Intermezzo

No Grigory Sokolov at the Southbank

 

Visa problems have again made Italy-based Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov cancel a London booking. After last year's Barbican concert was called off at short notice comes the news that he won't be visiting the Royal Festival Hall on 29 April as planned.

The issue is that as a non-EU visitor he needs a visa to enter the UK. In the past, someone else could have organised and collected this for him. But with the new-style 'fingerprint' requirements, he has to present his digits in person to be inked and stamped at an authorised British Consulate office. (The visa arrangements for British visitors to Russia are different, but equally tiresome, by the way).

The difficulty for Sokolov is that he lives in Verona, and the nearest office is in Rome, a long exhausting drive, several hours away. Is it worth the sacrifice of time and sanity - on top of the long trip to London in April - just to entertain a British audience for an hour or so?  It seems Sokolov thinks not, so we won't be seeing him.

The Southbank were clearly well-prepared for red tape to stop play. They've arranged a replacement concert at suspiciously short notice - Angela Hewitt will tackle Bach's Goldberg Variations on the date that Sokolov was due to perform.

Naked pensioners, McMusic, New cancellitis outbreak

Austrian director Johann Kresnik's new production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera opens in Erfurt, Germany, on Saturday. Set in post 9/11 America, it features 35 naked pensioners in Mickey Mouse masks. "The concept is a little critical about America" admits the theatre's general manager.

Mehr infos und photos hier.

The Willesden and Brent Times reveals that McDonalds in Kensington High Street will offer a free helping of 'classical, ambient and minimalist music' to go with your sodium, sucrose and saturated fat this weekend, when composer/pianist Andrew Shapiro takes to the keys. Apparently there's a grand piano in place there already. Perhaps they could get Alfred Brendel next time.

Because there's no point in asking Grigory Sokolov. The Russian pianist has cancelled his 10 May Barbican concert. He doesn't want to travel from his Verona home to Rome to get the new-style 'fingerprint' visa that non-EU visitors now require. A new strain of cancellitis? The Barbican's head of music is worried more will follow suit.

Sokolov does it Steinway

Grigory Sokolov - Wigmore Hall, 6 June 2007

Schubert: Piano Sonata in C minor D. 958

Skryabin: Prelude and Nocturne Op. 9, Piano Sonata No. 3 in F sharp minor Op. 23, Deux poèmes Op. 69, Piano Sonata No. 10 Op. 70, Vers la flamme poème Op. 72

There was a full turnout for this rare Sokolov appearance, and his tardiness in emerging on to the platform just amplified the already buzzing levels of anticipation in the Wigmore Hall.

Sokolov trotted briskly on to the stage, sat straight down and plunged right into the Schubert without even appearing to notice the audience, let alone acknowledge them. This piece is so frequently played in London that there are plenty of readings to compare Sokolov's with, but I've never heard it quite like this. From the outset, Sokolov demonstrated impeccable articulation, a total control that respected every single note and presented each with an outstanding clarity. Even in the fastest passages, nothing was smudged or skipped, and his pedalling just illuminated his work even further. And the colours and details! His palette is so rich and varied it was like seeing the sonata through a microscope. Every variation of tempo, dynamics and touch was magnified, the adagio truly slow, the fortes terrifyingly loud, the staccatos crisply stabbed. And each of the numerous repeated passages was inflected differently - subtly but legibly.

I really can't think of any points of reference for Sokolov's style - it is uniquely and immediately obviously his own. If I had to knock anything (and really this is more of a comment than a criticism), it would be that he never wavers from his default mode of Very Serious, even in the lighter passages such as the tarantella in the final allegro of the Schubert,  usually tackled with a hint of jauntiness even in the most austere of interpretations. Maybe this is simply his artistic choice, but I did get the notion, partly I guess from his onstage manner, that if you told him a joke he probably wouldn't get it. But this may be a hugely unfair characterisation. Nevertheless, I'd love to hear him tackle a piece that positively requires a sense of humour.

The evening's programming was simply brilliant. Not only in following the Schubert with a couple of Chopinesque early Skryabins, leading naturally into Skryabin's late post-romantic work, but simply in playing Skryabin, a composer rarely heard in London, at all. This second half gave Sokolov even more scope to demonstrate his total technical mastery over his instrument, coaxing the most extraordinary variety of sounds from it to weave Skryabin's filigree arpeggiated and trilled textures together. Even the first piece, using left hand only, he deftly filled out till it sounded more like four hands than one in places. A performance like this makes the best possible case for more Skryabin programming.

A striking aspect of his performance was his great physical grace, all the more unexpected from someone of his ursine heft and hunched posture. His hands floated over the keyboard, crossing delicately, striking with decisive strength, never with the crudeness of brute force. When the dynamics were cranked up, he supplied the volume with power rather than effort, and the impression was always that he had more in reserve.

He didn't take much persuading to return to the platform for around five (I stopped counting) encores, all popular Chopin - whether he was playing these to please us or himself was hard to tell from his perenially inscrutable expression.