Classical at the Ghent Festival 2022: Ghent Wings

The Ghent Festivities, 2022 edition, are over. After two years of corona restrictions, there was nothing holding back the revelers, who flooded into the city in droves, especially in the evenings. The Ghent Festivities are a grand public celebration and at the same time a ten-day cultural festival where virtually every genre of music and theater is featured. Unique in Europe, because many performances by often well-known artists on the major squares are completely free.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the festivities, numerous classical concerts also take place. Choirs, small ensembles, piano recitals, chamber music, song evenings, and more. Here's a selection from the dozens of classical concerts and recitals. Brief impressions of seven concerts. Two concerts in the Protestant Rabotka Church, two concerts at special venues, two piano recitals in the Miry concert hall, and as an outlier, a performance of Bulgarian a cappella singing in St. James Church.

Ghent wings

The Ghent Wings are a tradition of piano recitals that return to life at the Ghent Festival after two pandemic years in the beautiful Miryzaal of the Ghent Conservatory. International caliber on stage. I went to listen to French pianist Fanny Azzuro on July 19 and Russian pianist Dina Ivanova on July 22. Azzuro has already performed at the stages of Carnegie Hall and La Roque d'Anthéron. Ivanova was the audience favorite at the Liszt Competition 2017 in Utrecht.

On July 19, the city was over 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The scorching desert wind lured the audience into the cool concert hall. What a relief, you could see everyone thinking as they sank into the red velvet. I know the woman who sits down next to me, she smiles at me like the angel of the annunciation. Then pianist Fanny Azzuro takes the stage and blimey! It all makes sense now, the angel was right because she's clearly pregnant. I've never heard a heavily pregnant woman perform a piano recital.

Azzuro plays preludes by Rachmaninov that she recorded on CD last year under the title Landscapes of the Soul. Intoxicating romanticism that sweeps you away to the depths of the Russian soul. From the very first prelude, the most famous one (op. 3 no. 2), I notice something. The tempo is sometimes a bit off. Dreamy and poetic, sure. Rachmaninov's longing for his homeland after he fled the 1917 revolution. No roots, no stability.

Then she stands up after the first set of preludes. With that swollen belly, everything becomes clear. The unborn baby is probably happily kicking away. Although Azzuro conjures up a profound Russian landscape for us, there's a slightly uncomfortable feeling lingering. With the applause after the last prelude, she must have felt it, the encore is for my baby. Fanny Azzuro announces her encore, Scenes from Childhood by Schumann. The unborn baby has finally fallen asleep. Then she asks "if we still have a little time...". After the restrained preludes by Rachmaninov and the childlike Schumann, the party can finally begin: Rhapsody in Blue! With Gershwin we stay in America, but leave melancholy behind. Everyone's happy, even the baby in the prelude of his life.

Dina Ivanova is a young Russian pianist who made waves at the Liszt Competition in Utrecht in 2017. The program features Grieg, Debussy, Scarlatti and Schumann. Plenty of variety to discover her talent. When I see her after the concert, I tell her I'm speechless. But I must find words, as a reviewer. It's the Slavic devotion with which this magnificent pianist captivates the hall and sweeps us along that I will remember for a long time. One with the keyboard, she caresses, she embraces her piano, she pleads, she fights, she bites into the keys. What passion, what virtuosity! If I close my eyes I hear the young Martha Argerich. She shoots her musical arrows straight into the hearts of each and every one of us.

Debussy's Garden in the Rain perhaps lacked a bit of "pearly touch", but in Schumann's (opus 9). Both suites have been recorded countless times. Schumann's work is anyway an extremely popular repertoire piece, but the soul of the tormented composer came through completely. Sometimes frenzied, sometimes patient, a harbinger of the manic-depressive episodes that will destroy Schumann. How rare is this, not only in my own listening experience, but also for every listener this evening in this hall. Ivanova is a banal Russian name, but with Dina in front it becomes a godsend.

Solo Recital Fanny Azzuro

Solo Recital Dina Ivanova

Reviews

Classical at the Ghent Festivities 2022: Protestant Rabotka Church

July 29, 2022