Piano Recital :: Alexander Kobrin

S wanted to watch Alexander Kobrin's in concert. I only glanced at the program on the day of the concert. As expected of a pianist showcasing his repertoire, there was a lot of Chopin tonight. Okaaaay. Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninoff. At concerts, when a repertoire is such, I tend to doze off during Beethoven and Chopin, and wake up for Rachmaninoff. The current Professor at Eastman School of Music in Rochester (NY) did a one-night concert at the Esplanade. He chose audience-pleasing and non-sleep pieces. 

Tonight's program began with Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1. This is the composer's very first piano sonata, and dedicated it to Joseph Hadyn. The four movements are what we all have had to play through the grades. Hahaha. They're familiar to the audience and very fun to listen to. This sonata has been critiqued that the composer intended for this to mimic Mozart. As the composer's earliest sonata, it has a lot of room for interpretation. The pianist played these Beethoven pieces beautifully. 

Then we moved on to Fryderyk Chopin's Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49, Berceuse in D-flat major, Op. 57 (a cradle song, a lullaby) and finally, his one and only Barcarole in F-sharp, Op. 60 (a gondolier's song). I did not fall asleep. I stayed awake through the not-boring pieces. 

I woke up at intermission, of course, and stayed awake through the pianist's rendition of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Etudes Tableaux, Op. 39. This set literally has nine études, written in 1916 and 1917 before the composer left Russia for good. No. 2 in A minor is a tough one — lots of triplets and melodic fifths; No. 5 in E-flat minor totally makes me shudder. I loved Kobrin's controlled playing.

Alexander Kobrin is definitely an extremely accomplished pianist. He didn't speak a single word though. He mouthed a silent thank you, and bowed loads and had a tiny smile only after the last note of Rachmaninoff's Etudes Op. 39 No. 9 faded away. At the end of the night, to calls of 'Bravo!', he took two encores. He played the first encore from Debussy's Préludes, 'La fille aux cheveux de lin'. Neither S or I recognized the second encore piece though, and were too lazy to ask. Heh.