Firkušný Festival 2024: Rudolfinum Sold Out Four Times
The 12th edition of the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival between 2 and 9 November attracted more than 4,500 spectators, which was a record attendance.
The festival offered four recitals in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum and one in the Bohuslav Martinů Hall at HAMU (Prague Academy of Performing Arts, Music and Dance Faculty). This year’s performers were Sir András Schiff, Chloe Jiyeong Mun, Alexander Melnikov, Ivo Kahánek and his students Anna Gaálová, Pavol Praženica and Matouš Zukal, the final concert belonged to Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. “A good concert needs an inspiring personality on stage, quality music and an audience that listens and is genuinely interested in what is happening. The concerts of this festival have an amazing atmosphere thanks to a great audience that is absolutely immersed in the music,” Jean-Efflam Bavouzet commented for the festival. The partners of the 12th Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival were the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Capital City of Prague, Mercedes-Benz Czech Republic and Citibank. More information about the 12th edition can be found on the festival website.
A selection of reviews
novinky.cz (Alex Švamberk)
[…] Although Schiff concentrates on interpreting the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert, he delivered Janáček brilliantly, capturing the dramatic urgency of the theme, although he said during the performance of Smetana that he was not as good at Czech music as Czech interpreters. Along with Beethoven’s works (in addition to the Bagatelles, Sonata No. 30 in E major was also performed), these were the highlights of the festival’s opening concert.
PolyHarmonie.cz (Ivan Žáček)
[…] I consider Schiff’s performance [of Beethoven’s Six Bagatelles, Op. 126], though less explosive, to be one of the best, alongside Maurizio Pollini, Alfred Brendel and, most recently, Nikita Mndoyants. This was followed by Bedřich Smetana’s Three Poetic Polkas Op. 8 (1854), three tender flowers full of thoughtful reflection that must have delighted all musicians’ hearts. I would especially highlight the fragility of the most beautiful of them, the middle Polka in G minor.
KlasikaPlus.cz (Martina Heroldová)
[…] Mun played impressively, especially the first part entitled Reflections in the Water. Although this is one of Debussy’s many “water” pieces, it brings in new sound timbres that the composer was exploring and experimenting with in piano sound at the beginning of the 20th century. A flood of arpeggios, tremolos and glissandos are used here to represent light reflecting off the water’s surface and its ripples, played with such ease by the pianist that it seemed as if she was just lightly brushing the water’s surface with her hands instead of touching the keyboard. The tiny staccatos then evoke water droplets, and the pianist played them in such a way as if the tones were dripping from her fingers.
OperaPlus.cz (Jiří Bezděk)
[…] Alexander Melnikov presented himself as a typical graduate of the Moscow piano school, of which the legendary Sviatoslav Richter is also a representative. Melnikov is also proud of his legacy. His dizzying and utterly reliable finger technique, even in the fastest tempi, is somewhat reminiscent of him. […] It was almost unbelievable with what ease the pianist immediately adapted to the ever-changing instrumental mechanics and with what perfection he mastered all the pieces. […] The whole realisation team must be paid tribute to, because the result was outstanding.
casopisharmonie.cz (Věroslav Němec)
[…] Melnikov’s handling of this instrument [an 1848 Ignaz Pleyel romantic piano] was truly masterful. His Chopin was beautifully flowing and singing, and sounded equally beautiful in the sonorous passages with full instrumentation as in the simple vocal lines (the wonderful one-part recitative just before the final Assai allegro).
Szafa Melomana (Mateusz Ciupka)
[…] Kahanek demonstrated what he is appreciated for in the Czech Republic: for his amazing flexibility in moving from technical fireworks to sweet, tender lyricism. […] The exemplary organization, the friendly atmosphere, the right choice of invited artists and the richness of intellectual, not only aesthetic experiences make me want to put this event [Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival] on my calendar for good.
KlasikaPlus.cz (Kateřina Pincová)
[…] The most difficult task, however, was certainly to raise the interpretation to the level of symphonic sound, i.e. to support the creation of timbres as much as possible and to reproduce sufficiently convincingly the places that are entrusted in the score to characteristically different instruments (e.g. strings). Some parts were unsurpassed in this respect (e.g. I have never heard the opening of Vltava in such a colourful, sonically compact way and at the same time so specifically processed).
OperaPlus.cz (Jiří Bezděk)
[…] Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, a French pianist of the middle generation, presented extraordinary abilities and skills in the field of piano coloristics and poetry. […] In Bavouzet’s interpretation of impressionistic means of expression, we hear not only the plots in the first plane, but we also capture the plasticity in the relations of the accompanying plots – counter-voices, accompanying figurations, etc. Moreover, everything has a specific timbre corresponding to the set content.
