Page 690 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

the Liebeslieder Waltzes are a collection of love songs from German poems that
Brahms shared between two opus numbers, Opp. 52 and 65. Written for mixed
vocal quartet (solo or choral) with piano four-hands accompaniment, Brahms’s
own arrangements for piano duet published by Simrock were a great success.
Being familiar with the Liebeslieder Waltzes in the vocal form, hearing these
arrangements for piano four-hands was a real treat for the spirit. Both
Kolesnikov and Tsoy seemed to inspire one another, and the performance felt
greater than the sum of its parts. Not a medium I encounter very often; the piano
duet recital was a sheer delight.

28.7.2022 – Solo Piano: Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

The next evening Pavel Kolesnikov made a quick return to the Paxton picture
gallery appearing on this occasion as a solo pianist. Esteemed by renowned
soloists and certainly my favourite Schubert sonata, the first work was the Piano
Sonata No.18 in G major, D894. Completed just two years prior to his death it
was Robert Schumann who regarded the score as ‘the most perfect in form and
conception’ of any of Schubert’s sonatas. Yet, we didn’t hear all the G major
Sonata at one go as Kolesnikov opened the recital with the lengthy first
movement Molto moderato e cantabile separate from the remaining three
movements which were played to end the recital. Fundamentally this is a
movement of subtle shades of tone disrupted by just a few stormy intervals to
which publisher Tobias Haslinger gave the title ‘Fantasie’.

Kolesnikov likes to provide intriguing recital programmes, considered esoteric
or provocative by some, intended to offer ‘fresh perspective on familiar pieces.’
As here he often links miniature works with movements from more substantial
scores such as Schubert’s G major Sonata. In this the centenary year of the death
of Marcel Proust the famous French writer, Kolesnikov’s programme seems to
be built around an imaginary Proustian salon, in Paris. Kolesnikov provides
links as a homage to Proust’s passion for music by selecting favourite works of
the novelist and by coalescing the reactions to music with his literary approach.

Baroque composer Louis Couperin’s Unmeasured Prelude in G minor and
Sarabande No.110 were intended for the harpsichord and in Kolesnikov’s
assured hands both sounded mightily impressive on the piano.
Schubert’s Atzenbrugger Tänz No.30 part of the Originaltänze, D365 and the
Waltz No.6 from the set of Waltzes, Ländler and Ecossaises, D145 may not be
amongst the composer’s best-known works yet Kolesnikov made the best
possible case for them.