«Солисты Москвы» выступили на Nuova Harmonia в Аргентине

На фестивале Nuova Harmonia в Колоне (Аргентина) впервые выступили «Солисты Москвы» во главе с всемирно известным альтистом Юрием Башметом.

Вот что об этом выступлении пишет Pablo Bardin в Buenos Aires Herald:

As for the Moscow Soloists, I was quite happy with their quality: the 18 string players are energetic, play with excellent intonation and ensemble and with praiseworthy unanimity. The group was established by Bashmet in 1992. The founder is both conductor and solo violist; in the first capacity he showed fine style in Mozart’s Divertimento K. 136 (perhaps the most overplayed score of the entire string ensemble repertoire) and in Schubert’s Quartet No 14, Death and the Maiden, in the string group arrangement by Gustav Mahler as edited by David Matthews and Donald Mitchell.

Schubert’s masterpiece has been wholly respected by Mahler, who only adds basses; some sections are played by the concertino rather than by the violin section. This was dramatic, committed playing.

But — and I can hardly believe it — the disappointment was Bashmet the violist. His playing of the Arpeggione Sonata, also by Schubert, was listless and small-voiced, though accurate. It doesn’t help that the unspecified arrangement for strings of the piano accompaniment was very bland. And the score is minor Schubert, written for an instrument which died almost as soon as it was created. It had six strings tuned like a guitar; currently it is played by cellists. Violists have almost no repertoire for solo viola and strings, so it’s hard to imagine an alternative to this arrangement (the few good concertos for viola are with symphony orchestra).

The programme also included a five-minute première: the enigmatically called Senza volto by the Russian Igor Raykhelson, born 1961. Built on a rather jazzy theme, this miniature concerto movement is written for violin (Andrei Poskrobko), viola (Bashmet) and cello (Anton Naidenov); it was pleasant and well played.

The encores were good fun and probably premières: the quirky Polca from Schnittke’s Suite Gogol (it certainly has the right satiric tinge to it) and the waltz from the film Face of Another by Toru Takemitsu, catchy and bittersweet. Brilliant playing.

The Siberian pianist Konstantin Scherbakov, born 1963, paid us a second visit, thus ending the Chopiniana cycle at the Palacio Paz. Frankly, I found his programme very conventional, but it was played with great vitality and virtuoso panache. The well-trodden grounds of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (No 14) and Appassionata (No 23) were firmly traversed, though with exaggerated dynamics (and in No 14 the intermediate movement was too slow).

The Chopin second part included two virtuoso vehicles, the rarely played Introduction and Rondo Op. 16, and the always effective Andante spianato and grand brilliant Polonaise (the Andante too slow), both thrillingly executed. And in the middle, the very substantial Ballade No 3, quite well done. The first encore was an unknown little jewel, the Prelude Op. 11 No 1, a dreamy piece by Lyadov. And then, Chopin’s First Waltz, too fast.