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 .

Angela Hewitt Week, 14th-20th May 2012

I just received information from a friend about Angela Hewitt Week in Ottawa, 14th-20th May as declared by Mayor Jim Watson. Ms Hewitt is performing with Chamber Players of Canada on Friday 18th May; there will also be An Afternoon With Angela Hewitt on 20th May at the National Arts Centre hosted by the Canadian Friends of the Trasimeno Music Festival .

Au quatrieme fois..

A jaunt en masse down to the Coal Exchange last night (23rd) to see The Subways excel again. For once we weren't massively early (in some ways to avoid the queues of teenagers) so arrived part way through the first support band. They are called Wry, from Brazil even! They were decent and will probably merit listening to further. Best option the ubiquitous myspace . Eagerly anticipated the main support, The Sunshine Underground, of whom I'd heard good words... They more than lived up to their expectations, with my only real niggle about their sound... whether it was the singer's style or sound mix I'm not sure but their show was at parts ear-splitting - explains my slight deafness today! Otherwise excellent, not an easy band to categorise, but my impressions were somewhere between Alabama 3 and the Killers' Hot Fuss album; dancing music too. Well worth going to see - just take earplugs! (or in my case, actually go out and buy some). I believe one can listen to the...