PIANIST’S DEBUT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 171, 15 April 1932, Page 11

PIANIST’S DEBUT

Mr. Paul Vinogradoff AUDIENCE IMPRESSED Mr. Paul Vinogradoff, a Russian pianist of distinction, made his Wellington debut as a recitalist at the Concert Chamber last evening. There was a fair audience, manifestly impressed by the player’s 1 musicianship, especially as displayed in programme numbers harmonising with his temperament and taste. In three pieces from Scriabin, said to be his favourite composer, he was really excellent, and the third of these, “Study in D Sharp Minor” (Op. 8), he was cordially pressed to repeat. The other two were a “Poem in F Sharp” (Op. 32), and a “Study in F Sharp” (Op. 42), the latter a very charming concept. Mr. Vinogradoff was hardly so convincing in Bach’s “Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue,” Beethoven’s “Sonata in F Minor” (the “Appassionata”) and Schumann’s “Carnival” (Op. 9). although he excelled in the “Fugue,” and in the final movement of the “Appassionata.” ' There was a suggestion of unsteadiness of tempo, in which phrases, so to speak, seemed to become somewhat, incoherently distorted from the narrative. The musician. of course, may have deliberately broken from convention to capture a new atmosphere for old ideas, but conventional ears are apt to be rather conservative about such departures from tradition. A bracket of three numbers from Chopin—the “Waltz in A Flat” (Op. 63, No. 3), “Nocturne in C Minor,” and “Scherzo in B Minor’” were attractively played, though here again there was the same sense of irregularity of tempo. Debussey’s “Buried Cathedral” was finely played, while the pianist was in great form in Liszt’s “Sixth Rhapsody.” Recall numbers included a Chopin waltz, a Rachmaninoff prelude, Liszt's “Companella,” and the same composer’s paraphase of Verdi’s “Rigoletto. ’ On the whole, however, a very enjoyable recital. Mr. Vinogradoff’s mastery of the keyboard is impressive, and reminiscent rather strikingly of Mark Ilambourg’s style. It is to be hoped that he may feel encouraged by the cordiality of bis reception last evening to give Wellington music-lov-ers more of his quality.