{"id":1442,"date":"2012-02-10T08:35:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2012-02-10T08:35:39","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:35:39","slug":"yesterdays-new-orford-quartet-performance-closes-open-schubert-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/02\/10\/yesterdays-new-orford-quartet-performance-closes-open-schubert-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday&#8217;s New Orford Quartet performance closes open Schubert question"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1445\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1445\" style=\"width: 440px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/207.112.70.56\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/scaled-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1445\" title=\"scaled-1\" src=\"http:\/\/207.112.70.56\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"440\" height=\"586\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/02\/scaled-1.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/02\/scaled-1-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1445\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Orford Quartet at Four Seasons Centre on Feb. 9. (Liz Parker photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Last week I tried to get inside Toronto pianist Boris Zarankin&#8217;s head regarding his hauntingly still performance of two Schubert piano sonatas (details <a href=\"http:\/\/musicaltoronto.org\/2012\/01\/31\/cd-review-toronto-pianist-boris-zarankin-surprises-and-delights-with-recording-of-two-schubert-sonatas\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>). Then I heard him play the A minor <em>Piano Sonata D. 784<\/em> at <a href=\"http:\/\/offcentremusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Off Centre Music Salon<\/a> on Sunday, as I and the rest of the audience at Glenn Gould Studio sat mesmerized.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This really was a translation into music of much greater existential issues, of the undying wonder people have of the meaning of life, and how death is an unbidden yet inevitable visitor.<\/p>\n<p>Zarankin told me how his ideal piano sound for the sonatas was inspired by hearing the golden hues of the Vienna Philharmonic performing at the Musikverein. He describes Schubert&#8217;s piano music in symphonic terms, and tries to tease out a layered sound like the one created by many different instruments playing together.<\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t help mulling this over after sitting through a stunning performance of Schubert&#8217;s final quartet, the G Major, D.887, by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.neworford.com\/about.php\" target=\"_blank\">New Orford Quartet <\/a>at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at lunchtime yesterday (the quartet is on <a href=\"http:\/\/en.neworford.com\/recordings.php\" target=\"_blank\">their Juno-nominated album<\/a>). Besides the thrill of seeing and hearing four high-powered principals from the Toronto and Montreal Symphony Orchestras playing as one, I was struck by how these four artists were also able to suspend time and capture this listener&#8217;s attention with a semblance of complete stillness.<\/p>\n<p>Had Zarankin been there to play Schubert on the piano, we would have found the interpretations uncannily similar.<\/p>\n<p>I can only come to one conclusion after this: Boris Zarankin is right, and the pianists who try to inject overt virtuosity and forward motion into their interpretations may have to think again.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I tried to get inside Toronto pianist Boris Zarankin&#8217;s head regarding his hauntingly still performance of two Schubert piano sonatas (details here). Then I heard him play the A minor Piano Sonata D. 784 at Off Centre Music Salon on Sunday, as I and the rest of the audience at Glenn Gould Studio [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,76,77,19,36,47,51,57,63],"tags":[535,2376,2943,3059,3156,3486],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2012\/02\/scaled-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-ng","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}