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RECITAL REVIEW
Approaching Greatness, Transcending Virtuosity
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By John McCarthy
Slovenian pianist Dubravka Tomsic's recital last Tuesday in Herbst
Theater, revealed a combination of burning intelligence and complete pianism.
Here is a pianist who earned her career the old-fashioned way that refreshingly, lacks only in histrionics and hype.
The first movement of the Beethoven Sonata in G major, Op. 31 #1, was played at an electrifying tempo. Her understated syncopations in
the first movement achieved a gentle, unforced humor and her dynamic range was contained while never seeming constrained. Tomsic's interpretive decisions followed from the inner workings of the musical material itself. Rather than some narrow concept of "classical style," it was her understanding of the overall design that led the way.
In Debussy's Images, Book 2, the shifts in her technical approach were
illuminating, and following the Beethoven, its music seemed strikingly modern .
Tomsic's more supple wrist with less finger action at the beginning of
Cloches a travers les feuilles shifted the sonority to Debussy's intended
sound of a "piano without hammers". The most successful
playing of the recital was Poissons d'or, memorable with hypnotic layers
of texture and as fast and colorful as one could wish. In this, Tomsic
approached greatness and transcended virtuosity.
Her very command of the instrument that informed "Images" oddly worked
against the character of L'isle joyeuse. Rather than recreating a sense
of the fantastic, of amoral energies forcing release, Tomsic seemed too
comfortably in control of the uncontrollable.
Brahms was the subject of the program's second half. Published in 1892,
just twelve years before L'isle joyeuse, the Brahms Fantasies, Op.
116 seemed centuries removed. The Capriccio in G minor, the third of the
set, was aptly tempestuous, although the slightest easing of tempo and sound at
the end of the opening phrase would have defined the structure of this section
more clearly. Prolonged turmoil, increase in tension and dramatic rests were all
calculated with an awareness of the whole in this Capriccio. The middle
episode of Op.116, #3 was filled with a solemn, chorale-like atmosphere. Her
tone was full and deep, the crescendo from piano so carefully gauged that its
beginning was imperceptible. Tomsic's general straightforwardness in the
Fantasies, however, often overran the opportunity for a more nuanced emotion.
Book 2 of the Brahms Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35, was
persuasively played, with a freshness and maturity that elevated the music
for even the most jaded of pianophiles. In Tomsic's hands, texture had a
vivid clarity. It is impossible to imagine a more forthright and hearty
delivery, exquisitely well-played and consistently sensible.
Throughout, Tomsic put the music first and foremost. Four
encores later, her devoted group of followers were standing in ovation,
hoping for a fifth.
(John McCarthy is a pianist and teacher. He is Director of Preparatory and
Extension Divisions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.)
©1999 John McCarthy, all rights reserved
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