In his recent and piquant essay entitled By Lang Lang, by Glenn Gould (Nuvis editions), Michel Mollard insists on the attention that the interpreter of a work pays to the silences requested by the composer. Between two musical formulas, like breathing or interrupting a pattern to create surprise, suspense. He rightly castigates a “sloppy” playing, a dragging pedal, a neglected end of sentence ».
But, not stopping there, the author uncovers with the same acuity the insults made to the silences between the different movements of a sonata or a symphony or between the pieces of the same cycle. The latter could be, according to him, literally ruined by a performer who has not thought about the duration which must separate each of the pieces, a duration which is never the same, depends on what precedes and what follows, and is not indicated on the score although it constitutes a decisive element ».
silent miracles
In addition to his exceptional virtuosity, the elegance of his playing, the depth and diversity of the sound worlds which are born under his fingers, Nikolaï Lugansky performs silent miracles which, in my opinion, should satisfy Michel Mollard. Tuesday, March 14, in front of a full Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the pianist offered the second part of the “virtually complete” work for solo piano by Rachmaninoff, “his” composer.
The ten Preludes opus 23 where hover the tutelary shadows of Chopin and Schumann (the Presto dreamlike and feverish) explored the range of joys and sadness, with passion but also tenderness. THE Largo who opens the cycle, like the one who closes it, both gave off the subtle scent of a memory that comes back, flees, comes back again…
Followed the amazing Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Op. 42, whimsical, bold, sometimes violent, played with a majestic urgency and free from any brutality that is the prerogative only of very great artists. And what emotion in the initial statement of the few notes of the theme, so simple, so poetic!
Without respite or rupture
Finally, after the intermission, the nine Studies-Paintings opus 39 dragged the spectator into mad cavalcades, mystical processions punctuated by distant bells gradually approaching – threat or consolation? -, fantastic rounds of wisps and devils from old tales…
Always right, obvious, natural, the silences separating each of the Preludes and each of Studies participated fully in the overall eloquence, inviting the collective of listeners to inhale and exhale in a common breath. Exhilarating sensation, incredible sharpening of concentration and emotion!
As to Variations, their tight writing arousing itself in an expressive crescendo before dissolving into the unknown, they could only be linked to each other without respite, without break. Exactly as Nikolai Lugansky did.