Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Sergei Kvitkos' Brilliant Ad Libitum

Transcript

Sergei Kvitkos' Brilliant Ad Libitum · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:00
  This is Jed Disler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
• 0:14
  recordings.
• 0:15
  And I thank you all for your steadfast support of this podcast.
• 0:20
  It means the world to me.
• 0:22
  And please continue to spread the word and to get all of your piano loving friends and
• 0:30
  colleagues to join in the fun.
• 0:34
  I am a big fan of the pianist Sergei Kvitko.
• 0:39
  He always has wonderful and interesting program ideas.
• 0:43
  And he brings off these ideas with the utmost virtuosity and aplomb.
• 0:49
  And he also gets the most gorgeous sound out of his instrument.
• 0:53
  I'm particularly fond of this release of his on the blue griffin label that features fantasias,
• 1:01
  variations, and his own transcriptions.
• 1:04
  The title of this disc is called Ad Libitum.
• 1:08
  It begins with the C major prelude from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book One with
• 1:14
  a few extra notes added in.
• 1:16
  Sergei Kvitko begins the prelude straightforwardly and innocently enough.
• 1:23
  But then he starts to add countermelodies.
• 1:26
  And these countermelodies start piling on to one another.
• 1:30
  And then there are scales and runs that are showing up.
• 1:34
  All these wild patterns.
• 1:36
  It's almost like people getting into a subway car and they're jostling to get a seat.
• 1:43
  And it's all crazy mayhem.
• 1:46
  I have a feeling that the pianist must have been multi-tracking on this selection because
• 1:51
  I really couldn't imagine him playing all of the notes himself with just two hands and
• 1:57
  ten fingers.
• 1:58
  The next selection on this disc is the Mozart Fantasy in D minor, Kershaw 397.
• 2:06
  And here Kvitko goes a little wild in the faster music, which is okay.
• 2:12
  And he leans into the accents in a way that really grabs your attention.
• 2:17
  It's not your contained and chased kind of Mozart.
• 2:21
  And that's perfectly fine by me.
• 2:25
  Also there is his fresh and very imaginative and well integrated interpretation of Haydn's
• 2:32
  variations in F minor with all of the repeats and some very tasteful ornaments too.
• 2:39
  Sergei Kvitko plays the Encenas Romanticas by Granados with as much idiomatic flair as
• 2:47
  anyone and I don't think he has to take a backseat at all to Alicia de la Rocha.
• 2:53
  This disc ends with two transcriptions.
• 2:57
  Sergei Kvitko's solo piano version of Terpach from Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death
• 3:05
  features dark bass register writing, gloomy tremolos and sweeping arpeggios, all that
• 3:14
  add urgency and intensity to the melody's various repetitions.
• 3:21
  And these effects never sound garish or self-serving.
• 3:26
  And the final selection is really cool.
• 3:29
  Kvitko fleshes out the unaccompanied violin sonata number three by Eugene Isai in very
• 3:38
  effective pianistic terms.
• 3:41
  Now it's true that double stops on the violin played as thirds or sixths when transferred
• 3:47
  to the piano don't have comparable tension.
• 3:51
  They have much more tension when you hear them played on the violin.
• 3:55
  However, it's interesting that Kvitko largely stays within the violin's range until about
• 4:04
  a minute and a half into the piece and then the piano's full range becomes rampantly
• 4:11
  available and all of a sudden the music starts sounding like what might have happened if
• 4:17
  a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody and César Franck's Prelude Choral and Fugue got together and
• 4:26
  had a baby.
• 4:27
  I think it's a really terrific and very effective transcription.
• 4:32
  And I'm wondering what might happen if Sergei Kvitko went ahead and made piano transcriptions
• 4:38
  of Eugene Isai's five other solo violin sonatas.
• 4:43
  I propose that to him as a dare.
• 4:46
  Who knows if he will take me up on it.
• 4:49
  Maybe he already has done that.
• 4:51
  I have no idea.
• 4:52
  Anyway, this disc was recorded in 2012 and it was released in 2013.
• 5:01
  And now in 2024, this disc still provides me with great listening pleasure and I was
• 5:09
  really happy to reconnect with it recently.
• 5:13
  It has a secure place in my CD collection and hopefully it will find a place in your
• 5:19
  collection if you can get hold of it.
• 5:22
  This is Jet Disler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
• 5:28
  guide to piano recordings.
• 5:31
  And I look forward to being with you next time for the next episode.