Washington — Ukrainian pianist Pavlo Gintov, who debuted at the Kyiv Philharmonic Hall at the age of 12, has since traveled and performed at major musical venues worldwide. And on September 30, he introduced himself for the first time to the U.S. capital area classical music audience, launching The Washington Group Cultural Fund’s 25th anniversary concert series at the historic Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.
Characterized as a “poet of the keyboard” in a review in the Illinois Entertainer and as a “musical storyteller” in Japan’s Shikoku News, Mr. Gintov proved by his program and performance here that the descriptions were apt. He played and discussed the style and content of seven classical piano fantasies composed over the past three centuries.
Following the formal introduction by TWGCF co-director Christine Lucyk to the full-house audience at the Lyceum, Mr. Gintov described the program’s composers and their fantasies, an ambiguous and intriguing musical genre he would be performing and discussing between each piece.
He began with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fantasy in A minor, his son Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach’s Fantasy in C major, and continued with Mozart’s Fantasy in F minor, Beethoven’s Fantasy op. 77, and John Corigliano’s Fantasia on an Obstinate.
The composer and his Sonata-Fantasia that drew the most attention on the part of the audience was Theodore Akimenko (1876-1945). Mr. Gintov noted that the composition was never recorded and his was the first performance of that piece in this country.
Mr. Gintov concluded the concert with the Chopin Fantasy in F minor, which, he said, possibly focused on Russia’s invasion of Poland in the 19th century. He recalled that, after an earlier performance of this piece, he asked a young lady musician what she heard being described in its two parts. The first sounded like nuclear war, she said; and the second – the end of the world.
The audience found it hard to part with Mr. Gintov and recalled him to the Lyceum stage with a long standing ovation.
Before the reception that followed the concert, Ms. Lucyk noted that the next musical event in the 2018-2019 Music Series, scheduled for October 21, will feature The Fedorykas, a local Ukrainian-Scythian musical ensemble.