Winter, a Saturday Evening, And Rachmaninoff

Classical music and modern classic performance are two notions that stand beyond categories like exotica for instance as the case is with the hit parade. However, to tell the truth: the public that came to a concert on Saturday January 22 at the Kyiv Philharmonic had that tinge of ethnographic interest. For the announced star of the night performance was Chinese pianist Yin Chen-Zong, currently living in the USA. After all, performers from the Celestial Kingdom are not frequent guests of our Philharmonic Society.

However, the concert quite soon put everything in its proper place: the class of play is an international concept. Yin Chen-Zong is now professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a figure long ago recognized in the West, who has more than once performed in the most prestigious Carnegie Hall and given concerts with symphony orchestras in the US, Austria, and Russia. The key component of his musical experience, which brought him close to the audience, is the beginning of his career in Russia. No doubt, the training at St. Petersburg Conservatory and the winning in the Tchaikovsky Contest long ago in 1962 is something very important for any virtuoso. In fact, quite many of our Ukrainian performers also come from this Russian nest. Precisely because of this the Russian program sounded quite organic. Its central items were two great and quite complex works. The National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra performed smoothly, although without any special flights, Symphony No. 6 (titled Pathêtique ) by Peter Tchaikovsky. The guest undertook even a more difficult task — Concert No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Experience is a great thing, but to perform Rachmaninoff one needs special steadfastness and fortitude of spirit in order to live up to the immense tension and inspired power put by the composer into his intricate score. Professor Yin Chen-Zong succeeded in doing so. Winter, a Saturday evening, and a well-performed Rachmaninoff make up far from the worst scenario for one’s leisure, but not too popular at the moment, unfortunately.