Musical Outlooks
BILL NEWMAN attends a selection of concerts at London's Wigmore Hall
Kasparas Uinskas, piano
Friday 1 April 2011
Bach's Partita No 4 in D, BWV 828 -- one of his most inventive of the six was given a fleeting performance, while Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques was studiously cautious, the pianist appeared to 'punctuate' the beginning of each variation. A Rachmaninov threesome found him more reflective and dramatic, in turn: Prelude in B minor, Op 32 No 10, and two Etudes-Tableaux -- No 6 in E flat minor and No 8 in G minor, both from Op 33. Then came Chopin's great Polonaise-fantaisie in A flat Op 61, certainly not as magnificent as it should be, but fragmentary and jerky instead. I may have the wrong artist, but the first Chopin I heard him perform in his opening Wigmore recital was Scherzo No 3 in C sharp minor, where the opening octaves were so fast that he went momentarily out of control. The redeeming item was Skryabin's Sonata 2 in G sharp minor, Op 19, which had a pulsating brilliance...
Copyright © 7 June 2011
Bill Newman, Edgware UK
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