Press
10. 11. 2008
Prokofiev – A Confidential Matter
The Viennese pianist Anika Vavic shone with an intensively played Sonata No. 8.
Anika Vavic's piano playing is something one can trust. At least when the Viennese pianist trusts the work she has in her agile hands without holding anything back. Then, the Belgrade-born artist carries her audience through the musical architecture as if on a magic carpet, producing moments of highest intensity - such was the case on Thursday at the Musikverein, when she performed Sergey Prokofiev's Sonata No. 8 in B-flat Major. This is an unusually lyrical work for Prokofiev, only displaying the usual motoric madness during the last movement. In spite of the marked differences in character between the movements, Vavic managed to spin one thread of sound from the first to the last note. Every single note seemed to resonate with the entirety of the work.
... In the Prokofiev, Vavic wove every line, every eruption into the soundscape she created with great artistry ... It was the first work that Mstislav Rostropovich, one of her main teachers, "commanded" her to study, as she says herself. The Russian all-round musician died this past spring.
Vavic could not have dedicated a more beautiful homage to him.
Translation: Alexa Nieschlag