BRILLIANT PLAYING BY CHERKASSKY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29621, 18 September 1961, Page 13

BRILLIANT PLAYING BY CHERKASSKY

Shura Cherkassky is one of those favoured beings who have been gifted from earliest youth with a phenomenal ability to produce music. He was an “infant prodigy”—a term which somehow causes the foot to itch for action —but however munificently nature may have endowed him at birth, there can be little doubt that he has reached his present high eminence as a pianist only through unremitting hard work, and the sedulous cultivtaion of a poised and mature sensibility. There was a serene atmosphere created immediately in the Civic Theatre on Saturday evening when he began his recital with pianissimo playing of Scarlatti’s Sonata in. C minor. The music crept so appealingly with a liquescent clarity through the theatre. The A major sonata added a touch of fire and brightness, with contrasting passages of delicate filigree and then the C major added its full contribution to an opening bracket of works which set a deeply musical hallmark on a programme . promising great richness.

Beethoven’s Fifteen Variations with Fugue Op. 35

opened seriously and proceeded in a way which conveyed a strong underlying profundity but also a joyful appreciation of the lighter pleasures of life. The rich imagination in the music was matched in the grace and insight of the playing. Mr Cherkassky can make happiness bubble right out of the piano in an overflowing stream. Tenderness, meditation, and brooding tragedy are also fully al command together with the kaleidoscope of pastel-shaded lyricism.

Schumann's Fantasie in C major Op. 17 was interpreted with a high realisation of its inherent poetry. There was an arresting inter-play between the quick figuration of the first theme and the mellow and romantic episodes which flowed so fetchingly . A clever trick of the pedal after a big climax caused the scene to vanish momentarily in spectral fashion. 'The second movement was played with a stirring and martial glamour with banners flying and trumpets summoning to a festival. The contrasting section sang of a pleasant dalliance and personal enjoyment of the occasion. Then the whole panoyly returned in its grandeur. The last movement had the full loveliness of some of Schumann's greatest songs with sensitive enshrining of an intensely living appreciation of beauty. There were moments of passionate fervour and even of fury too, but all were resolved and reconciled in an interpretation of completely satisfying sensibility. Then the scene moved to modern America in Samuel Barber's “Excursions” and frenzied bustle of great crowds and “Mind how you step off the side-walk" in the first movement. The second movement “in slow blues tempo” sang of deep personal loneliness. The allegretto had a strong suggestion of an Irish air, and "Faith! Why shouldn't it have? There are plenty of Irish over there.” The last movement had lots of innocent fun and humour and the whole work had a refreshing charm. “Coolie Dance” by ManaZucca had strong percussive elements and was a diverting trifle. The Schwanda Fantasy by Chasins was played in highly exciting fashion and it seemed as though the whole resources of the orchestra were brought to bear in this multi-coloured interpretation which had sinctillating joi de vivre. Mr Cherkassky roused his audience to vociferous fervour and thoroughly deserved every “Bravo” and cheer. —C.F.B.