Press
11. 07. 2004
Crossroads in the High Art of Pianism
Anika Vavic, born in Belgrade and living in Vienna, devoted her concert in the Glashalle of Castle Horst to historically important crossroads in the pianistic repertoire. The only concert of the Klavierfestival Ruhr in Gelsenkirchen was enthusiastically received.
Because of the high quality of the selected works, it was also recorded, especially since the soloist is known as an esteemed interpreter of the piano works of Joseph Haydn. She began with his early Sonata in D major, no. 19. This classic work could be compared to the growing roots of form and content, it consolidated the growth and first blossoming. It pours forth in a galant, pleasing manner. Therefore, Vavic kept the piano, selected especially for this concert, on a short leash, avoiding dynamic and physical exaggerations. But she never played down her interpretation, as the comparison with Beethovens Sonata Nr. 7 in D major proved. One could clearly hear the rush towards the end of the classical era: in giving up the customary three-movement form and the classic sonata movements configuration, which is only in evidence theoretically here, Beethoven placed himself on the brink of Romanticism. Vavic allowed us to hear this lurch forward; she advanced with contemplation and meticulousness. She made a similar connection between Haydns late Sonata in A-flat major no. 46 and Sergey Prokofievs Sonata no. 6 in A major. While Haydn seems to point the way to Beethoven, seemingly leapfrogging over Mozart, the Russian composer looks back in appreciation. After the demise of traditional tonality, he based his credo on classical concreteness, in close alliance with the newly won freedoms. In spite of her sharply chiselled interpretation of the fierce, insistent and over-virtuosic attaccas, Vavic never watered down the poetic layers of the music.
Translation: Alexa Nieschlag