Medici offers finely tuned rewards for classicists
Russian-born pianist Konstantin Shamray recently launched the Medici Concerts for 2024 with more great artists to come, including a concert by homegrown classical music hero Piers Lane
Queensland’s Medici Concerts is a little jewel in the crown of the classical music calendar. Each year the concert series presents four world-acclaimed pianists in recital.
Established and run by Ann Thompson, this popular and award-winning series celebrates significant soloists, mostly pianists.
The series began this year on March 17 with Konstantin Shamray, winner of the 2008 Sydney International Piano Competition. Three more concerts will be spread throughout the year.
After an introductory Variations in E Flat Major by Mozart, Shamray played Chopin’s Nocturne in G, Opus 37, No. 2 in G Major with expressive insight.
Powering through the mercurial shifts, melodrama and dazzling finger work in Scherzo No 4, Op 54, in E major with breath-taking skill, Shamray evoked the central interlude’s introspection with a radiant tone, if sometimes lacking in soulfulness.
Shamray’s brilliance lay in how he gave every voice its say, whether these are in the piano’s lower, middle or upper registers. Chatty exchanges, tune fragments, an ominous note or a talkative bass were vividly expressed. This textural clarity was particularly thrilling in the Fantasy on Themes From Mozart’s Figaro and Don Giovanni by Liszt-Busoni. The tunes shone brightly through prolonged Olympian flurries, discharged at dizzying speed.
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Similarly, the waltz melodies canvassed in Ravel’s La Valse, a work of immense challenge, leaped through the dark maelstrom of fiendish passagework like shafts of light.
These pieces – as well as Messiaen’s Prelude, Cloches d’angoisses et larmes d’adieu (inspired by Debussy), in which Shamray portrayed the chiming of bells and marvellous washes of colour – were the standouts.
One of the charms of the Medici series is the opportunity to enjoy the differing musical perspectives of star pianists. The repertoire rarely strays into adventurous territory. Popular works reoccur, and its a plus because there are opportunities to compare the idiosyncrasies and strengths each player brings to these works.
It’s fascinating to engage with alternative takes of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata or Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A Major and it’s inspiring when familiar pieces are reimagined and given a makeover.
Featured artists have included Stephen Hough, Freddy Kemph, Nelson Freire, Pascal Roge, Barry Douglas, Roger Woodward, Cristina Ortez, Jayson Gilham and David Helfgott, whose life story was famously referenced in the film Shine.
The next recital features the unassuming Alexander Gavrylyuk but there’s nothing low key about how fearlessly he drives the piano at hair-raising pace, taking audiences on knife-edged journeys through works of scorching virtuosity.
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In 2024, he is presenting three sonatas by Schubert, Scriabin and Prokofiev, complimented by a brace of Liszt’s Consolations.
In the intimacy of the Queensland Conservatorium Theatre, it’s fun to observe the performers’ personalities, the fleeting smiles, their extroverted or modest introductions, whether they dive into a piece or summons a cone of silence before making a start.
Piers Lane, a Medici regular, is welcomed as a returned hero (he grew up in Brisbane) and his concert in June will be in the Concert Hall at QPAC which he is quite capable of filling. The locals applaud his intelligent pianism. He’s a consummate colourist with 50 shades of soft and loud. Audiences enjoy his warmth and chatty asides and how enthusiastically he talks about the program.
Wearing signature bright socks, Lane is a storyteller through and through, whether he’s divulging the meaning of a composer’s music or weaving a narrative through the piano. His recitals champion worthy but neglected composers. This year, Glazunov’s Theme and Variations Opus 72 with its mysterious seven-bar theme gets a well-deserved airing.
Lane invariably features Chopin and audiences will be charmed by this piano-centric’s Fantaisie in F minor Opus 49, allegedly written after Chopin had quarrelled with his lover George Sand, the Etude in Ab Opus 2 5 No.1 and the enduringly favoured raindrop Prelude in Db Opus No.15.
The Viney–Grinberg Duo appear later in the year. This duo has a remarkable synergy; they pause, breathe, shape a phrase or put the brakes on with astonishing unity. Their delivery, like synchronised dance, is good to watch and this may explain why their offering will feature Sixteen Waltzes Opus 39 by Brahms and Johann Strauss Junior’s Blue Danube Fantasy and the Donau Lieder Walzer, Opus 127.
It’s shaping up to be another very good year for Medici Concerts.
The next Medici Concert features Alexander Gavrylyuk, performing at the Conservatorium Theatre, South Bank, May 18, 3pm