LuganoMusica brings Grigorij Sokolov to Ticino

Edited by Manuela Lozza

Sokolov will perform for the Lugano audience two cycles of composers he particularly loves: Robert Schumann, with the eight Kreisleriana fantasies op. 16 , and Sergei Rachmaninov with the Preludes op. 23.

Grigorij Sokolov in LuganoMusica

Born in 1950 in Leningrad, Sokolov is heir to a tradition embodied by performers such as Richter, Horowitz, Gilels, Gould, and Benedetti Michelangeli. He knows how to immerse himself in music, revealing its hidden depths, rediscovered with each new performance, so much so that, for his recordings, he has always favored live performances over studio recordings. Gentle, gentle, yet enveloped in the aura of a solitary and ascetic man, Sokolov is a mysterious Salinger of the piano who wishes never to be seen. Especially in his later years, he has favored solo piano music and more rarely plays in orchestras, and almost never in chamber ensembles. He doesn't even appear in Nadia Zhdanova's only documentary about him, A Conversation That Never Was , in which the musician's profile emerges from the stories of friends and colleagues.

Each of his concerts is a unique experience. The sound is a magnetic force: round, granite, mellow, highly poetic, a continuous, exuberant, feverish fantasy overflows onto the scene, with interpretations that are always coherent but very different. Like all his admirers, the Lugano public also knows well that being glued to the chair and applauding gives a third part of the program, one made up of countless encores.

Robert Schumann

For Robert Schumann, the piano was the ideal instrument for approaching composition. Regarding the Eight Fantasies for Piano, Op. 16, written around the character of the tormented Kreisler, Kapellmeister appointed by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Schumann wrote, "Of all the compositions of the years around 1838, Kreisleriana is the dearest to me." So dear that he decided to write it for Clara Wieck, later dedicating the work to his friend Frédéric Chopin. The cycle alternates major (odd numbers) and minor (even numbers) keys, exalting reflection.

Sergei Rachmaninov

Like Chopin, too Sergei Rachmaninov he was fascinated by the idea of writing a cycle of 24 songs - one for each key - on the model of the Well tempered harpsichord by Bach. The Ten Preludes op. 23, written between 1901 and 1903, constitute the first part of this cycle, completed by the 13 of op. 32 and from the Prelude in C sharp minor op. 3 n. 2. Sokolov has a deep knowledge of Rachmaninov's music and often prefers the collections of Preludes, perhaps because thanks to their formal freedom the composer allows himself to experiment with unusual melodic solutions and techniques, leaving room for an interpretation that amazes every time for its astonishing mastery technical and expressive.