PETITE VIRTUOSO, IMMENSE POWER
You’ve heard of the barefoot contessa (the old Gardner-Bogart movie; also the more recent cooking show). But are you ready for the barefoot violinista?
She’s one of a kind, and hardly your everyday recitalist. Meet the fast-rising Patricia Kopatchinskaja from Moldova (formerly USSR), a petite artist who looks like a sweet young woman but surprising you, playing with great fire and passion. In her Herbst Theatre recital, she called impromptu inaudibles (sic) from the stage, flip-flopping the opening selections, and inserting an unprogrammed Clara Schumann piece between them. Responding to the final ovation, she added the shortest, quietest encore ever (a trifle by the composer/mystic Giya Kancheli) and slowly strolled offstage, as if the music were still in progress. All done in a full-length formal gown. But barefoot.
Fortunately, she’s a very forceful, arresting interpreter, and fast-rising too—She has already been artistic director of the Ojai Festival, artistic partner (it’s similar, but not quite) of the St.Paul Chamber Orchestra, and she plays concertos old and very new. She plays the instrument with manic intensity, like a gypsy virtuoso.
Gypsy strains ran strong Nov. 12 in this largely Eastern-European program of famous composers’ lesser-known sonatas, all from the 1900-1950 period. Francis Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, composed during the World War Two occupation, showed the French composer venturing slightly into the avant-garde, without the characteristic piquant flavor used to describe his output. He contrasts sections of lament with virtuosic flights, wild bow thrusts, and super-sonic “needle-threading” music requiring superior agility.
The inserted Clara Schumann salon music was intended to soften the blow, just before Bartok’s odd two-movement Sonata No. 2 with its dissonance and emotional extremes. The violin is resting for almost the entire first movement, where forceful pianist Polina Leschenko jumped in fearlessly, reminding us that Bartok was himself a gifted keyboard performer.
Leschenko also had her work cut out for her in the Enesco Violin Sonata No. 3, suffused with the fire of gypsy dances, using the “gypsy scale,” and ending with fireworks straight out of Romania. Unlike the companions, this capricious work is not as convincing as a concert piece, but revels in hot blood—it’s anything but dull.
For even hotter blood, the K-L duo finished with Ravel’s impulsive and volatile “Tzigane,” packing sheer dynamite into 10 minutes of wild violin work, with the gypsy spirit yet more pronounced. As usual, it brought down the house.
For those still searching in vain for an insert detailing the program changes: the management reports being totally surprised by the last-minute program flip-flop, powerless to clarify the situation for the patient patrons.
To pronounce her name, try Ko-pat-CHIN-ska-ya.
VIOLIN RECITAL by Patricia Kopatchinskaja from Moldova, Dec. 12 at Herbst Theatre, under auspices of San Francisco Performances. For SFP info: (415) 392-2545, or go online.
