BORIS GILTBURG FOR THE CAMBRIDGE MUSIC FESTIVAL
Boris Giltburg - happy to be back in Cambridge
The Cambridge Music Festival is in full swing - with a second virtuosic evening from a high end soloist.
Boris Giltburg is a sensational force on stage. He held the entire audience in his hands as he gave us Chopin and Rachmaninov packed with passion and precision. His technique is a form of magic. One man and his piano in the auditorium at West Road, held every listener in thrall . It was a full -on circus high wire act, adventurous and daring. A signal performer with no score, no notation, no orchestral support no safety net.
Although he has performed all over the world in concerts halls from Amsterdam’s famous Concertgebouw to Carnegie Hall this world pianist claims to like Cambridge – and – the Corn Exchange. So gallant a guest. He doesn’t mention the remnants of the roller skating or the leaky roof, but it is a far cry from Hamburg’s sensational Elbphilharmonie or the Vienna Konzerthaus. ( This is a thinly veiled plea from the Cambridge Critique) for a re-furbished Corn Exchange. Meanwhile West Road Concert Hall was very nice.
But wonder not too long about Boris Giltburg. In an interview for the Cambridge Music Festival he explains how he is committed to bringing classical to everyone . He heard his grandma playing two of the Preludes as a child and has loved performing them every since. But he also likes older Jazz,Fats Waller Errol Gardner and Oscar Petersen, and ha s’enjoyed Beyoncé’s Lemonade and some of Taylor Swift’s albums.
Chopin’s moving memorable music filled the first half of the concert. Delight surged through the audience. Boris gave the tragic genius a coruscating rendition with a cluster of compositions created in the French country house of his famous lover, George Sand. Boris’ playing brought well known pieces to new life, as the piano alone and unadorned worked its way into our consciousness – a lovely mellow experience.
The second half was a contrast.
Sergei Rachmaninov had absorbed Chopin ‘s music at a deep level of appreciation. The first Prelude at the age of 19, and his Ten Preludes completed after his marriage were written alongside his `Variations on a Theme of Chopin’ - you can’t be clearer than that for a title of pure homage - and gave this young admirer the inspiration he needed for his own stab at the genre. We heard ten of the loveliest of these, from the mesmerizing hands of Boris Giltburg in a performance which left the audience spellbound.
Although Rachmaninov was well known for his later melancholy - one friend described him as ‘ a six foot high scowl” I at least heard lyrical delight in so many of the 10 Preludes (they took 18 years to complete ) alongside frustration and defeat that has characterized his work. In these early years of his marriage, you can’t help hoping his own family life helped him become the titan genius now so celebrated. And that happiness, inspired by Chopin.
Boris Giltburg then presented the Piano Sonata Number Two by Rachmaninov as the final tour de force of the evening, and it was just as heavenly. Studded among the original ‘flow of ideas’ as critic Joanna Wyld has it, were allusions to Debussy and Ravel , especially Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défuncte, the strangely named piece with its deeply emotional core.
So thank you Boris Giltburg for the gift of a renewed Rachmaninov – and Chopin -realised so brilliantly in one evening . It might not be one of the glittering concert halls of the world, but we in the ( comfortable) warmth of West Road went to places of serene happiness and disturbing despair in one superb evening.
