Pedro Lopez Salas in Cremona
Chopin recreated with poetic beauty and romantic fire
Pedro on his way to Warsaw was invited to play some of the works that he will present in the 19th International Chopin Competition next week. The main works being two of the greatest masterpieces ever written for the piano. The Barcarolle op 60 and the Sonata in B flat minor op 35, surrounded by miniature masterpieces : Nocturne op 62 n. 2 ,Waltz op 34 n.1, Étude op 25 n. 11 ( Octave ) and finishing ( officially) with the youthful Andante Spianato e Grande Polonaise Brillante op 22. Unofficially we were rewarded with the Polonaise Héoique op 53 that I have not heard played with the same aristocratic authority and exhilaration since Rubinstein.
The Nocturne was played with refined elegance but also a passionate outpouring from a soul full of ravishing sensitivity. Pedro’s playing needs no projection as his palette of colour and supreme sensitivity to the harmonic layers of sound draw the public in to him ,enticed like the Pied Piper by such opulant beauty. The opening of the Waltz ( another favourite of Rubinstein) was played with elegance and style rather than a brash declamation. Jeux perlé just poured from Pedro’s fingers with enticingly embracing streams of multicoloured sounds where the sudden contrast in dynamics was of a pianist from the Golden Age when technical perfection meant a supreme Bel Canto as was Chopin’s inspiration.
