Božena Steinerová and Liszt’s Vallée
d’Obermann | Thoughts following a Recital at the
Hungarian Institute, Prague, 11. 4. 2012
We
know, of course we know, that the
Vallée d’Obermann does not exist except in the creative
mind of the writer, Senancour. And yet this remote valley of the
imagination, with its dreamed-for solitary aspect, its lakes and
rushing
streams, its promise of respite for the soul of a Wanderer, was brought
to life
in the most extraordinary way by Božena Steinerová.
It
is true that Liszt’s greatest works
have suffered at the hands of a never-ending procession of pianists
anxious to
reveal to the public their own technical prowess through his
compositions, thereby
not fully revealing to the audience a sense of the composer’s meaning.
But with Steinerová a magnificent technique is only a starting point;
the technique is the
servant and also the communicator of a powerful intelligence and an
imagination
of great depth: a combination which elevates this Czech virtuoso to the
highest
level of artistic achievement in public performance.
Steinerová acted as a conjuror, creating
as if without effort a magical tapestry of evolving sounds and colours which
spread out to cross every dynamic range. This world of sound was itself shot
through with jangling, cimbalom-like overtones as Liszt’s harmonic language
refers simultaneously to an ancient music and points to the future to the works
of Bartók and Kodály. Within this glittering backdrop she brought to life or
rather, she dragged and pulled into existence powerful, breathing melodies as
if they had emerged from a deep lake, rising to the sky so that we, the audience,
were able to survey the dramatic panorama of Obermann’s valley as if portrayed
in a landscape as depicted by John Martin.
The performance of this work was a
passionate act of creation which can only confirm Božena Steinerová as one of
the great and most imaginative interpreters of Liszt. One looks forward to
hearing her perform the Sonata and Chasse-Neige and I for one would travel
a long way to hear these.
Geoffrey Chacaro,
Pianist, Writer
Successo della serata musicale organizzata
dall’Associazione ex allievi con la pianista Božena Steinerová
Un’altra serata musicale
è stata organizzata dall’Associazione ex allievi della Scuola Superiore
Sant’Anna, riscuotendo un ampio successo. All’inizio del concerto è stato
osservato un minuto di silenzio in memoria della Shoah, proprio in
occasione del sessantesimo Anniversario della liberazione di Auschwitz. Durante
la serata, la nota pianista praghese Božena Steinerová ha regalato al
folto pubblico della Chiesa di Sant’Anna momenti di elevato virtuosismo ed
atmosfere riflessive che hanno emozionato la platea. Conosciuta a livello
internazionale per il suo impegno concertistico e per l’intensa attività
d’insegnamento svolta in diversi paesi europei, Božena Steinerová vanta un
repertorio musicale ampio ed impegnativo che spazia dagli autori classici
del Settecento e Ottocento ai più noti compositori contemporanei. Il
programma ha unito pagine musicali di grande difficoltà tecnico-pianistica, come
la sesta sonata di Prokofiev, a brani di notevole profondità musicale
come Vallée d’Obermann di Liszt e la sonata in fa minore di Brahms.
In quest’ultima il pregevole controllo dei livelli sonori e timbrici, associato
alla piena consapevolezza dei riferimenti culturali e poetici dell’opera (Sternau,
Joachim, Schumann), hanno determinato un esito musicale di raro valore e
maturità artistica.
Ich habe selten eine so hinreißend
überzeugende Musiksprache gehört, eine so ehrliche Darstellungskraft und ein so
animalisch instinktsicheres Temperament.
Mittelbayerische Zeitung
Schon lange hat man nicht mehr solchen virtuosen Schwung, solch
stupende Technik, solch herrischen Zugriff gehört.
Eichstätter Kurier
Als Pianistin von kraftvoller Bravur, technischer Souveränität
und klagüppiger Anschlagskultur stellte sich die Pianistin Bozena Steinerova
vor.
Der Tagesspiegel
Nowadays her touch has as much orchestral sounding
fortissimo, and both lyrical shades melodious and cultivated and her pianistic
certainty are sometimes enviable.
Vecerni Praha
Da excelence podría calificarse la interpretación de algunas de
las más conocidas obras de Franz Liszt, compositor y pianosta húngtaro, por la
pianista checoslovaca Bozena Steinerova en el recitál que ofrecira en la sala
García Caturla de bibloiteca José Martí, de Santa Clara. La sensible artista
puso de manifesto el viruosismo y el temperamento fogoši del célebre creador del
poesma sinfónico y de numrosas piezas religiosas.
Gramna, Cuba
Niespotykana enegria, dynamika, expresia środków wyrazu i
temperament xydobyly ów typowy węgierski koloryt tego specjalnie melodyjnego i
bogatego utwaru.
Zwrót
