Yulia Chaplina’s four concert tour across Cornwall gave us some really wonderful insights into many piano masterpieces. Her approach was deeply characterful but also selfless… “an absence of ego and a phenomenal range of colour and contrast in piano sound ” as violinist Jackie Shave described it after her final concert in Penzance. Or leader of the Brodsky Quartet Krysia Osostowicz who said after the concert in Lavethan The Russian repertoire she presented in her second halves included the light hearted Shostakovich of the film and ballet composer- an aspect of the composer not so familiar to those of us more used to his symphonies, quartets and opera. The darker side of the Soviet creative world was touched on in the music of Weinberg (a younger less celebrated colleague of Shostakovich) with music from the Children’s Notebooks - though as Yulia pointed out in her personal introductions these pieces were not really children’s music! Arrangements of Rachmaninov Vocalise and a touching Lullaby of Tchaikovsky brought us into a happier and luxuriantly reflective frame of mind. The concerts opened with two of Beethoven’s glorious but simple Bagatelles…a brave and confident piece of programming - as if clearing the palette with the sheer brilliance of Beethoven’s clarity, simplicity and genius. The opus 90 4 Impromptus by Schubert, perhaps, provided the most distinctive and also controversial stylistic approach. This was subtlety different from the rippling, lightness , song filled Schubert we might usually expect. There was a great attention to inner lines and contrasting dynamic ranges between those separate voices and some surprising rubato which gave new insights .. knocking us out of our expectations of these familiar pieces. Here I think we discovered a glimpse into the Rostov-on-Don, Russian roots of the performer, a romantic and daring style of interpretation which stretches our understanding of the composer to an unfamiliar and even provocative level. It will not have pleased all. But “vive la difference” - Schubert's sheer mastery of harmonic progression providing shading and colour and his inventiveness revealed anew in a distinctive interpretation in the most subtle of fashions. Yulia gave different Tchaikovsky encores at all her recitals with arrangements (some spectaculat, others delicate) from the movements of the Nutcracker to send us all off rejoicing.
Lavethan Barn Sunday 16th June 2025
Gerrans Memorial Hall Friday 20th June
Mylor All Saint Church Saturday 21st June
Penzance Chapel Street Methodist CHurch Sunday 22nd June
Beethoven
Bagatelles in G minor and A minor
Schubert
Impromptus, Op. 90
INTERVAL
Shostakovich
Prelude from The Gadfly (film score)
Romance from Ballet Suite No. 1
Romance and Gavotte from Ballet Suite No. 3
Waltz – Remembrance
Melancholy from the operetta Moscow–Cheremushki
Sentimental Waltz
Tchaikovsky
Lullaby
Excerpts from The Nutcracker (arr. Chaplina)
Rachmaninov
Vocalise
Weinberg
Nos. 1, 5, and 7 from Children’s Notebooks
Shostakovich (arr. Chaplina)
Waltz-Song and Waltz–Flowers from
Moscow–Cheremushki
Arno Babajanian
Give Me My Music Back
Encore Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker)
Metronome promoted the last concert of the series in Penzance on the Steinway Grand Piano provided by the PIano Go Round. Upright Kawai was avaiilable at Gerrans - but only a Clavinova at Mylor (we ahe a long way to go for getting decent pianos available for concerts in Cornwall. Contact me tim@metronome.co.uk if you have solutions or donations!
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