Ivana Gavrić, Wigmore Hall | reviews, news & interviews
Ivana Gavrić, Wigmore Hall
Ivana Gavrić, Wigmore Hall
Sarajevan-born pianist makes a stunning debut with Janácek, Bartók and Schubert
Thursday, 15 July 2010
'She has a great career ahead of her, of that there is no doubt': Sarajevan-born pianist Ivana Gavric
There are some recitals where you think only about the abstracted music - the harmonic arguments, the structural cleverness, the textural ingenuity - and there are others where you are forced to confront the presence of a set of living, breathing, leering musical beasts.
Last night's stunning Wigmore Hall debut by Sarajevan-born pianist Ivana Gavrić - to a sellout crowd - was a very compelling example of the latter: a performance where the musical storytelling was being so well communicated that it was almost as if she was speaking to the audience or rolling a projector.
A vivid set of works from Eastern European composers - Bartók, Janácek, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev - packed with plenty of characterful back-and-forth and percussive argy-bargy helped. There was also a chunk of Schubert at his most terror-laden, the Sonata in A minor, D784, lurking menacingly amid the Modernism echoing all around it - particularly the Janácek. It was all very Gothic, a term never used in conversations about musical style but exactly what united this programme, dominated as it was by an unnerving perversity and a fixation on rupture.
But it was down to Gavrić to make these jagged vistas come to life. How she did it was intriguing. For it wasn't through the normal channels of touch and pedalling that colour sprang. It was through phrasing and rhythmic control. She stamped her character on the evening from the off with a kaleidoscopic performance of Bartók's Suite, Op 14, in which a choking fog (a premonition of Janácek's to come) descends upon a jaunty affair. Janácek's fog, V mlhách, usually translated as In the Fog, became a mist in both the programme notes and on stage, as Gavrić took a windy rubato to the work - very convincingly - from start to finish. There's a colloquial ease to Gavrić's way with the Sprechstimme-like Eastern European melodies of Janácek, Bartók and the Prokofiev Sonata in D minor, Op 14; she has the musical equivalent to the gift of the gab.
In the Rachmaninov she showed a different side: Gavrić the singer and poet. What a line she spun. If ever there was a piece of music to fall in love to, the Prelude in D Major, Op 23, is it. There's something almost cinematic about its self-conscious amorousness and Gavric reveals the tryst in one tracking shot, a single long breath. There were plenty of lovely things in the Schubert too: some fabulous skittish decrescendo arpeggio scuttling and agitated asides. At times the nerves got to her but only for a moment or two. Her concept of the D784 was especially interesting for its unity, the darkness and anxiety always seeping into the lullabies. I feel the work is far more bipolar than this but I wasn't put off by Gavrić's reading at all.
The only disappointment was the Prokofiev. And I'm not sure Gavrić was to blame. Prokofiev's truculent Second Sonata is not a pretty work. There was something of the fat man with a balloon about it, the left hand hacking away at blockish chords or Alberti basses and the right tootling along desperately. Perhaps this was where a more varied touch and pedal might have bailed things out.
No matter, though. I left with a mightily appreciative audience feeling invigorated and eager to hear her Chopin, Schumann and Brahms. I'm sure we'll get the chance; Gavrić has a great career ahead of her, of that there is no doubt.
- Check out Ivana Gavrić's website
- Check out the rest of the Wigmore Hall season
There's a colloquial ease to Gavrić's way with Eastern European melodies - she has the musical equivalent to the gift of the gab.
Share this article
more Classical music
Watts, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Bignamini, Barbican review - blazing French masterpieces
Poulenc’s Gloria and Berlioz’s 'Symphonie fantastique' on fire
Bell, Perahia, ASMF Chamber Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - joy in teamwork
A great pianist re-emerges in Schumann, but Beamish and Mendelssohn take the palm
First Persons: composers Colin Alexander and Héloïse Werner on fantasy in guided improvisation
On five new works allowing an element of freedom in the performance
First Person: Leeds Lieder Festival director and pianist Joseph Middleton on a beloved organisation back from the brink
Arts Council funding restored after the blow of 2023, new paths are being forged
Classical CDs: Nymphs, magots and buckgoats
Epic symphonies, popular music from 17th century London and an engrossing tribute to a great Spanish pianist
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Philharmonia Chorus, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - poetic cello, blazing chorus
Atmospheric Elgar and Weinberg, but Rachmaninov's 'The Bells' takes the palm
Daphnis et Chloé, Tenebrae, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - lighting up Ravel’s ‘choreographic symphony’
All details outstanding in the lavish canvas of a giant masterpiece
Goldscheider, Spence, Britten Sinfonia, Milton Court review - heroic evening songs and a jolly horn ramble
Direct, cheerful new concerto by Huw Watkins, but the programme didn’t quite cohere
Marwood, Power, Watkins, Hallé, Adès, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - sonic adventure and luxuriance
Premiere of a mesmeric piece from composer Oliver Leith
Elmore String Quartet, Kings Place review - impressive playing from an emerging group
A new work holds its own alongside acknowledged masterpieces
Gilliver, LSO, Roth, Barbican review - the future is bright
Vivid engagement in fresh works by young British composers, and an orchestra on form
Josefowicz, LPO, Järvi, RFH review - friendly monsters
Mighty but accessible Bruckner from a peerless interpreter
Add comment