I saw him last year too and I loved his playing. I was especially drawn by the intensity of his pianissimos. I was holding my breath for them. Here's one review I found.
Ivo Pogorelich in Recital
by
David Beech
(Editor’s Note: Because of a scheduling conflict, I asked David Beech to review the following concert. Mr. Beech is a retired computer scientist who lives in Monterey. He is a clarinetist and occasional pianist. His mother was a pianist who brought him up to revere the playing of Solomon. Other great pianists that he has heard and admired over the years include Cortot, Myra Hess, Arrau, Katchen, Curzon, Brendel, Lupu, Ashkenazy, Cherkassky, and Perahia.)
After a 15-year absence, the pianist Ivo Pogorelich returned to Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, on Sunday, October 24th, 2004, with new surprises up his sleeve.
Although his program photograph still shows him with long Lisztian locks, he appeared on the platform with hair close-cropped, and immediately embarked on a kind of deconstruction of Beethoven’s F-sharp major Sonata, Op. 78. This two-movement work, one of Beethoven’s own favorites, normally seems quite short and flowing, but here the Allegro non troppo of the first movement barely exceeded the tempo of the one-line Adagio cantabile introduction that preceded it (apart from the fluttering interjections of sixteenths, which were fluently played at something like the usual tempo). It was as though the pianist was sharing his fascination with the work, picking out a few interesting bass notes for special emphasis, or hesitating as though in the act of composition at the keyboard. (However, that cannot explain the fatal loss of momentum in hesitating before the final chord of the movement.) The Allegro vivace finale moved along better, if still lacking a little in bounce in the initial answering phrases. The witty sections of pairs of sixteenth notes alternating between the hands were deftly turned into seamless legato lines. Comparisons with some of Glenn Gould’s interpretations kept springing to mind – this was surely not an interpretation that the composer intended, but it was intriguing to listen to a performer with an original musical mind and a commanding technique.
With the briefest of courteous bows, Pogorelich then launched into a serious and worthy performance of Beethoven’s last Sonata, Op. 111 in C minor. Straight-backed and extremely economical in moving anything other than the fingers of his large hands, he opened with a fine Maestoso, including effective color changes for the syncopated sfp pairs of notes. The ensuing Allegro emphasized structural strength rather than brio, with rich sonority in the bass entries of the fugue, closing with a haunting modulation to C major and a soft widely-spaced final chord. This prepared the way for the divine Arietta and its five variations, whose decorations become ever more rapid and intricate while the melody retains its slow pulse. Here the maturity of the artist was evident in the control and intensity of the playing, often in pianissimo, which could hardly be improved upon apart from a strange hesitation at one point in the theme, and some lack of brilliance in the third variation with its jazzy syncopated arpeggios. The trills and tremolos of the final pages were quite perfectly executed beneath the soft pizzicato notes of the theme, leading to Beethoven’s own deconstruction of his theme into its barest elements. The listener is left to reflect on all that has gone before, and the serenity of the final resolution – also, perhaps, in this case to reflect on the austere orthodoxy of the interpretation. A different comparison that came to mind during this sonata was with the playing of Radu Lupu – the same sense that the audience is eavesdropping on a pianist playing the work for himself, without thought of showmanship.
The next surprise was that Pogorelich did not reappear to play the Rachmaninoff Moment musical Op. 16, No. 1, listed as preceding the intermission. Most of the audience stayed in their seats, even when the house lights were raised slightly, but eventually the lights came on fully and it became clear that the work would begin the second half. It proved to be worth waiting for, even thought the “moment” of the title was spun out to considerable length, as its stepwise melody wandered almost endlessly over ingeniously varied harmonies. This is an early work of Rachmaninoff, written when he was 23, prefiguring something of the style of his Vocalise, or the slow movement of his Second Symphony, and it was given an affectionate performance by Pogorelich, who produced his first lush sound of the evening in the middle section (relishing the measures with the unusual time signature of 7/4), before entering into some magical diminuendi, first from pp to ppp, and eventually to pppp, without ever a false accent.
The audience had no time to applaud before Pogorelich had softly begun the Scriabin Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor, Op. 19. Some critics have wondered why the composer labeled it “Sonata-Fantasy” since both its movements are in sonata form, but Pogorelich offered a convincing answer in the delicate meandering freedom he gave to the phrases within the larger structure of the opening Andante. There was some lovely half-pedaling to sustain a rich bass line while keeping the rippling treble notes clear. By comparison, much of the Presto seemed overpedaled, and the pianist seemed perhaps less interested in this movement.
The program closed with excellent renditions of three of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes. No. 5 in B-flat: Feux follets (Will-o’-the-wisps) had delightful leggiero chromatic whirrings – a perpetual motion study with a brief forte in the middle, and a charming throwaway ending. The wild hunt of No. 8 in C minor: Wilde Jagd received the full Presto furioso treatment, giving way to a sunny, classical 6/8 hunt in the middle, before returning with renewed vigor and building up to a stormy climax. No. 10 in C minor was not given a title by Liszt, but Appassionata fits it well, and it is musically rewarding as well as technically demanding, with many grand pianistic gestures and a triumphant ending that brought Pogorelich a lengthy standing ovation.
We were treated to only one encore, but a substantial one – Balakirev’s Islamey in a masterful performance.
Topic: Ivo Pogorelich and piano art