Patricia Kopatchinkskaja:
- Amazing violinist
You may not have heard the name “Patricia Kopatchinskaja”. However, let me assure you that she is one astounding violinist, and I sure hope that she’ll come to the US soon, so that the public could hear her perform live.
Kopatchinskaja’s difference seems to be in her ability to re-assess an old work, discard previous performance traditions, and to create her own interpretation as an amazing surprise to the listener.
The Stravinsky concerto was composed with the help of Polish violinist Samuel Dushkin, who also gave the first performance. Dushkin was taken aback by the technical difficulties, and he at first pronounced it unplayable. Late, however, Dushkin discovered that it was possible after all, and that was the catalyst for the creation of the piece.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja finds a percussiveness in this music, but also a wistfulness in her interpretation, and her Russian spirit collides and splinters against the more traditional form of this concerto.
The Prokofiev concerto represents a gap of less than five years separating it from the Stravinsky. The feeling of melancholy is quite apparent, reaching an almost unbearable pitch in the slow movement, where Kopatchinskaja offers something quite unexpected; a very innocent and childlike statement, appearing to draw echoes from a Slavic homeland free of contemporary political angst.
Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic are the most ssupportive partners.
Here is Patricia Kopatchinskaja, as she plays Bartók’s sonata for solo violin. (There’s no hiding here: Your ability as a violinist is completely out there for all to see and hear.)
And next, here is something composed quite a bit earlier. But the interpretation is totally different, dramatic and very satisfying:
Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata No.9, as played by Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin, and Fazıl Say, piano:
Tags: Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Fazil Say, Vladimir Jurowski, London Philharmonic