Kantorow performed with remarkable versatility at the Conrad

By Eileen Wingard in La Jolla, California

Alexandre Kantorow, the first French pianist to win top prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition, performed a recital at the Conrad on April 25, revealing his remarkable mastery. In 2019, at the age of 22, Kantorow won in both the piano division and the grand prix at the international event.

Kantorow is the son of two musicians. His father is the violinist and conductor, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, of Russian-Jewish descent, and his mother is the British-born violinist, Katheryn Dean.

The young artist walked onto the stage at the Baker-Baum Concert Hall, modest in demeanor, but with primal force his long steely fingers plunged into the complexities of Beethoven’s Sonata #32 in C minor, the last piano sonata Beethoven wrote.

Ludwig van Beethoven, deaf and recovering from an illness, completed this two-movement work in 1821. The first movement, Maestoso-Allegro con brio ed appassionato, is full of intensive vigor and passion, which Kantorow projected with powerful fury.

The second movement, Arietta: Adagio molto simplice e cantabile, was a simple song-like melody followed by variations. The initial melody sang forth with lyrical beauty. One of the variations, with rapid syncopated beats, sounded like contemporary rock and roll.

The Beethoven sonata was followed by the four-movement Sonata in F minor by the Russian composer, Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951). Next to the youngest of six children, Medtner’s first lessons were with his mother. He entered the Moscow Conservatory at age 11, graduating nine years later. In 1903, he began publishing, and this sonata, his first, was inspired by Beethoven’s sonatas.

The opening movement, Allegro, began with a simple theme in unison which then morphed into a rhapsodic reiteration.

A contrasting second theme followed and the development grew in dramatic tension, returning to the original themes in the recapitulation and ending in an exciting coda.

The second movement, Intermezzo, was march-like in character.

The third movement, Largo, was slow and lugubrious at first, with passages of treble chords that under Kantorow’s hands, sounded like a celeste.

The finale, Allegro resoluto, brought back thematic material from the earlier movements. The development used the first movement theme as a fugal subject. The intense climax brought the first half of the program to an exuberant close.

Following intermission, Kantorow played three shorter works, preludes by Frederic Chopin (1810–1849) and Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888) and a tone poem, Vers la flamme (Toward the Flame) by Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915).

These three shorter works, following each other without pause, were interesting samples of the individual styles of each composer. The Chopin Prelude, full of overlapping arpeggios, were sculpted into the sounds of a harp.

The Alkan Prelude, #8 of 25 Preludes, opus 31, was titled Chanson de la folle au bord de mer (Song of a Mad Woman at the Seashore), It was a haunting work with a fluttering minor melody in the high treble and accompaniment in the deep bass. These Préludes, composed between 1844-48, are believed to be the first publication of art music specifically utilizing Jewish themes.

Alkan was born in a village near Metz, France, and was the second of six children. At the tender age of five, he entered the Paris Conservatory and won many prizes. At 14, he was teaching at his father’s school in the Marais section of Paris. He observed Kashrut and was knowledgeable in Hebrew, Torah and Talmud as well as in Jewish music. His piano technique and his compositions were admired by contemporaries Chopin and Liszt.

The Scriabin tone poem made a strong impression with its unconventional harmonies and large leaps. Scriabin believed in the integration of music and spirituality. He also related colors with keys. In his Vers la flamme, he depicted the earth being destroyed by the approaching flames.

The recital ended with Variations on Bach’s Weiner, Klagen, Sorgen, Zogen by Franz Liszt. Once again, the brilliant French recitalist dazzled with his fantastic artistry as he played the original Bach themes and the virtuosic variations, composed by the Hungarian-born pianist and composer, Franz Liszt (1811–1886).

Even though the Variations ended quietly, the audience rose with loud applause and, after three curtain calls, Kantorow sat down to play Franz Schubert’s Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen (Litany for the Feast of All Souls), a hymn-like meditation on death and peace.

From what we heard this evening, Alexandre Kantorow is certain to be acclaimed as one of the great pianists of his generation.

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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.