Behzod Abduraimov taking Santa Cecilia by storm with a performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto of refined finesse combined with passion and fire . Nowhere more was this more evident than in the encore of a glowingly whispered Rachmaninov Prelude op 32 n 5 .
Such refined playing in such a vast hall brings to mind what Fou Ts’ong once confided : that it is easier to be more intimate in a big space than in a smaller one . I will though enjoy listening again to the recording that was made by Radio 3 that may reveal many poetic musings that might not have carried in the hall.
I remember a teacher of English who had heard Behzod as a child and was so impressed that he arranged to bring him to Europe in fact to Walton on Thames in the England. He went on to study with Stanislaw Ioudentich and at the Piano Academy Lake Como with William Grant Naboré. I heard him win the World Power Competition of Sulamita Aronovsky which was held in the Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic . Listening to him now brought back memories of the young boy playing Prokofiev Third Concerto with the same passion and poetic power that we heard today in Rachmaninov.
I also remember the party afterwards that finished so late that many illustrious guests, Peter Frankl and Fanny Waterman included, found the hall’s garage closed after midnight . A Cinderella syndrome indeed .
Talking of which I remember his Rome debut some years ago to an alarmingly sparse audience at the Teatro Olympico . We were treated to a masterly performance of Chopin’s Four Ballades that Lang Lang was to play to nearly three thousand people the next day at the Santa Cecilia Hall . No comparison is necessary but I was so surprised to see the vast Teatro Olympico so sparsely populated for such a magnificent performance that I was one of the few to buy a signed copy of his latest CD of the Tchaikowsky piano concerto!
Glad to see that the Roman public have been awoken from their slumbers at last and hope we can listen to this great artist in recital again in Rome before the world claims him!
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 