The evening was an awesome physical feat for any performer, but at the very end, Parker’s fingers were as nimble, as accurate, his touch as relaxed, his playing as clean and rhymic as it all had been at the start. And after it, he played an encore, a quiet, rippling Rachmaninoff prelude. Continue reading Jon Kimura Parker Takes on Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev & Stravinsky
I had reviewed some of Dossin’s recordings for the now defunct magazine Clavier, and expected good things. It was more than good. I was bowled over by the technique, the musicianship, the beauty of his interpretations and the way he made himself invisible, allowing the composers’ intentions to come through. Continue reading Pianist Alexandre Dossin Shines in Russian “Winter Nights”
Rachmaninoff’s music for the Orthodox Eucharist was too “modernist,” they felt, and they refused it permission to be performed as a church service. (Music in Russian churches is still a fraught issue today.) Things got even more modern with the coming of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which did nothing to improve the chances of church music, even by Rachmaninoff, being performed. Continue reading Cappella Romana Sings a “Divine Liturgy” at West Seattle’s Holy Rosary
