By Christopher Axworthy. Parvis Hejazi in recital with Mozart,Shostakovich,Brahms .Some remarkable musicianly performances from a true artist. Always a great showman but one who has learnt that the message of music is the greatest show that one can share.A performance of Mozart C minor Sonata that was both dramatic and tender.
Early Shostakovich Preludes with their sometimes grotesque sense of humour but that spoke as eloquently as Prokofiev’s poetic Visions Fugitives.
But it was the Brahms variations op 21 n.1 and 2 that unleashed the depth of sound and ravishing sense of colour from this young poet of the piano,together with his aristocratic sense of harmonic structure.
It gave great weight and meaning to these sumptuous scores of passionate pulsating harmonic blocks of ever moving romantic effusions.
A single encore of Couperin who’s sublime simplicity was the ideal antidote to Brahms’s passionate effusions and the allusion to the Mysteries of Bacchus led very nicely to the post concert drink.
There was a clarity and rhythmic drive to the opening movement where the energy of the opening statement was answered by the plaintive questioning reply. It was these contrasts that were so poignantly played never allowing the tempo to slacken even for the most mellifluous of second subjects. There was an imperious drive as the opening motive was expanded in the development only to dissolve onto a pianissimo questioning chord as the recapitulation regenerated the initial opening energy. The mysterious coda was beautifully played as it disappeared into the depths of the piano. There was a fluidity to the tempo of the Adagio played very much in four that allowed it to flow so naturally with simplicity and beauty. The central episode,so similar to Schubert,was played with a sense of peace and reverence as it’s dark colours contrasted so well with the luminosity of its surrounds. There was great mystery to the opening of the Allegro assai that contrasted so well with the rhythmic interruptions that follow. A fluidity and simplicity in Parvis’s playing that brought a freshness combined with drama to this remarkable movement. A hypnotic coda brought this extraordinary sonata to a Beethovenian conclusion from the hands of a real musician. (…)
A choice of four preludes that were four miniature tone poems. With each one that could portray so much in such a short space of time.There were the pungent harmonies and deep bass notes of the Moderato and the brittle strident sounds of the parody of a dance in the Allegretto. There was a beautiful fluid melodic line to the Moderato n.10 very similar in atmosphere to Prokofiev’s Visions with the calm and tranquility of brittle sounds.A magical ending in trills that in Parvis’s hands were mere vibrations of sound. The last n.24 Parvis relished the grotesque parody of the dance that he was obviously enjoying as much as the audience. (…)
There was grandeur and sumptuous full sounds to the simple mellifluous theme of op 21 n.1 that spread over into a series of variations of fluidity and ravishing beauty. Sounds that spread gradually over the whole keyboard with a radiance and harmonic richness without any hardness. There was grandeur and brilliance too but always within a sound world that he built from the bass and that gave such ecstatic warmth to this beautiful work. The variations op 21 n.2 were of an orchestral brilliance and rhythmic energy that contrasted so well with it’s twin.Parvis brought to it a completely different sound of radiance and sunlight where it’s twin had been bathed in a twilight area of subtlety and deep emotions. (…)
There was a beguiling ease to the rondo theme of Couperin ‘Les Barricades’ as it returned with hypnotic fluidity. It was an ideal encore after such a sumptuous feast of music from the hands of a true musician. (…)