The Auditorium in the Dr. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture at the Brooklyn Public Library.
One of the great benefits of living in NYC is the opportunity to hear extremely fine up-and-coming performers. Both the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library host many concerts and recitals. On February 13, Georgian pianist Angelina Gadeliya performed a concert of piano music by Slavic composers. The program could have been subtitled "From darkness to light." It began with a powerful rendering of Janacek's Sonata 1 X.1905. ("From the Street"). Much of Janacek's music has political overtones or undertones and this work is no exception. It is also completely indebted to the Moravian folk music Janacek so loved. The short repetitive phrases, alternation of declamatory and lyrical passages, melodies doubled at the third, and one phrase completing the thought of another phrase all evoke such music. Like all true and deep nationalists, Janacek loved the music of his people and felt that it elevated him. His constant quest was to mold his music as closely to the sounds of his environment as he could. The subtitle of this sonata could not be more appropriate.
After performing the Janacek Ms. Gadeliya then made a few comments, stating that all of the composers were (are) also pianists who used the piano as a laboratory.
She next performed Scriabin's Five Preludes, Op. 16, all of which evoked either the spirit of Chopin or Rachmaninoff. Scriabin's trademark formidable left-hand writing was often on display. Next on the program were preludes by the much lesser known composer Levko Revutsky. Ms. Gadeliya referred to him as the "Ukrainian Scriabin." While these preludes did often evoke the mystical, ultrachromatic quality of some of Scriabin's music, the melodic and chordal writing of Rachmaninoff could also often be heard. Though perhaps not on the level of Scriabin or Rachmaninoff, these preludes do have considerable merit.
Following an intermission, Ms. Gadeliya returned to perform Alfred Schnittke's Piano Sonata No. 2. This work, composed in 1990, well reflects Schnittke's "polystylism" with its allusions to Prokofiev (lyricism) and Shostakovich (satire and intensity) all couched in atonal writing.
One of the true highlights of the program for me were the three pieces that comprise "Kitsch-Musik" by the Ukrainian composer Valentin Sylvestrov. Sylvestrov's very quiet and nostalgic music consciously builds on a foundation laid by other composers such as Chopin and Brahms while at the same time creating music that is unique and not merely imitative. One might think of the American composer George Rochberg. This is music that does push itself on you. It is unpretentious and evocative.
For her final work, Ms. Gadeliya, performed Scriabin's Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp Major, Op. 30. She recited the poem on which his sonata is based. Scriabin described the opening motive upon which the work is based as the striving upward toward ideal creative power.” The sonata follows the path of the poem in great detail:
In a light mist, transparent vapor
Lost afar and yet distinct
A star gleams softly.
How beautiful! The bluish mystery
Of her glow
Beckons me, cradles me.
O Bring me to thee, far distant star!
Bathe me in trembling rays
Sweet light!
Sharp desire, voluptuous and crazed yet sweet
Endlessly with no other goal than longing
I would desire.
But no! I vault in joyous leap
Freely I take wing
Mad dance, godlike play!
Intoxicating, shining one!
It is toward thee, adored star
My flight guides me
Toward thee, created freely for me
To serve the end
My flight of liberation!
In this play
Sheer caprice
In moments I forget thee
In the maelstrom that carries me
I veer from thy glimmering rays
In the insanity of desire
Thou fadest
O distant goal
But ever thou shinest
As I forever desire thee!
Thou expandest, Star!
Now thou art a Sun
Flamboyant Sun! Sun of Triumph!
Approaching thee by my desire for thee
I lave myself in they changing waves
O joyous god
I swallow thee
Sea of light
My self-of-light
I engulf Thee!
In this wonderful recital, Ms. Gadeliya well demonstrated her absorption and mastery of slavic sonorities. It was yet another example of creative and effective programming.
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