Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Class act
|
Mira T. Sundara Rajan's piano recital was a combination of formidable technique, rare insight and beautiful music
|
Sometimes the playing is so perfect, the interpretations so poignant that the experience demands a record, if only to help publicise real, perhaps exceptional talent. And so it was with Mira T. Sundara Rajan, Canadian pianist, Intellectual Property lawyer and professor at the University of British Columbia and great-granddaughter of Mahakavi C. Subramania Bharati. She gave her piano concert at the Goethe- Institut to a small but captive audience.
Mira chose to play the works of three composers -- Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Ginastera. Mira graced the Steinway grand piano draped in gold-spangled black chiffon and introduced the pieces with a pinch of humour even requesting listeners to switch of their cell-phones with ԤThis music predates mobile technology.Ԭ
In summary her hour-long programme looked rather conventional. She began with Brahms Opus 118 No: 1,2 and 6 and Opus 116 No: 3 and 4. She played with charm, wit and real invention with some of the rhythmic turns and cadences being delivered with an air of unexpected surprise. Brahms' works for the piano were a revelation, a real ear-opener.
She followed on with Rachmaninoff's Opus 32 No: 10 in B minor, a tragic but dazzling piece, No: 12 in G sharp minor, and No: 13 in D flat major. The pieces were demanding both in execution and realisation. Its variations require tremendous interpretive skill as well as technical mastery and Mira displayed brilliance in both areas. A set of variations can often descend into just presentation, the whole lacking coherence. Not so with this Rachmaninoff, and much of the credit must go to Mira's ability to identify and communicate the grand design.
Then we did have a real showpiece - Ginastera's Suite of Creole Dances (Suite de Danzas Criollas). Ginastera's treatment of the material is nothing less than pyrotechnic and as Mira played, there were times when her hands and arms were nothing but a blur. Many players often sacrifice the musical vision, as elegance and interpretation are muscled out by sheer technique. Not so with Mira. Not only was the piece a pianistic tour-de-force, it was also a thoroughly satisfying musical experience. The pyrotechnics made sense and became much more than the coloured bangs and flashes of random display.
Mira says music has been a parallel life ever since she started learning the piano at 7. Mira's performance of these beautiful, ethereal works seemed to suspend time, each chord lasting simultaneously an eternity and yet briefly. This was a truly marvellous evening of music which delivered new perspectives on all the composers featured.
To describe her playing as close to perfect would be to do Mira an injustice. It was much better than that and, frankly, I think the audience was left utterly stunned.
DEEPA ALEXANDER
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
