Celebrating Ivry Gitlis

The Philharmonie de Paris wished to celebrate Ivry Gitlis. The evening mixed music and some talks with the old master. I should immediately mention that if he is old of age (96), Gitlis is young at heart and full of wit.

After a brief introduction, the 1st part of the evening was dedicated to music, mainly classical, with a long list of friends or former pupils queuing to play. Some of them said a few words to the audience or more privately just to Ivry, and one even wrote some sort of a poem.

Continue reading

Argerich, Kovacevich, Angelich, Capuçon and co

I doubt there ever was such a profusion of pianists on the Philharmonie de Paris stage before that evening: Martha Argerich, Stephen Kovacevich, Nicholas Angelich, the excellent Akane Sakai and Lilya Zilberstein and the Buniatishvili sisters. But pianists were not everything as they were joined by Renaud Capuçon (violin), Edgar Moreau, (cello), and percussionists Jean-Claude Gengembre and Camille Baslé, to play pieces of various format (piano solo, 4 hands, 2 pianos, chamber music…).

Continue reading

Nicholas Angelich, Orléans

A 14 of October to be definitely forgotten, apart from the recital given by Nicholas Angelich at the Salle de l’Institut in Orléans. It was even a struggle to get there and I arrived late…

But this did not prevent me from enjoying his fine rendition of Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana – even if I missed the beginning of the piece as well as the opening pieces by Chopin, nor the absolutely remarkable performance of Franz Liszt’s Sonata, that I found even superior to the version he recorded some time ago, with this kind of sunrise at the very end of this dramatic piece.

Continue reading