s banner
advert on the top right hand of the page)
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