Alexander Peskanov is a popular performer with Bachauer Festival audiences, and for good reason: He gives a big, power-packed show that leaves you with no doubt that you have heard a virtuoso.
Peskanov returned to Salt Lake City with his pianistic arsenal intact: a dynamic range that can swoop from thunderous attack to the lightest, most delicate skimming of the keys; the ability to set off a brilliant cascade of sparkling notes, each separate and distinct no matter how fast; a singing right hand that defines a melody ever so clearly and beguilingly, whether fast or slow; and the intention to communicate the essence of each piece in a heartfelt, deeply involved way.All his virtuosity was instantly on display in his attention-getting opener - Liszt's transcription of Bach's Organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor - in which he immediately unleashed a torrent of full-throated tone, though never distorted or allowed to run wild, no matter what the emotional provocation.
Peskanov next turned to the music of Chopin for a couple of Nocturnes. The ultra-familiar Nocturne in E flat major received the most simple, almost restrained treatment, with the melody allowed to sing free and clear, and no rhythmic or melodic affectations. Not to be cheated of his visceral effect, he pulled out the Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1, an unfamiliar piece which built to a big and soaring climax, yet stayed within bounds. In fact, despite his penchant for big and loud, Peskanov is a very nice Chopin stylist. Never precious nor overdone, he shows respect for the smaller dynamic and more subtle range that this composer favored.
From the music of Robert Schumann he selected a tuneful Arabesque of lyric dimensions, followed by a virtuosic toccata whose handfuls of fast-flung notes stayed under perfect control.
A Prelude and Fugue by Shostakovich was sensitively handled, but more to the audience's taste was the meat of his program - Sergei Rachmaninoff's Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3, early pieces which exploit that composer's flamboyant nature.
The highlight is the Prelude in C sharp minor, a blockbuster of many years' standing known to one and all, in which Peskanov discerned and pulled out the pure music. Equally ingratiating was the opening Elegie, endowed with the pianist's most authoritative bravura; Melodie in E major, an impassioned, singing piece that mounted faster and faster; Polichinelle in F sharp minor, which gave the little puppet a bold and cocky demeanor; and a whimsical serenade.
Peskanov concluded with a considerable group of Scriabin, Two Poems of Op. 32 and Two Etudes of Op. 8. The poems were not especially characterful, but the etudes assumed greater fire and color, climaxing in the familiar tour de force, the Etude No. 12 in D sharp minor. For an encore he played his own "O Costa Rica," a jazzy, Latin-flavored little piece, and topped off with another toccata, this time by Czerny.
He wondered aloud if he could do two Toccatas in one evening. Not to worry; with his formidable technique Peskanov could do two dozen toccatas in an evening if he so desired.
- Speight Jenkins, general director of the Seattle Opera, received the Doctor of Humanities from Seattle University on June 14. Last month he was awarded a doctorate in music from the University of Puget Sound.
Jenkins, a critic and writer turned director, has brought exciting times to Seattle Opera, with his highly acclaimed productions of Wagner's Ring, and the brilliant "War and Peace" by Prokofiev, among many others.