Brilliant technique, thrilling romantic ardour, deeply embedded risk taking and startling emotional range combine in the piano playing of Freddy Kemp – whose exploration of Russian music is at once illuminating and expansive. His 2019 recital in the Utzon room presented explorations of Prokofiev, Kapustin and Rachmaninoff.
His playing of Prokofiev exalts in the dynamic contrasts and rhythmic interplay of this neo-romantic music – particularly the inner dialogue of disarray and internal filigree that operates beneath the thunderous demonic power . The motorific is never purely mechanical but varied and expressive.
Kempf responds to this music’s extreme challenges matching in clarity and tension the conflicting forces that seem to motivate its sense and structure. This was heroically attested to by his rendition of the Piano Sonata No. 8 in B♭ major, Op. 84 (1944). The dreamy and the scabrous fleck ideas at each other, the motorific thrust of the first movement brings forth degrees of energy, shades of hammering, and ultimately cathartic release - like in Shostakovich - when the wan recollection of happier feeling steals back into our consciousness, refracted and reformed by the blitzkrieg anger of its treatment.
Kempf ensured that the structure of this piece was outlined with utmost clarity, forcing us to concentrate on its weight and wisdom
The Sonata's second movement is wistful, Russian sad, tipsy on its melancholy and still built on the flex of energy and reserves of power. In the midst of war and its general horror, the threads of human beauty like ribbons of remembered joy weave their way through this poignant Andante. The surreptitious plunge into the final movement was dramatically placed by Kempf, The tug and pull of terror and triumph creates tension throughout this movement. The scale is heroic, the violence visceral, the sudden shocks of silence eating their way into our wellbeing. The cumulative tension is almost unbearable, but the coruscating power of the pianism is electric, hypnotic. This is challenging music but spacious. reminding us of the late works of Beethoven. Kempf delivered its multifaceted glories with lacerating intent.
The recital began with Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1 (1909)– a one movement work with four sections that hints at the motorific, but runs along the rivers of romantic Russian extemporisation and sounds not dissimilar to the sound world of Rachmaninov and even Tchaikovsky. This is a student work, but assured and intense, every sequence reinstated with rising excitement and swelling towards the emerging dissonant climax and sudden silence.
The jazz inspired pianism of Nikolai Kapustin was refreshing – delivering many normative riffs and complex pianistic rhythms. Its interplay between joyous freedom and structured, sculptured classicism gave a frisson that heightened both sources of inspiration: Chopin does Jazz might be a flippant nomenclature, but with a grain of truth. The three selections from the Concert Etudes, Opus 40 (1984) showcased the cumulative energy and zest of this work. No. I: Prelude: Allegro assai, was a scintillating introduction to the sound world and its elisions. No. VII: Intermezzo Allegrettowas a tour deforce of rhythmic propulsion, its rising intensity couched within a playful mould, while No. VIII: Finale Prestissimo connected viscerally with the inheritance of Prokofiev, forty years on. This was happy music, breathless with energy and joy, highly structured, with splashes of Lisztian difficulties. Though Kapustin bemoaned his inability to improvise, he crafts an elegant spontaneity.
After a short break we plunged into the original version of Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 2, Opus 36, (1913). As I wrote of Kempf’s last Sydney performance of this work (2016):
“The sheer agonising heft of this work, its yearning lyricism, its dark clangourous world of bells and death was managed every step of the way by Kempf who allowed us, within the midst of ecstatic crescendos, to hear the notes and follow the composers thinking.”
This time around there was a particular emotional intensity to his playing. The release at the end of its nihilistic flourishes, as though all the bells of Russia were issuing their warnings, was visible on his face and body. This was a pianist riding a powerful work’s waves of invention, viscerally empowered, and returning its energy, thrills and fulsome emotions for our benediction.
Utzon Music Series – Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House –Sydney, 10 February, 2019
Gar Jones
His playing of Prokofiev exalts in the dynamic contrasts and rhythmic interplay of this neo-romantic music – particularly the inner dialogue of disarray and internal filigree that operates beneath the thunderous demonic power . The motorific is never purely mechanical but varied and expressive.
Kempf responds to this music’s extreme challenges matching in clarity and tension the conflicting forces that seem to motivate its sense and structure. This was heroically attested to by his rendition of the Piano Sonata No. 8 in B♭ major, Op. 84 (1944). The dreamy and the scabrous fleck ideas at each other, the motorific thrust of the first movement brings forth degrees of energy, shades of hammering, and ultimately cathartic release - like in Shostakovich - when the wan recollection of happier feeling steals back into our consciousness, refracted and reformed by the blitzkrieg anger of its treatment.
Kempf ensured that the structure of this piece was outlined with utmost clarity, forcing us to concentrate on its weight and wisdom
The Sonata's second movement is wistful, Russian sad, tipsy on its melancholy and still built on the flex of energy and reserves of power. In the midst of war and its general horror, the threads of human beauty like ribbons of remembered joy weave their way through this poignant Andante. The surreptitious plunge into the final movement was dramatically placed by Kempf, The tug and pull of terror and triumph creates tension throughout this movement. The scale is heroic, the violence visceral, the sudden shocks of silence eating their way into our wellbeing. The cumulative tension is almost unbearable, but the coruscating power of the pianism is electric, hypnotic. This is challenging music but spacious. reminding us of the late works of Beethoven. Kempf delivered its multifaceted glories with lacerating intent.
The recital began with Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1 (1909)– a one movement work with four sections that hints at the motorific, but runs along the rivers of romantic Russian extemporisation and sounds not dissimilar to the sound world of Rachmaninov and even Tchaikovsky. This is a student work, but assured and intense, every sequence reinstated with rising excitement and swelling towards the emerging dissonant climax and sudden silence.
The jazz inspired pianism of Nikolai Kapustin was refreshing – delivering many normative riffs and complex pianistic rhythms. Its interplay between joyous freedom and structured, sculptured classicism gave a frisson that heightened both sources of inspiration: Chopin does Jazz might be a flippant nomenclature, but with a grain of truth. The three selections from the Concert Etudes, Opus 40 (1984) showcased the cumulative energy and zest of this work. No. I: Prelude: Allegro assai, was a scintillating introduction to the sound world and its elisions. No. VII: Intermezzo Allegrettowas a tour deforce of rhythmic propulsion, its rising intensity couched within a playful mould, while No. VIII: Finale Prestissimo connected viscerally with the inheritance of Prokofiev, forty years on. This was happy music, breathless with energy and joy, highly structured, with splashes of Lisztian difficulties. Though Kapustin bemoaned his inability to improvise, he crafts an elegant spontaneity.
After a short break we plunged into the original version of Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 2, Opus 36, (1913). As I wrote of Kempf’s last Sydney performance of this work (2016):
“The sheer agonising heft of this work, its yearning lyricism, its dark clangourous world of bells and death was managed every step of the way by Kempf who allowed us, within the midst of ecstatic crescendos, to hear the notes and follow the composers thinking.”
This time around there was a particular emotional intensity to his playing. The release at the end of its nihilistic flourishes, as though all the bells of Russia were issuing their warnings, was visible on his face and body. This was a pianist riding a powerful work’s waves of invention, viscerally empowered, and returning its energy, thrills and fulsome emotions for our benediction.
Utzon Music Series – Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House –Sydney, 10 February, 2019
Gar Jones