Emanuil Ivanov – sensational recital of technical assurance and refined intelligence
Dr Mather’s comment of sensational was an understatement indeed.
Phenomenal technical assurance allied to refined intelligent musicianship combined to astonish, amaze and seduce in the complete Etudes Tableaux op 39 in celebration of Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary of his birth. Superhuman control of sound made each of these tableaux come vividly to life with Nobility, Sensuality and Exhilaration.
The famous fifth In E flat minor I have never heard with the same searing passion and aristocratic control with contrasts tinged with bitter sweet Russian nostalgia. The ‘Red Riding Hood’ study number six was enough to scare the life out of us with its continual roaring interruptions and its ever more driving insistence .There was beauty as the rhapsodic melody of number eight was allowed to expand so naturally leading to the imperious declamation of the ninth. The final study was played with majestic grandeur and scintillating march rhythms of glittering virtuosity. There was ravishing beauty in the question and answer of the languid second study in A minor leading to the intricacies and swirling brilliance of the third with the breaks suddenly applied at the end where the the last cadence was reduced to a reverberating echo. The deeply brooding seventh marked ‘lugubre’ and Lento was only the opening of a transcendental accumulation of chords that were played with quite phenomenal technical and musical assurance. A tour de force of musicianship and virtuosity that was indeed breathtaking and exhilarating.
Read more here at Christopher Axworthy’s blog
