This year’s Helsinki Festival gathered together two rather famous musicians: mezzosoprano Magdalena Kožená and pianist Yefim Bronfman. The main concert hall of the Helsinki Music Centre was far from full, but taking into account that the whole autumn is full of different kind of happenings, I suppose it is no wonder that even interesting events lack audience.
The first half of the concert Kožená sang songs by Johannes Brahms. Brahms is not among my
favourite composers, so I was having a bit neutral feelings still by the
intermission. But on the second half the concert the whole atmosphere changed. First,
Kožená sang the Nursery song cycle by Modest Mussorgsky; these
songs are written from the point of view of a child and Kožená’s way of performing got really
lively. Next, she sang the five Satires by Dmitri Shostakovich, that I last
heard in July at the Joroinen Music Festival (sung by Elisaveta Rimkevitch). The
concert ended with some Slovak folk songs by Béla Bartok (Village Scenes).
If Kožená’s
singing was confident, the pianist Yefim Bronfman was brilliant. Many of the
songs required extreme technical abilities and his skills could only be admired.
So, this was a great evening listening to interesting music.
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