Music at Paxton: Pavel Kolesnikov
Music at Paxton, Paxton House, 27/7/2025
Pavel Kolesnikov piano, playing music by Mozart and Ravel
I last heard Pavel Kolesnikov at Paxton in 2022, playing with Samson Tsoy – four hands on one piano - in a breathtaking performance of Schubert’s Fantasie in F Minor. Today he performs shorter works by Mozart and Ravel.
When I was taught to play Mozart by an excellent music teacher, she told me that you had to sweat to get these quiet notes exact, and it requires good listening skills too. Pavel Kolesnikov’s piano technique takes me back to a style of quiet playing less familiar now when much baroque music, played on authentic instruments, favours more dramatic and obviously energetic styles. Kolesnikov plays softly, almost brushing the notes of the grand piano with his fingers and raising his hands as if to promote an airier sound. Listening to it requires the audience to concentrate just as much as the pianist has to!
The first half is devoted to Mozart. First there are variations on ‘Unser dummer Pöbel meint’ (our stupid men in the street). These were unfamiliar but pleasantly varied, with comic touches and increasingly elaborate decorations as the variations progressed. Delicate phrasing, and a light touch continue to be the markers of his performance in the Adagio from the Sonata in F and then the Sonata in K 330. He also seemed to make little use of the sustaining pedal, a technique which may replicate the less percussive, less legato sound of the domestic keyboards Mozart would have used.
After the interval, Kolesnikov alternates pieces by Ravel and Mozart Rondos, a contrast as the programme points out not just between performance styles but between musical philosophies. Mozart, though an innovative composer, largely worked within established forms. Ravel while creating much freer more spontaneous-sounding effects “exhibited a high level of control over his work.” I’ve enjoyed Dr Jake Spence‘s informative programme notes throughout Paxton, but unfortunately they proved difficult to follow in the second half of this concert. Rather than let us read about each piece in the order that it is played (as was done in Helen Charlston’s recitals) he has chosen to write separate essays on Mozart and Ravel, dealing with the works in order of composition. So there’s some moving about between pages of the programme and a few traps for the unwary (e.g. myself) confusing these tricky K numbers!
The first piece from ‘Miroirs’ (1904-5) is ‘Oiseaux tristes’ which Ravel says “evokes birds lost in the oppression of a very dark forest during the hottest hours of summer”. Here Kolesnikov’s raised hands and light flowing notes imitate bird-flight visually as well as in sound – the rapid flying movements interrupted by moments of stillness. The last composed of Mozart’s three Rondos follows, its lyrical theme accompanied by very soft left-hand notes and the melody returning for each repeat with more intricate ornamentations. I realise there’s another difference between the composers. While Ravel’s work calls for complete adherence to the written score, Mozart would have expected the keyboard player to improvise grace notes, longer decorations and whole cadenzas.
‘Barque sur l’ocean’ is also from ‘Miroirs’ and is the highlight of today’s recital. A more developed work, its sound-painting of the waves in repeated arpeggios is only the start of the colourful journey, with the whole keyboard and a whole range of dynamic effects being brought into play - loud chords balanced by cantabile passages, with bell-like chimes in the left hand. An utterly exhilarating performance!
The child-like innocence of Mozart’s Rondo in F provides the greatest contrast of the afternoon and is proof of the power of Kolesnikov’s subtle and delicate approach to Mozart. The next Ravel work is his Baroque pastiche, ‘Menuet Antique’ which imitates the structure of the minuet but subverts it with harsh dissonance and unexpectedly twisty rhythms. He finishes the concert with the best known works on the programme. First Mozart’s Rondo in D 485 which is taken at a terrific pace, with virtuosic extravagant runs, and is great fun.
The ‘Pavane pour un infante defunte’ was immediately popular, though Ravel later denied that he’d had an image of a dead Spanish Infanta dancing, and said he wrote the music first then enjoyed the alliteration of the title. It is very beautiful and Kolesnikov plays it superbly. Anyone who was also at Paxton on Saturday might compare it to the simple but appealing melody in Satie’s Gymnopédie No 1 - both works which elude description. After much applause Pavel Kolesnikov closes Music at Paxton 2025 with a short and sweet Ravel Prelude.
Pavel Kolesnikov is playing with Samson Tsoy in a programme of duets by J S Bach, Kurtag and Messiaen on two pianos, at 11am in the Queen’s Hall on Tuesday August 5th.
Photo credit: Eva Vermandel
