DVD Review: Grigory Sokolov: Live in Paris - Beethoven/Komitas/Prokofiev: Grigory Sokolov, Bruno Monsaingeon: Movies & TV
DVD Review: Grigory Sokolov: Live in Paris - Beethoven/Komitas/Prokofiev: Grigory Sokolov, Bruno Monsaingeon: Movies & TV
A Reissue of a Classic Sokolov Film by Bruno Monsaingeon,
By J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) -
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)
[I first reviewed this film of a Paris recital by piano giant Grigory Sokolov in 2005. Then it was on the Ideale label. Now it is reissued on the Medici Arts label. But as far as I can tell it is the same. I append my original review.]
Grigory Sokolov was not particularly on my radar screen–I’d heard his CD of ‘Art of the Fugue’ only–until a friend lent me this DVD. But, boy, is he in the center of the scope now! This pianist is absolutely superb, and one of a kind I suspect. First of all, he reportedly does not make recordings unless they are done live and preferably in one take. He has not, as far as I know, ever been filmed before, certainly not by anyone as sensitive as music filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon, whose Richter videos are well-known. This DVD is a two-hour recital filmed straight, with no editing other than for camera angle choices. There are really only a few stationary cameras, and generally each camera shot is a lengthy one so that there isn’t the frenetic intercutting one so often sees, presumably to jazz things up a bit. We get plenty of close-ups of Sokolov’s hands.
The program is strong. He starts with three early Beethoven sonatas, Nos. 9, 10 and 15, played without pause–that is, there are no breaks and no applause until the end of the third sonata. Sokolov is an extremely meticulous technician, but he is not mechanical in the least. Indeed there are what some might call rather many tempo and dynamic variations. But the overall results are powerful, sensitive and expressive readings of what are, after all, fairly early works that could be played as if by Haydn, and often are. The slow movements–two of them gorgeous sets of variations–are particularly effective. Sokolov’s control is amazing. His legato is seamless and he seems to manage it without much finger-shifting. His attacks in fortissimi are frightening in their intensity and they are also absolutely spotless technically. This is what reminds me so much of Michelangeli. One has the feeling that every single note, transition, dynamic, tempo has been considered deeply.
After the interval comes a set of six dances by the single-named Armenian composer, Komitas (1869-1935; sometimes called Komitas Vartabed but born Soghomon Soghomonian). They are like nothing I’d ever heard before. They are based on folk melodies and are extraordinarily strangely laid out for the piano. The first dance, for instance, is played with the two hands entirely in unison but two octaves apart. Yet, there are diversions and interruptions in the line rather like what one gets in an unaccompanied violin piece, but not for counterpoint per se. Rather, the diversions are in the nature of imitations of percussion instruments or other indigenous instruments. The six dances taken together are hypnotic in their Near Eastern melos and fervor. I was really quite taken by them.
This, then, is followed by Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata in the most titanic performance I’ve ever heard. Richter is the only player who is in the same league with this one. The intensity of the attack is, again, frightening and if there were any dropped notes I certainly didn’t catch them. In the gentler sections there is a passionate singing tone. The first movement is still resounding in my mind’s ear.
There are several encores–Chopin, Couperin, the Siloti arrangement of Bach’s B minor prelude, BWV855a–that round out a very satisfying evening. The recital was performed in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysée before a quiet but appreciative audience. Sound is lifelike.
Strongly recommended. This one is truly a classic.
TT=123:02
Scott Morrison
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