A
gig
held at St George's Bristol
on Thursday 2nd December. The event starts at 20:00.
Haydn Sonata in C major Hob XVI:50
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition
The play of Prague-born, British-trained pianist Libor Novacek is distinguished by constant qualities: poeticism, transparency, imagination, eloquence and, of course, supreme (but light) technical mastery.
In a exquisite programme, Novacek delights in the opening C major Sonata, H50, with superb Haydn playing - colourful, inventive, impish; and dazzles with the raw, muscular intensity of Mussorgsky's biggest, most radical piano work, every picture vividly characterised, the sense of accumulating excitement spilling into the majestic release of the final Great Gate of Kiev.
'The young Czech pianist Libor Novacek's fine poetic sensibility [yields] breathtaking results ... a performance of exquisite refinement. ' The Guardian