June 5, 2013
How can you get organ resonances, drops falling on water, bells and the wind blowing on the same instrument? How do you stretch time to your own will, and make sharp changes sound as natural as rubatos? How do you find a thousand dynamic nuances, and make the motor drop from 100 to 10 in just milliseconds and without breaking your legato? How to move and impress the whole audience when there’s someone in the first row snoring annoyingly throughout the concert? Elisabeth Leonskaja knows the answer: being genuine. Her authority choosing the silences between movements, releasing a stream of passion with each forte chord, or finding unbelievable shades for the sounds of the scales, can’t be denied. It arises from the respect she has for herself, from the enjoyment of creating magic in every piece, be it on stage or in her home’s intimacy. Tonight I didn’t attend a piano concert, it was a master lecture on artistic authenticity. Brava, maestra!
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