Pianist
Halida Dinova in anUnusual Program
by
Lyn Bronson
Last night at All Saints
Church in Carmel, Russian pianist Halida Dinova performed a piano recital for a
small audience of approximately fifty people. That the audience was so small is
probably because Ms. Dinova is not one of the older prestigious, top-ranked
concert artists of the stature of Murray Perahia and Martha Argerich, but rather
a young emerging artist in her thirties whose reputation is growing larger each
year. Ms. Dinova already has some interesting CDs to her credit: Brahms Concerto
No. 2 and Ernest Bloch’s Scherzo Fantasque (both recorded with the St.
Petersburg Philharmonic), Dennis Eberhard’s Piano Concerto “Shadow of the Swan”
( a memorial to the victims of the Russian submarine “Kursk” disaster and
recorded with the St. Petersburg Cappella Symphony), a highly regarded recording
of Scriabin’s piano music and most recently a CD called Masterpieces for
Children featuring works by Bach, Debussy, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky — the
proceeds of which benefit orphanages in Russia.
Noticeably missing from the
audience last night were the community’s young piano students (and there are
hundreds of them on the Monterey Peninsula and in Salinas). However, for a
family of two adults and two children, the admission price of $25 for adults and
$10 for students adds up to an expenditure of $70. Although quite reasonable for
older more affluent families, this represents a major expense for younger
families. Also missing from last night’s audience were the 50 or so piano
teachers, but this was actually not surprising, since they rarely attend
concerts locally. Incidentally, several months ago a young pianist of similar
stature, Gustavo Romero, appeared in this same venue, but in a free concert, and
the church was packed. Thus, concert presenters have to face the reality that
people will come willingly when the concert is free, but may ignore the event if
they have to pay for the event.
Well, they missed a concert of
unusual significance, for Ms. Dinova during this evening performed some unusual
and rarely heard works. After warming up with a transcription of Bach’s Organ
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Ms. Dinova spun out a lovely and sensitive
performance of Liszt’s Consolation No. 4. Since most pianists tend to play the
Consolation No. 2 in D-flat major, hearing No. 4 was probably a new experience
to most people in the audience (this was the first time I had ever heard it in
live performance), and it was a very moving performance.
Totally off the wall and a
major surprise was her performance of Richard Wagner’s Sonata in A-flat major.
This turned out to be a sensitive (and at times stormy) love poem inspired by a
woman with whom he was deeply in love, Mathilde Wesendonck. Ms Dinova found just
the right way to dramatize the tenderness and the Sturm und Drang in this
fine work.
Two standard Liszt works were
also on the program from the Two Legends of St. Francis of Assisi: The Sermon to
the Birds, and St. Francis Walking on the Water. Of these two works, the Sermon
to the Birds was more successful with its clever effects of birds twittering and
soaring melodies. The St. Francis Walking on the Water is something of a problem
piece, because it overuses the effect of tremolos in the base and swirling
chromatic scales to suggest the movement of the waves. Despite the fact that
this is a flawed work, Ms. Dinova found precisely the right touch (although
overplayed at times), and her performance made a fine effect.
The other major work on the
program was to be the Chopin’s Op. 28 Preludes in their entirety. It was
announced that St. Francis Walking on the Waves (not originally scheduled on the
printed program) would be substituted for the Chopin Preludes numbers 1-12, and
thus she would only perform Preludes 13-24. However much we would have loved to
have heard the Chopin Preludes in their entirety, it was still a pleasure to
have heard the final 13-24. There were many beautifully played individual
Preludes, and her playing of No. 24 was a knockout! You won’t hear it played any
better than this.
As an encore, Ms. Dinova
performed the Chopin Prelude in E Minor, a work we have all heard (and played
ourselves) many times, yet her performance was a revelation and presented a new
perspective for this well known piece. We heard a beautiful cantabile, sensitive
shaping of the line, and a delightfully expressive rubato that made a lot of
sense and enhanced the beauties of this piece.
Ms. Dinova had one more encore
up her sleeve and this was the Chopin Prelude in F-sharp minor, the one so black
with notes you can get a headache just looking at it. Well, she made it sound
easy. Wow!
