| The Miami International Piano
Festival closed with exactly the kind of event the "Discovery
Series" was created for, but infrequently delivers: the
American debut of a young, relatively unknown artist on the
verge of making a significant impact in the music world.
Based on his impressive showing Sunday night at the Lincoln
Theatre, it's unlikely that Boris Giltburg's name will remain
obscure for long. Just 20, the Russian-born Israeli already
has a shelf of prizes behind him. The influence of Giltburg's
Russian birthplace and early training was evident in his striking
technique and command. The young pianist seems able to summon
up vast reserves of sound at will, and blaze through bravura
pages at a remarkable clip. His playing was not faultless
and he sometimes showed the need for more seasoning, especially
with slower, more introspective passages. Yet it's clear that
Giltburg is a prodigious talent with the raw material for
a big career.
He leapt in at the deep end with Busoni's piano transcription
of Bach's mighty Chaconne, originally written for violin.
After some initial rhythmic stodginess, Giltburg rose to the
music's rarefied heights, with a graceful rendering of the
ruminative middle passage, and he built the final section
with cumulative strength and sonorous heft.
If his take on Liszt's La leggierezza betrayed a heavy hand
and was wanting in lightness and poetry, Giltburg displayed
great promise as a Beethoven interpreter. He took a very Russian
approach to the Waldstein Sonata, with lightning tempos in
the opening movement, alive to the music's brilliance but
also capturing the wry sidelong wit. The Adagio was less successful
with labored and unduly protracted phrasing, the expression
coming from without rather than within. Apart from some unsteady
rhythmic hiccups at transitions, the finale was dazzling,
taken very quickly and capturing the whirlwind mercurial qualities
of this music.
The Moscow-born pianist was at his finest in the Russian
repertoire of the second half. His set of three of Rachmaninoff's
Op. 39 Etudes-Tableaux was invested with dark strength and
eloquence. Giltburg captured the eruptive power of No. 6 in
A minor superbly as well as the fleet virtuosity of No. 1
in C minor. Only No. 2, also in A minor, was a disappointment,
played in a firmly outlined style that failed to capture the
music's lyrical essence.
At times Giltburg's loud volume became a little steely and
unvaried in Mussorgsky's knuckle-busting Pictures at an Exhibition,
which also had its hectic moments. Yet apart from an oddly
heavy-handed "Tuileries," most of the sections were
evocative and well played.
Giltburg floated a spacious and atmospheric troubadour solo
in "The Old Castle" and built "Bydlo"
up with daunting power and weight. The "Hut on Fowl's
Legs" was sped through yet proved undeniably exciting.
If the finale of "The Great Gate of Kiev" wasn't
scaled without some digital slips along the way, it proved
an aptly massive and resounding conclusion to the concert
and festival.
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