Konstantin Soukhovetski @ Phillips

Charles T. Downey, Konstantin Soukhovetski at Phillips Collection
Washington Post, February 7, 2012

R. Strauss, Capriccio, R. Fleming, G. Finley, Opéra National de Paris, U. Schirmer

What would happen if you took the music of three rather different composers and played it all like Rachmaninoff? This was apparently the goal of a recital by Konstantin Soukhovetski, heard Sunday afternoon at the Phillips Collection. The Russian pianist, in his 30s and fresh out of Juilliard, played with flair and plenty of rubato, but his performance lacked interpretative seasoning.

Soukhovetski also studied acting and has performed in a couple of short films. The sense of the melodramatic was palpable, as Soukhovetski introduced the piano version of Philip Glass’s score for “The Hours” by quoting from the suicide note left by Virginia Woolf in the film. He gave this music, characterized by its sometimes monotonous repetition, considerable expressive shape, accelerating the tempo to enhance the effect of the fast passages and hammering the fortissimo chords mercilessly. [Continue reading]

Konstantin Soukhovetski (b. 1981), piano
Phillips Collection

Philip Glass, piano transcription film score for The Hours
Schubert Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960
Transcription of the Mondschein scene of Strauss's Capriccio (watch Renée Fleming singing it in Paris)