The Oost-Nederlands Symfonieorkest offered an enticing programme featuring the Russian-born pianist, Sofia Vasheruk playing Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto, the Emperor in the Ontmoetingkerk, Enschede on Saturday night.
In a program originally intended to coincide with the anniversary of Beethoven’s 250th birthday celebrations, but ultimately delayed by Covid, the audience certainly welcomed the opportunity to hear such a magnificent work played in such an awe-inspiring venue.
Sofia is a most accomplished pianist whose playing displayed a clear understanding of the remarkable dynamic range available in this cavernous church, and the challenging yet rewarding acoustic in her clean articulation of the swirling scale passages peppered throughout the work. Sofia’s dynamic range was all the more remarkable for one so petite, but the piano proved more than a match for the power of the combined forces of the ONSO.
Lyrical playing on the piano was matched by beautifully phrased passages from the oboes and clear articulation from the violas in the swirling semiquaver passagework leading us to the most intimate cadenza: rather shorter than found in many other concertos, but deliberately so, as Beethoven sought to avoid showy pianists of the day from playing endless virtuosic embellishments and improvisations, instead leaving the following instruction for soloists: Don’t play a cadenza, but attack the following immediately. Sofia gave the audience a brief glimpse of this personal world before the French horns broke the spell with a beautiful horn chorus.
Lyrical playing on the piano was matched by beautifully phrased passages from the oboes.
This concerto really is an emotional journey as we moved through into the 2nd movement with playing of such tenderness, accompanied again by the horns, that we sat holding our breath until the next phrase. Pedal notes from the horns tempted us into the final movement, a place of fun and abandonment, valiantly accompanied by the orchestra under the able direction of their resident conductor Jeppe Moulijn.
It was in the encore however that the pianist really came into her own
A surprise performance of La Campanella from the Grand Etudes de Pagannini (one of the top five pieces composed by Liszt as chosen by the pianist Lang Lang, who describes it as watching a cartoon character playing with millions of hands) was beautiful to hear and watch, and a masterclass in flawless passagework of breath-taking dexterity and showmanship. If any students present had previously questioned the necessity of practising scales, this was their answer.
What a treat for this highly appreciative Enschede audience, from a pianist of international stature.
To hear more from Sofia, follow this link: www.vasheruk.com/videos
To hear Lang Lang perform La Campanella click on this video below:
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