Suk 'nearly set the keyboard on fire' (04/01/01)

Suk 'nearly set the keyboard on fire'

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - The Washington Times' weekend events previewer Derek Simmonsen put it in words that all could understand: "For Ukrainian pianist Mykola Suk, playing Franz Liszt at a classical concert is as required as Barbara Streisand singing 'You Don't Bring me Flowers.'" It is to "hear him do what he does best."

And Mr. Suk, who has been receiving rave reviews for his performances of this 19th century composer since he won first prize and the gold medal at the 1971 International Liszt-Bartók Competition in Budapest, did not disappoint the audience at the National Gallery of Art on March 18.

Far from it.

He "nearly set the keyboard on fire," was the way music critic Joseph McLellan described his performance in the March 20 Washington Post.

Mr. Suk began his program with "a crisp performance" of Haydn's Sonata No. 49 in E-flat, which, the reviewer noted, was "impressively fluent in the cantabile lines of the slow movement."

The second selection was a Washington premiere of two preludes by Mykola Kolessa, a Ukrainian composer who recently celebrated his 97th birthday. Mr. McLellan indicated that the composer's work is virtually unknown in the United States but, judging by the two preludes played by Mr. Suk, is deserving of more attention.

"'Autumnal,' as its name suggests, is an impressionistic study, cool and leisurely, with a sense of open spaces. 'Hutsulian,' named in honor of the Hutsuls, a Ukrainian mountain people, begins as a sort of stylized folk dance and develops into a sketch of a culture," he wrote.

"In both works, Kolessa accomplishes much in a small space," Mr. McLellan said. And their performance, he added, "benefited from a persuasive interpretation by Mykola Suk."

Mr. McLellan compared the remainder of the program to the famous 1837 "duel" in Paris between Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg, both not only composers but the reigning piano virtuosi of that period as well. And, despite the standing ovations after Mr. Suk's performance of both composers' works at the gallery that evening, the Post reviewer felt that Thalberg lost the duel again.

Thalberg's fantasy on themes from Rossini's opera "Moses in Egypt" was "pleasant listening, a good workout for the pianist and music of considerable substance underlying a bright surface," he wrote. "But it was pitted against Liszt's enigmatic, violent and brilliantly inventive Sonata in B Minor, which ranks with a few works of Beethoven and Schubert among the greatest piano sonatas of the 19th century."

Mr. McLellan found Mr. Suk's interpretation of Liszt to be "subtle, powerful, superbly controlled over a wide range of expression."

"The tumultuous applause demanded an encore," he continued. "It seemed impossible to play anything that would not be anti-climactic after the sonata, but Suk managed it with a reading of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11 that nearly set the keyboard on fire."

The National Gallery of Art concert program notes indicated that in his performances throughout the former USSR, North America, Australia, Europe and the Middle East, Mr. Suk has premiered, as he did at the National Gallery, a number of concertos and solo works by Ukrainian composers, including Valentin Silvestrov, Ivan Karabyts and Myroslav Skoryk.

Mr. Suk last performed in Washington in 1998, while on a U.S. tour with the Kyiv Camerata, Virko Baley conducting. That concert, sponsored by The Washington Group Cultural Fund at the historic Dumbarton Church in Georgetown, included works by Karabyts, Silvestrov and Yevhen Stankovych, in addition to old classical favorites by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Prokofiev.

Mr. Suk was born in Kyiv into a family of musicians. He has been on the faculty of the Kyiv and Moscow conservatories and has been named "Outstanding Artist of Ukraine." Currently he teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and is an artist-in-residence and director of the Music at the Institute series at the Ukrainian Institute of America.

Mr. Suk's performance was the 2,377th concert of the William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin concert series at the National Gallery of Art, now in its 59th season.

Two other Ukrainian artists who recently performed in this series at the gallery have also premiered works by Ukrainian composers. Earlier in this season, pianist Juliana Osinchuk introduced Viktor Kosenko's Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, and last season violinist Oleh Krysa and pianist Tatiana Tchekina premiered the "Ukrainian Triptych" by Yevhen Stankovych.

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