There is always a first time, goes the old adage, and for the first time in Trieste by
Maxim Vengerov, one of the most requested soloists in the world, the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi has returned to its ancient splendors.
Large audience and, a rarity, mostly young. Happy faces among the spectators, involved in the energy and propulsive force of the violin, a former Kreutzer Stradivarius from 1727, which Vengerov holds with determination and plays with generosity.
What more could you want from a musician universally known as one of the best in the world, often defined as the greatest violinist and violist working today, as well as winner of a Grammy Award?
Has the time come for the glorious Society of Concerts of Trieste to put its tireless enthusiasm for the elderly Uto Ughi and his utterances in the closet? Or the nostalgia for the good times of "our" Trio, do you remember when Libero Lana still played the cello?
Let's not forget the past, for goodness sake, but let's also try to look at the musical future of a city that was sitting too much on the laurels of times gone by.
Born in 1974, Vengerov was born in the cold Russian city of Novosibirsk, in Siberia. In Trieste he appeared in a duo with the pianist
Polina Osetinskaya, also Russian, who has enough energy to stand up to the comparison with the main soloist of the concert and, indeed, is a stimulus rather than a support. Vengerov and Osetinskaya dialogue as equals, in a monstrous program that alternates very famous pieces with lesser-known pages.
The first part began en douceur as the cousins from beyond the Alps would say, with the
Three Romances for violin and piano Op. 22 by Clara Wieck Schumann and the famous and celebrated
Brahmsian Scherzo in C minor from the Sonata FAE WoO2 , which had a great impact on the public, separated from her husband Robert, whose
Sonata no. 3 in A minor was performed in its entirety.
Indecipherable piece, which reveals the restless character of the author, in which the widespread calm of the odd slow tempos, Ziemlich langsam, quite slow, the first, and Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell, Andante ma non tanto, the third, left the gap to the two even intermediate ones, in which the calm represented is only apparent.
The second part is entirely dedicated to Prokofiev with the little-known
Five Songs Without Words op.35 bis leading the way to the very famous and exhausting – for the performer and for the listener –
Sonata n.2 op.94 bis . Here the Slavic soul of the two artists on stage was able to reveal itself in all its splendor of sound, purity of legate, wit in the play of references between instruments which revealed a complicity that the public welcomed and appreciated.
The pyrotechnic finale provoked an authentic ovation rewarded with three encores: Rachmaninov, Prokofiev again, and Rachmaninov again to end on a high note.
For the record, among the audience in the room Jordi Savall was noticed who the evening before had inaugurated the new Trieste Festival, Il Faro della Musica conceived by the artistic director Marco Seco who managed to involve, in the Trieste of no se pol, the Municipality , Conservatory and School of Music 55, not to mention the hosting Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi which for once, greeted the old season ticket holders to be invaded by a teeming audience under 30, under thirty, in short.
Two reflections from the reporter.
Among great artists there is no envy, but only mutual admiration.
Between serious and facetious. Who knows, Marco Seco might even be able to restart the Opicina Tram and organize a musical journey around it? In any case, thanks for the wonderful evenings.
Rino Alessi for Lesalonmusical.itAll materials of the “Press” section →