{"id":21846,"date":"2014-10-20T14:17:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T18:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=21846"},"modified":"2014-11-02T01:38:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-02T05:38:33","slug":"concert-review-rafal-blechacz-gold-but-not-burnished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2014\/10\/20\/concert-review-rafal-blechacz-gold-but-not-burnished\/","title":{"rendered":"CONCERT REVIEW | Rafa\u0142 Blechacz: Gold, but not burnished"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rafa\u0142
Rafa\u0142 Blechacz. Photo: Marco Borggreve<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The much-anticipated Toronto debut of the $300,000.00 pianist – Rafa\u0142 Blechacz – took place on Sunday afternoon at Koerner Hall. The near capacity audience was treated to a somewhat old-fashioned programme which included Bach’s Italian Concerto<\/em>, Beethoven’s “<\/em>Path\u00e9tique”\u00a0Sonata<\/em> and, after intermission, a collection of diverse works by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin.<\/p>\n

As winner of all five top prizes at the 15th International Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2005, Blechacz’s career was firmly launched. But it was his recent win, in 2014, of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award – with its $300,000.00 prize – that added even greater lustre to his stature as a major international artist.<\/p>\n

Based solely upon what was heard on Sunday, however, one wonders what the fuss is all about. The handsome, boyish, 29 year-old Polish pianist is short, of slight build and sports a mop of hair reminiscent of an Anton Rubenstein. He holds himself erect at the keyboard when he plays and looks every inch the youthful, romantic pianist.<\/p>\n

But the afternoon was what one might call a ‘tidy’ performance. Nothing was out-of-place. But neither was it transfiguring. There were things to admire, to be sure. An assured technique, a sensitivity of touch, but interpretively, little was out of the ordinary. In fact one can think of countless pianists who could have handled this programme with greater insight and decidedly more personality.<\/p>\n

A few moments stand out in one’s memory: an exquisite slow movement in Bach’s Concerto, <\/em>the arresting opening section of Beethoven’s Sonata<\/em> (another Beethovenian portrait of Orpheus soothing the wild beasts as in the slow movement of his Fourth Piano Concerto). <\/em>As for the Chopin – works which are central to Blechacz’s repertoire – they varied from a meandering E Major Nocturne<\/em> to a largely satisfying F-Sharp Minor Polonaise<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, it was his single encore – the playful scherzo from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Opus 2, No. 2 – that made the greatest impression. Played with Mendelssohnian sprightliness and wit, Blechacz charmed one to the core.<\/p>\n

But while the case of the Gilmore Artist Award may be closed, based upon the evidence presented on Sunday, the jury is still out.<\/p>\n

This recital was the first in Koerner Hall’s Invesco five-concert piano series. The next recital – on November 9th – will feature pianist Jeremy Denk. Others in this series include Richard Goode (November 16), and Marc-Andr\u00e9 Hamelin (March 1), and H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Grimaud (April 19).<\/p>\n

Neil Crory<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The much-anticipated Toronto debut of the $300,000.00 pianist – Rafa\u0142 Blechacz – took place on Sunday afternoon at Koerner Hall. The near capacity audience was treated to a somewhat old-fashioned programme which included Bach’s Italian Concerto, Beethoven’s “Path\u00e9tique” Sonata and, after intermission, a collection of diverse works by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":22426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117,76,19,47,52,63],"tags":[1876,4386,6474],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/10\/Rafa\u0142-Blechacz.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-5Gm","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21846"}],"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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21846"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22427,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21846\/revisions\/22427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21846"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}