Image: Alexander Gavrylyuk photograph courtesy of Melbourne Recital Centre.
Ukrainian-born Alexander Gavrylyuk is an established and acclaimed concert pianist with a building international reputation. Partly trained in Australia, his technique is accomplished and assured. Whether at this stage he qualifies as a ‘great performer’ as the title of this Series suggests, however, is debatable. This energetic and theatrical recital in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on Monday night spanned Schubert’s bucolic Piano Sonata in A (D664); a collection of works by Chopin; Prokofiev’s short Piano Sonata No 3, Op 28; five of Rachmaninoff’s Études-Tableaux, Op 39; and concluded with Balakirev’s dazzling Islamey, Op 18. A sameness of approach to this varied repertoire, however, was evident throughout.
A mostly gentle and relatively straightforward composition intended to convey the trance of youthful love and the rural beauty of Austrian countryside, the Schubert Sonata’s elation came across as unnecessarily sophisticated and histrionic. In the first movement (Allegro moderato) each and every bar was pulled this way or that so as to squeeze every note of its emotional potential. The result seemed excessive and dense, preventing the work from breathing its simple and youthful air. Similarly, the collection of three popular Chopin works (Fantasie in F minor, Op 49; the Nocturne in D flat major, Op 27; and the Polonaise in A flat major, Op 53) were flawlessly performed though were received as bulky, lacking the naivety, stillness and, again, air to allow this often delicate music to sing its individual beauty. In other words, one observed the performer aiming to make a distinct impact on every moment without trusting the charm of each composer’s rhetoric to speak for itself.
It was only after interval that the artist came into his own with the acerbic and percussive Prokofiev Sonata, and within the deep and rich tapestry-like complexity of the Rachmaninoff Études-Tableaux. (A more significant Sonata by Prokofiev, such as his 7th, to replace Schubert altogether might have better suited Gavrylyuk’s artistry.) Gavrylyuk here relished the technical challenges presented, though his weighting of occasional passages was extreme and uncomfortably indulgent; it was concerning to witness his left hand playing octave passages fortissimo at speed using sustaining pedal to create a thunderous din making it almost impossible to discern pitch.
Though a technical tour-de-force, Balakirev’s Islamey, Op 18 might best be described as an acquired taste. If its Olympian technical challenges were very nearly achieved, the work was performed with yet more fatiguing theatricality and heavy-handedness; in this instance, it all seemed much ado about very little.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano
Great Performers Concert Series 2016
Presented by Melbourne Recital Centre and Andrew McKinnon Presentations
Monday 7 June 2016
Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
Also appearing at City Recital Hall, Sydney
Thursday 16 June
cityrecitalhall.com
