Colin Eatock, composer
  • Home
  • About Colin Eatock
  • Composing
  • Catalogue of works
  • Media
  • Writing about music
  • Eatock Daily (blog)
  • New and upcoming
  • Contact me

Inon Barnatan at Toronto Summer Music

7/28/2016

1 Comment

 
PictureIsraeli pianist Inon Barnatan.
Polite applause greeted pianist Inon Barnatan when he stepped on to the stage of Koerner Hall on Thursday (July 21) evening. There’s nothing unusual about this – Toronto Summer Music audiences are as polite as any you’ll find anywhere. But on this occasion I suspect that a touch of disappointment was concealed behind the curtain of propriety. This was because Barnatan was not Jeremy Denk.
 
The well-known and much-admired Denk was originally scheduled to come to Toronto, but illness forced him to cancel. Barnatan was flown in, and his replacement recital served as the vehicle for his Toronto debut as a soloist.


Originally from Israel, Barnatan now lives in New York, where he is an Artist in Association with the New York Philharmonic.

For his TSM recital, he brought some big-name composers in his bags: selections by Brahms and Schubert that aren’t among those composers’ most famous works. This was a recital for connoisseurs. (And, for this, he was in the right place: Toronto Summer Music’s patrons are hard-core classical music fans.)
 
Barnatan opened with Brahms’ left-handed piano transcription of J.S. Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor. It isn’t easy to play such a piece on the piano – and I wonder how many pianists would dare to do it on stage. There wasn’t anything pointedly “Baroque” about his performance; rather he took a Romantic approach, transforming the piece into a vast, grande ligne landscape, through which the pianist traveled on a heroic, epic journey. His playing was supple, but not homogenized – on the contrary, there were jagged, irregular passages that added to the music’s richness. And when the work’s largely monophonic texture gave way to chordal passages, the effect was glorious.
 
For Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Barnatan took a different approach. Here, he turned on the charm: his interpretation was dominated by sweetness and innocence, and his touch was generally quite smooth. (It was here that I noticed that Barnatan often plays with a bemused smile on his face, as though he were sharing a pleasant story with his listeners.) Insightfully, he found a fresh characterization for each variation: tender, flashy, playful and lush, among others. With the final fugue, he returned to the taut intensity of the Bach transcription, and built up to a powerful, fingers-of-steel finale.
 
In Schubert’s half-hour-long Sonata No. 21 in B Flat Major, Barnatan demonstrated that his own musical ideas were as expansive as the composer’s. In the first movement, he played with great purity of tone, creating an atmosphere of mystical serenity, disturbed by dark rumblings and a few sudden shifts in dynamics. The second movement was even more introspective, and here he introduced a touch of “Winterreise bleakness.” Pleasantly, this was followed by a sparkling, elfin scherzo. And the last movement was bursting with dramatic contrasts.
 
By the end of evening, Barnatan was entirely forgiven for not being Jeremy Denk. (Jeremy who?) I hope he returns to Toronto sometime soon. Apparently, Barnatan likes to play contemporary music: George Crumb, Kaija Saariaho and Judith Weir are said to be among his favourites. It would be interesting to hear what he can do with a program by those composers.

 
© Colin Eatock 2016
1 Comment
roof restoration auckland link
6/1/2024 11:26:22 am

Illness forced the well-known and highly regarded Denk to postpone his original planned visit to Toronto.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


    – CE

    Archives

    April 2025
    August 2024
    May 2024
    March 2024
    October 2023
    March 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Index

    Click here for an alphabetical list of blog entries.

    RSS Feed

    Follow colineatock on Twitter
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.