See the S.F. Chronicle's review here of the rising star's San Francisco debut. An excerpt:
As prodigious as Bach's imagination is - each of the piece's 32 variations takes a distinctive approach to its thematic material - Dinnerstein nearly matched him with 32 different keyboard sounds...With each variation, an entirely new tonal palette was called into play. But variety was only part of what Dinnerstein had to offer. She also rendered Bach's music with a powerful degree of rhetorical flair, turning each episode into an eloquent piece of self-contained musical oratory... this was a potent and endlessly inventive account of a work that exemplifies those qualities.
See the S.F. Chronicle's review here of the Polish pianist (Gold Medalist at the 2005 Warsaw Chopin Competition) on his inaugural U.S. tour. His performance for us was on May 11, 2008 An excerpt:
Blechacz has fingers of steel and plenty of stamina, but more rewardingly, he has a distinctive point of view. His Chopin is a far cry from the droopy, speculative rhapsodist that so many pianists give us; in Blechacz's world, Chopin is a vigorous, forthright presence, so crisply plainspoken as to be scarcely recognizable as a Romantic artist. This is a slightly offbeat take on a familiar composer, and some listeners may find the shortage of gauzy colors and emotional insinuation to be a loss. But the compensatory rewards are striking.
See the CCT review here of this remarkable young duo-piano team's performance in Walnut Creek on May 10, 2008. Excerpts:
To see these lovely young women with such obvious affinity both for their music and for each other leaning in together to caress a phrase, drawing back as if one to renew an attack, was nothing short of a revelatory joy.... As endearingly awkward as these two were taking turns at the microphone to introduce each piece, the Naughtons at the keyboard were the very picture of poise, professionalism and purity of purpose. They have a great future awaiting them.
See the S.F. Chronicle's review here of the trio's superb final concert here before retiring, on April 20, 2008. An excerpt:
I overheard one patron say to her husband in strikingly heartfelt tones, "That is a concert I will never forget." It wasn't hard to understand why. It's rare to hear chamber music delivered with such an intoxicating blend of silky tonal beauty and expressive vigor; even without a rueful sense of the occasion, Sunday's recital would have been one for the books.
See the S.F. Chronicle's review here of the brilliant French pianist's recital for us on March 3, 2007. Some excerpts:
...plenty of sensuously full-bodied sound... it was the first book of Debussy's Preludes that elicited not only [Roge's] most beautiful but also his most intellectually probing response. From the superbly differentiated chords of the opening "Danseuses de Delphes" to the rhythmically deliberate "Minstrels" at the end, Rogé seemed determined to leaven the richness of his keyboard touch with meticulous clarity and dramatic directness.
In Spring 2007 we began presenting performances in Walnut Creek. We are delighted to be serving a new constituency!
On December 31, 2006 the Datebook ran the Chronicle's picks for the best of 2006 in film, dance, etc. and we are delighted (and honored) to report that Ms. Cooper's recital, presented by Chamber Music San Francisco, was included in the classical-music category. We couldn't agree more - it was a stunning debut! Congrats to Ms. Cooper, and to those lucky patrons who were there... click here to read the article.
See the S.F. Chronicle's review here of the brilliant French pianist's recital for us on May 14, 2006. Some excerpts:
... nothing in her recorded work quite prepared a listener for the stormy brilliance and dramatic clarity of her thrilling debut recital Sunday afternoon.
Her keyboard sound was big and brawny, with a wide dynamic range that favored the louder end of the spectrum without ever sounding bombastic or overstated. And by crisply outlining the rhythmic and textural underpinnings of even the most intricate writing, she endowed her performances with a structural armature strong enough to sustain her scaled-up rhetoric. That fundamental solidity, in turn, gave her room to bring sweetness and grace to the lyrical passages without allowing them to drift away. In Schumann's "Kreisleriana," for example, the exquisitely turned close to the fourth movement seemed to linger in a timeless world of pure shimmering beauty -- one made possible by the fastidious clarity of everything that had come before.
But the afternoon's most splendid stroke came at the end, with an expansive and hugely eloquent account of Schubert's A-Minor Sonata, D. 845. From the dexterously weighted chords of the opening movement to the waggish but slightly dark rondo finale, Cooper kept shading the music with emotional ambiguity and melodic fervor -- never more grippingly than in the unpredictable theme and variations of the slow movement.
Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music
Critic
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
For her return to San Francisco this week, soprano Laura Claycomb put together a musical event that was part vocal recital and part amiable potluck. The air of friendly collaboration among her and her colleagues filled the confines of the Florence Gould Theater Monday night, making the evening one of alluring good cheer.
Instead of offering the usual voice-and-piano fare, Claycomb assembled a diverse ensemble of accompanists—cellist and composer Nina Kotova, guitarist Marc Teicholz and pianist Peter Grünberg—and together they tailored the program to their contributions, arranging the instrumental parts as necessary.
The result, the season-ending event for Chamber Music San Francisco, was a nicely mixed lineup that ranged from the Baroque era to the present day, with plenty of variety in both style and sonority.
Naturally, Claycomb remained the focus of attention, her forceful, pure vocal tone and crystalline diction rising to the occasion repeatedly in music of any stripe. And as always, the sheer warmth and charm of her presence were striking -- Claycomb is a more personally communicative singer even reading from music than many of her colleagues are when performing from memory.
Yet for all the group spirit on display, the evening proved most successful when Claycomb performed with just one of her three colleagues. Full-scale ensemble pieces, particularly the Vivaldi and Handel selections that opened the program, sounded in need of a conductor, or at least a little more rhythmic clarity.
But a collection of eight French songs -- by Debussy, Poulenc, Fauré, Chausson and more—provided a sparkling textural panoply, as each song in turn called for a different combination of instruments, and Falla's "Seven Spanish Popular Songs" took on new urgency in this arrangement.
The guitar accompaniment for Jean Françaix's "Chanson" emphasized its bawdy, folklike spirit, and Messiaen's early "Pourquoi?" with its Debusseyan piano harmonies elicited Claycomb's ripest and loveliest singing. For the Falla, she turned fiery and mournful by turns, bringing crispness and emotional fluency to the entire set.
Kotova's creative voice came through in her "Lyrica Suite," a group of five settings for soprano and cello of the Russian poet Andrei Bely (a.k.a. Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev). These turned out to be stretches of impassioned oratory, with the two performers taking turns and sometimes joining forces in a heightened blend of dissonance and shapely phrases.
Teicholz was a delicate partner in four of the six songs from William Walton's wittily titled cycle "Anon. in Love," and Claycomb rendered these English ballads with plenty of zest and buoyancy. Those were the exact qualities lacking from the four Toni Morrison settings of André Previn that brought an otherwise pleasant evening to a regrettably soggy close.
READ THIS REVIEW AT THE S.F. CHRONICLE'S WEBSITE HERE.
Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
The English pianist Imogen Cooper is well represented on CD, but recordings can often be a poor substitute for a performer in person. Certainly nothing in her recorded work quite prepared a listener for the stormy brilliance and dramatic clarity of her thrilling debut recital Sunday afternoon.
Appearing at the Florence Gould Theatre on a sunny Mother's Day under the auspices of Chamber Music San Francisco, Cooper offered a weighty program of works by Schubert, Schuman, Haydn and Thomas Adès. All of it called for fierce commitment from performer and listener alike, and all of it resounded in a series of excitingly high-impact renditions.
Cooper, in other words, doesn't fool around. She takes the audience's needs into account, and in Haydn's C-Major Sonata, Hob. XVI:50, she wasn't above having some fun with the composer's habitual formal trickery.
But there was nothing tenuous or halfhearted in Cooper's ferocious interpretations of this music, and it was clear that she expected the audience to match her sense of involvement.
Her keyboard sound was big and brawny, with a wide dynamic range that favored the louder end of the spectrum without ever sounding bombastic or overstated. And by crisply outlining the rhythmic and textural underpinnings of even the most intricate writing, she endowed her performances with a structural armature strong enough to sustain her scaled-up rhetoric.
That fundamental solidity, in turn, gave her room to bring sweetness and grace to the lyrical passages without allowing them to drift away. In Schumann's "Kreisleriana," for example, the exquisitely turned close to the fourth movement seemed to linger in a timeless world of pure shimmering beauty -- one made possible by the fastidious clarity of everything that had come before.
And when Schumann called for full 10-fingered bravado, Cooper helped the listener trace a path through the often tangled passagework by bringing out a submerged melody here or a rhythmic cross-reference there.
The Haydn offered a similar play of textures, as Cooper delivered the pointillist opening phrases in a bright, pitiless glare before allowing the tone to soften and flower. In Adès' "Traced Overhead," an 11-minute triptych from 1996, softly whirling filigree was punctuated by sharp-edged metallic triads carrying faint traces of tonal harmony.
But the afternoon's most splendid stroke came at the end, with an expansive and hugely eloquent account of Schubert's A-Minor Sonata, D. 845. From the dexterously weighted chords of the opening movement to the waggish but slightly dark rondo finale, Cooper kept shading the music with emotional ambiguity and melodic fervor -- never more grippingly than in the unpredictable theme and variations of the slow movement.
Politely but firmly, Cooper resisted the audience's calls for an encore. Her reticence was understandable -- it had been a substantial program -- but a return visit is obviously in order.
READ THIS REVIEW AT THE S.F. CHRONICLE'S WEBSITE HERE.
Both of the Guzik concerts (Feb 18 and 19, 2006) were artistic smash successes, and Hewell Tircuit covered the Feb 19 performance for San Francisco Classical Voice. Excerpts follow...
regarding both:
Both of these pianists are solid technicians, but, more important, both are individual, original, and highly expressive players.
regarding Dinara Nadzhafova:
The maturity of Nadzhafova’s performances was as impressive as her dexterity. Her timbral variety, her formal clarity, and her perfect tempos were irreproachable... And all this from a 16-year-old? Unreal.
Still, in all, I found her playing of the First Ballade the most impressive performance of all. One rarely hears this disconsolate piece played so poetically, so unhurried, or with more profundity of concept. Only when she reached those final pages of Chopin’s violent outburst did she let go with a quickened tsunami of keyboard bravura — and all the right notes. (Neither is a commonplace event.) Total command of the keyboard, yes, but it was Nadzhafova’s innate musicianship which floored me. What will she play like in 10 years?
regarding Ilya Petrov:
Here was the big Russian style of Anton Rubinstein’s playing in full bloom. There is no lack of delicacy in his playing, but even in the lyric items, such as the Petrarch sonnet and “Un sospiro,” Petrov displayed assured strength that rather reminded me of Emil Gilels. He can tinkle his way through “Feux follets,” the music tingled and flickered at even ultrasoft dynamic levels. But for the once standard Spanish rhapsody, the grand sway of the traditional “La Folia” theme and equally famous “Jota aragonesa” section, Petrov let loose the full power of his dynamic control while avoiding any hint of pounded brute force.
That formed an amazing contrast to the refinement he brought to the three best known of Liszt’s Paganini transcriptions: the playful No. 2 in E-flat major, subtitled “Scales and Octaves”; No. 3, “The Little Bell”; and the dizzying No. 5, “The Chase.” Here, as in his entire program, the beauty of his piano sound and his ability to slip into and out of fleeting accents struck me as major pianism of the first rank.
The Moszkowski Sparks bubbled with effervescence like a top-class champagne. Played quickly and delicately, that was as fine a rendition as I’ve ever encountered — and considering that I've heard Horowitz play it something like a dozen times in recital, that’s saying something.
Read the entire review at the San Francisco Classical Voice website here.