[concert] Grigorij Sokolov - Schubert, Beethoven (Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana)

Grigorij Sokolov has been playing profoundly devoted, as one is almost used to expect of him, just that there had been one minor flaw to his performance. And it has, paradoxically, made his concert even better and an even more invigorating experience to come across. First part of the concert were the Schubert pieces, not excessively emotional, not excessively mathematical or in any way hitting the popular approaches, just pure joy of playing, yet restrained in a special way. At the very beginning of the second part, a string in the piano (around H2, C3), broke, and the effects of this misbegotten incident were to be heard throughout the "Hammerklavier Sonate" by Beethoven. A bit of irony, regarding the title of the composition, on the other hand, the sublime playing of Sokolov made mechanical imperfection seem like a distant, obscure detail.

P.S.: Evgeny Kissin, the only musician to have (allegedly) made the grand maestro von Karajan shed a tear (and not even being of legal age at that time), is on his way to Ljubljana in September. Again, Schubert, and Scriabin. Much remains to be seen this year, obviously. If they could just get those strings to be in shape until then ...