Pavel Kolesnikov – Live at Honens 2012
Pavel Kolesnikov; Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra; Roberto Minczuk
Honens 201203-4CD
www.honens.com
Like a particle accelerator, the triennial Honens Piano Competition is a highly charged event probing the secrets of the stars. Ten semi-finalists compete for five coveted spots in a final round. These rarities are all in their 20s, unimaginably gifted and ready to explode from their orbits. Meanwhile, audiences sit breathlessly on the edge of their seats in Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall to witness flashes of genius and streaks of energy that rival the deepest mysteries of subatomic physics.
Is there a Honens particle? It seems so. Every three years the competition’s laureate receives $100,000 cash and a half million dollar career launch with recording and support. Now that’s a career accelerator.
2012 Honens laureate Pavel Kolesnikov emerged from his field with a blazing technique and a moving interpretive ability. His winning performances, captured in live concert recordings, demonstrate why. With a program of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn, Kolesnikov proves how note-perfect technique can coexist with the most bombastic and the most tender keyboard expressions. His Schumann Kinderszenen Op.15 is utterly convincing in portraying the composer’s impish, nostalgic and heartfelt vignettes. These may, despite their lack of musical heft, be the most beautifully interpreted pieces on the two CDs.
Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No.1 is innovatively light and playfully energized and contrasts markedly with the darker, heavier performances that have become historical standards. Similarly, Chopin’s Sonata in B Minor, Op.58 is reborn in an astonishing new lightness.
Kolesnikov has conquered the Romantics. He is still very young. His next conquests should be equally surprising.
