Concert Review—

Katia Skanavi’s Performance A Triumphant Return

By Wendy Wipprecht

Last Sunday afternoon the Russian pianist Katia Skanavi returned to Edmond Town Hall perform a concert in the Newtown Friends of Music series. It was an event some of us had been awaiting for three years. There’s a story behind this, and like so many New England tales, it revolves around the weather.

Ms Skanavi’s first appearance in Newtown was scheduled for Sunday, February 12, 2006, but the concert was postponed due to a blizzard, and rescheduled for noon the following day. Because it was a workday, and because the roads were still treacherous — particularly for those traveling into town from hilly neighborhoods — Ms Skanavi played to a very small house.

Her ambitious program included works by Handel, Liszt and Chopin for the first half, and the second half was devoted to Rachmaninoff’s Etudes Tableaux, Opus 39. Her playing was nothing short of brilliant.

Those fortunate enough to have attended have felt like “we few, we happy few,” for years, and have made that concert the stuff of local legend. When I’ve described the concert to friends I tend to include two purely personal measures: first, I didn’t care if I had to walk up two snowy hills in the dark to reach home; and second, that Ms Skanavi made me appreciate Rachmaninoff, who is not one of my favorite composers.

There was, therefore, a lot of excitement in the room when Ms Skanavi took the stage this past Sunday afternoon. She gave the audience a smile, a nod, and a very deep bow, and then sat down to play. Her rather self-effacing personal style is the opposite of her pianistic style, which is dramatic, passionate, powerful, and dazzling. She is also capable of great subtlety, gracefulness, and — what else can you call it? — soul.

The concert began with Schubert’s Sonata in A minor, Op. posth. 143. (Schubert, who died at 31, left behind many unpublished works, so he has a long list of pieces designated ”opus posthumous.”) This sonata marks a break from Schubert’s earlier sonata style, which was light and charming; it declares itself as dark and emotional right away.

Its first movement, Allegro giusto, sounds funereal at first, and then builds intensity, with large blocks of sound. Ms Skanavi produced a very rich sound, and played with such power that I wondered whether there were only two hands on the piano. Where lyricism and delicacy were called for, as in the second movement (Andante), she responded beautifully, playing with pathos and producing wonderful notes that sang, hung in the air, and dissolved like smoke.

The last movement, Allegro vivace, makes different demands; it calls for light, very fast playing, as well as the ability to bring out, in all this wildness, that the right and left hands are furiously imitating each other.

Next came a contemporary work, Piano Sonata No. 3 by Carl Vine, an Australian composer born in 1953. Vine has composed dance music, chamber and orchestral works, music for film, theater, and television, and electronic music. This piano sonata, composed in 2007, has four sections — Fantasia, Rondo, Variations, and Presto — which are supposed to be played without breaks between them.

This sonata announced its heritage right away: it is clearly in the Romantic tradition, at times recalling Liszt or Rachmaninoff, but its slightly dissonant chords and odd syncopation mark it as a modern work. Its movements and moods range from dark and angry to delicate and ghostly; at one point bass and treble seem to be engaged in a question-and-answer session (perhaps a call-and-response).

The last movement, the Presto, is, of course, fast and wild. This most modern-sounding section makes great physical demands upon the pianist. (Skanavi took a brief moment to regroup before starting this section.) After a short graceful and melodic interlude, the wild, fast playing resumed, this time in octaves, leading to a loud, single-note, unexpected ending.

Vine’s sonata, by the way, was the only piece in the concert for which Katia Skanavi brought music to the stage. She also turned her own pages, which I’ve never seen a pianist do before. It seemed of a piece with her pared-down, self-effacing style.

The second half of the concert, which was given over to Chopin, began with Andante Spianato, Grande Polonaise Brilliante, Op. 22. The Grande Polonaise was written first; two years later, Chopin composed the Andante Spianato and grafted it onto the Polonaise as an introduction. The two parts of the piece are quite different, and call for a wide range of skills on the part of the pianist.

The Andante Spianato begins with a lovely theme that is also touched with melancholy in the treble, with flowing accompaniment in the bass. A second, more mellow theme enters, and after a return to both themes, the section ends quietly. The Grande Polonaise Brilliante, however, is all flash and fire, beginning with a fanfare and then going on to the theme, a dance melody. The Polonaise, a fast, joyful, dance, asks to be played with energy, color, subtlety, and, of course, brilliance. Skanavi met these almost contradictory demands, playing with delicate lyricism in the Andante and with dazzling speed and power in the Polonaise. 

The last piece on the program was Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Opus 35. Like the Andante Spianato, Grande Polonaise Brilliante, this sonata’s movements were composed at different times. Chopin wrote the Funeral March in 1837, and the other three parts two years later.

The first section is dark and dramatic; the second, a Scherzo, is lighter and more relaxed, and contains a waltz-like second theme. The third movement is the famous Funeral March, which is so ingrained in our culture that almost every child can recognize and sing it, but can’t say who wrote it. (The same is true of the wedding march from Lohengrin.) So as Skanavi began to play the Funeral March, there was a quiet stirring in the audience, a hum of recognition: ”Oh, that one.” She played it with mournful power and intensity. The Finale ripples and swirls to a quiet end.

Ms Skanavi was greeted with sustained applause from a full house, cries of ”Bravo!” and — something rarely heard at classical concerts — whistling. For an encore, she played a Chopin mazurka with an elegance that only seemed effortless.

Season Finale April 5

Newtown Friends of Music will close their 31st season with a return engagement of the beloved violinist Maria Bachmann, who will be accompanied on the concert grand by pianist Jon Klibonoff, himself an award winning artist, on Sunday, April 5, at 3 pm, also at Edmond Town Hall.

On the program are pieces by Brahms, Schubert and Ravel.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 seniors. Students grads K-12 are admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. The box office opens one hour before the start of the concert.

Parking is free behind Edmond Town Hall and the facility is handicap accessible.

An informal reception following the concert will offer concert goers the opportunity to mingle with the artists.

For reservations call 426-6470.