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Poetry on piano
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The brilliance of the pianist left the audience in awe
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Photo: K. Ramesh Babu
Mesmerising all Neecia Majolly and Jonas Olsson
Concert pianist Neecia Majolly and counter tenor Jonas Olsson subjected the audience to mesmerism of the highest musical calibre on Friday evening at the HICC. This was an evening of western classical music, titled — for some inexplicable reaso
n — An Evening of the Sacred and Profane. The first part of the performance was a solo piano recital by Neecia.
The first piece of the evening was a romantic Intermezzo by Johannes Brahms, which radiated warmth and tenderness and wooed the audience into a rapt listening session.
All that can be said about the second piano solo piece is that this was by far the most brilliant and beautiful of all the pieces, both in terms of composition and performance. Mozart’s Sonata in C (K.330) was executed by Neecia Majolly with complete mastery of dynamics, tempo and the subtleties associated with Mozartian elegance! Needless to say, all of this was played completely from memory.
The third, piece composed by Maurice Ravel and written in 1918, was a mixture of past and prevailing genres. Very ‘Ravelian’ in nature, this one had classical touches and sounded impressionistic more than anything - though some listeners may beg to differ. Next up, was the famous Ballade in G minor by the ‘poet of the piano’, Frederic Chopin. Imaginary fairies danced in the air as the soothing ballade was being executed with soul and technical expertise, all at once. The last of the piano solos was a short prelude by Gershwin, a modern American composer.
The second part of the performance was a combination of the voice of Jonas Olsson and the piano playing of Neecia. The vocal range of this countertenor is simply amazing. The careful listener could appreciate the smoothness with which he slipped from his modal voice into falsetto. Mostly sung in German, the songs were both sacred and secular. The sacred pieces and biblical songs by Handel and Dvorak sang the praise and adoration of the Almighty and made for some revered listening. The secular songs described very imaginatively, everyday subjects like nature, love and beauty. The songs that appealed to the audience were Franz Schubert’s Erlkönig and Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Maiden Blonde and Maiden Brunette: the former being based on a Goethe ballad about the evil Erlking and the latter about two maidens – one a blonde and one a brunette.
KENNETH DAMARA
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