After Pavel Kolesnikov last season, the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club once again demonstrated an undeniable flair by welcoming the 32-year-old Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniušas.
As we have written several times, Lukas Geniušas is, along with Pavel Kolesnikov, Benjamin Grosvenor, Beatrice Rana and, here, Charles Richard-Hamelin, one of the pianists who stand out among young thirty-somethings. We discovered since the forties Jean-Baptiste Fonlupt. Among the pianists we would like to see or see again here, we must not forget Schaghajegh Nosrati, after his fabulous recital at Orford. And, with great joy, Steven Osborne will be the pianist for the next Ladies’ Morning concert, on March 5, given with cellist Alban Gerhardt.
An ignored sonata
It is moreover Steven Osborne who brought to light, in 2022, the very little known 1D Sonata of Rachmaninoff, true ” Faust Sonata », just as Liszt wrote a Faust-Symphony. The program is very clear, and the creator Konstantin Igumnov reported it, even if Rachmaninoff never published or detailed it: the first movement is a portrait of Faust, the second of Marguerite, and the third of Mephistopheles.
The Lisztian filiation is also pianistic, since, in a way, this sonata in d minorwith recurring patterns, is heir to the Sonata in B minor of Liszt, even if it is clearly divided into three parts. Thus, one easily locates the patterns of Marguerite in the Final articulated around variations on the Dies Irae, theme of death in the music of romantic composers and obsession with Rachmaninoff in many works.
After the premiere, Rachmaninoff was obsessed with concentrating his subject, but in the original version chosen by Geniušas the sonata is around 40 minutes long and, it is true, sometimes goes in circles (the movements seem not to want finish).
The pianist held the score together structurally and showed relentless virtuosity and a very adequate sound (nourished and powerful, but not “slammed”), especially in the more than formidable Final.
Unexpected vision
As when Geniušas first came to Montreal, it is the contrast between the great Rachmaninovian culture and the luminous intelligence of the interpretative gaze on a classic of the repertoire, in the first part (the Studies of Chopin the first time), which struck on Sunday.
Geniušas completely pulls out the Impromptu op. 90 of the living room to give them a vital force through a game of great righteousness. The use of the pedal is rather parsimonious. Liquidity and regularity in the Impromptu op. 90 nbone 2 and 4 is strictly parallel. There is no prettiness here, no procrastination. It’s a Schubert eyeing Beethoven (the dynamic stature of the end of the 2e). The rigor of Geniušas recalls the musical philosophy of a Charles Mackerras transposed to the piano.
We wondered what the stranger was doing Minuet D.600 after the monument 4 Impromptus, Op. 90. But this program is a stroke of genius. This Minuet by a 17-year-old Schubert in C sharp minorwhich looks so little like a minuet, is a surprising piece, reminiscent of Bach weighed down by deep doubt.
It’s as if Geniušas were telling us: the big questions and deep thoughts are not necessarily where you expect them… The Ladies’ Morning certainly didn’t regret the choice of this new guest. Lukas Geniusas will return.
Ladies’ Morning Musical Club
Recital Lukas Geniušas (piano). Schubert: 4 Impromptus, Op. 90. Minuet in C sharp minor, D. 600. Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 28 (first version, 1909). Pollack Hall, Sunday, February 12, 2023.