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Concert 2024-25

Pianist Alexandre Kantorow, Hard to miss new generation

Kentaro Ogasawara July 27, 2024

"The stereotype is that competitions mint quick-fingered but mindless virtuosos, while the Gilmore rewards more mature, idiosyncratic artists. To win both the Tchaikovsky and the Gilmore suggests Kantorow has technical security as well as something to say." By Zachary Woolfe

In 2019, at age 22, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the Tchaikovsky Competition's First Prize, as well as the Grand Prix, awarded only three times before in the competition's history. Hailed by critics as the“reincarnation of Liszt” (Fanfare Magazine), he received the Gilmore Artist Award 2024, considered one of the most prestigious international piano prizes,and awarded only every 4 years. He is the first French artist and youngest winner of the Gilmore Artist Award.

Johannes Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 2

Alexandre Kantorow - Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4

Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

18 February 2022

Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5: I. Allegro maestoso · Alexandre Kantorow · Johannes Brahms

Grammophone review, Throughout this Brahms recital, Alexandre Kantorow throws down an epic gauntlet, casting his sights on dynamic and dramatic extremes. The pianist broods over the first Ballade's Andante, and builds the central triplet section with such overwhelming ferocity that the music runs away from him. However, he is one of the few pianists to successfully articulate the staccatos as a true sorto voce upon the main theme's reiteration. No 2's distinctions between legato and detached phrases gain considerable intensity through his liberal yet clearly thought-out rubato.

Kantorow adopts a siower tempo for No 3's central F sharp major episode, substituting desolation for delicacy; I find the pianist's unorthodox gambit plausible, although others may not. No 4's phrases seem to float independently of each other in an improvisatory state of mind, oblivious to bar lines. Imagine a similarly free-floating yet less hectic parallel to the partial recording of this piece featuring Brahms's associate lona Bibenschütz and you'll understand what I mean.

The pianist zeros in more on the maestoso than on the Allegro in the first movement of the F minor Sonata, milking the second theme for all its worth and extracting every ounce of meaning from the repeated triplet figurations. By contrast, he takes the slow movement's Andante espressivo to be an animated alla breve, where the long lines gorgeously sing out no matter how transparent or thick the textures may be.

Lest we forget that this work was composed by a confident 20-year-old, Kantorow dives into the Scherzo with appropriate abandon. While the Intermezzo transpires beautifully and sensitively, Kantorow's labelmate Jonathan Plowright's far slower interpretation better captures the music's anguished subtext.

Likewise, Plowright's fusion of power and transparency conveys a unified and classically poised finale, whereas Kantorow's more volatile, exploratory reading often gets too loud too soon.

For all Kantorow's impressive finger independence, his Bach/Brahms Chaconne for the left hand gets bogged down in detail, lacking the architectural discipline and cumulative momentum that pianists as disparate as Leon Fleisher, Danil Trifonov, Ivan Ilié and Idil Biret bring to this transcription. In short, this generously filled release stands out for the Ballades and 3/5ths of the Sonata.

このブラームスのリサイタル全体を通して、アレクサンドル・カントロフは壮大な挑戦を挑み、ダイナミックでドラマティックな極限に狙いを定めています。ピアニストは最初のバラードのアンダンテに思いを巡らせ、音楽が彼から逃げ出すほどの圧倒的な激しさで中央の三連音符セクションを構築します。しかし、彼はメインテーマの繰り返しでスタッカートを真のソルトヴォーチェとしてうまく表現した数少ないピアニストの一人です。第2番のレガートと独立したフレーズの区別は、自由でありながら明らかに考え抜かれたルバートによってかなりの強度を増しています。

カントロフは第3番の中央のヘ長調のエピソードに緩やかなテンポを採用し、荒涼とした雰囲気を繊細さに置き換えています。私はピアニストの型破りな戦​​略に納得がいくと思いますが、そう思わない人もいるかもしれません。第4番のフレーズは、小節線を気にせず、即興的な精神状態で互いに独立して浮遊しているようです。ブラームスの仲間であるローナ・ビーベンシュッツをフィーチャーしたこの曲の部分的な録音と、同じように自由に漂いながらも慌ただしさが少ない類似点を想像してみてください。そうすれば、私の言っている意味がおわかりいただけるでしょう。

ピアニストは、ヘ短調ソナタの第 1 楽章でアレグロよりもマエストーソに焦点を絞り、第 2 テーマの価値を最大限に引き出し、繰り返される 3 連音符の音形から意味を余すところなく引き出しています。対照的に、彼は緩やかな楽章のアンダンテ・エスプレッシヴォを活気に満ちたアッラ・ブレーヴェと見なし、テクスチャがどれだけ透明で厚くても、長いラインが美しく歌い上げます。

この作品が自信に満ちた 20 歳の若者によって作曲されたことを忘れないように、カントロフはスケルツォに適切な自由奔放さで飛び込んでいます。間奏曲は美しく繊細に展開しますが、カントロフのレーベル仲間であるジョナサン・プロウライトのはるかにゆっくりとした解釈の方が、音楽の苦悩に満ちたサブテキストをよりよく捉えています。

同様に、プロウライトの力強さと透明性の融合は、統一された、クラシックな落ち着きのあるフィナーレを伝えますが、カントロフのより不安定で探究的な演奏は、しばしばすぐに大音量になりすぎます。

カントロフの指の独立性は素晴らしいものの、左手のためのバッハ/ブラームスのシャコンヌは細部に行き詰まり、レオン・フライシャー、ダニル・トリフォノフ、イヴァン・イリエ、イディル・ビレットなど、さまざまなピアニストがこの編曲にもたらした建築的な規律と累積的な勢いが欠けています。つまり、このたっぷりと詰まったリリースは、バラードとソナタの3/5で際立っています。

← What makes a good listener? - Music Critic, Corinna da Fonseca-WollheimDaniil Trifonov at Carnegie 12.12.2024 →

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