EIF: Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 5/8/2025
Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy (piano duet and 4-hands duo)
The Queen’s Hall lunchtime series of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival continued on 5th August with a recital for piano duo/duet by Russian (Siberian) pianist Pavel Kolesnikov and Kazakh pianist Samson Tsoy. The stage was set up with 2 grand pianos, and the programme featured repertoire for both piano duet and four hands on a single instrument. In the first half of the concert, morsels of ‘Jatekok’ (Games) separated groups of three Kurtág arrangements of J S Bach chorale preludes, mostly from his ‘Orgelbüchlein’, BWV 599−644. The second half was devoted to Olivier Messiaen’s 1943 masterpiece of religious and spiritual mysticism for two pianos, ‘Visions de l’Amen’. Attendance was satisfactory, but not quite full.
A total of 13 Bach chorale preludes were performed, plus beginning and ending with a sonatina BWV 106 to the chorale tune ‘Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit’. Kurtág’s arrangements are delightful, with it being abundantly clear that he reveres the Baroque master. To play or to hear the arrangements is to be captured by the same reverence. Whether meditative, lyrical, playful, declarative, devout, austere, idyllic or any other of a huge range of moods, all are engagingly direct and were played with consummate artistry. By contrast, the Jatekok are what they are: akin to keenly observed line drawings, whimsically brief, with more hinted at than is stated. I wouldn’t travel 100 miles to hear a programme of nothing else, but as a skilfully-performed palate-cleanser between moments of sublime Bach, they were just the job. Any further description would be longer than the pieces themselves.
In ‘Visions de l’Amen’, ‘Amen’ is not just a word of acceptance and submission, but also of gratitude. Each of the 7 Visions is a facet of reality for which God is to be thanked. The first is Creation itself. Spooky low chords evoke chaos and the void, while fragments of simple melody (like ‘Three Blind Mice’ and ‘mon ami Pierrot’) chime like the bells of Debussy’s ‘cathédrale engloutie’. Next up, the ‘Stars and the Ringed Planet’ are represented by a joyous scherzo that looks back to the ‘Intermède’ of the ‘Quatuor pour la fin du temps’ and forward to the ‘Joie du sang des étoiles’ of the ‘Turangalîla-Symphonie’. Fabulous. In ‘The Agony of Jesus’, stabbing chords are met with a stoic melody with lines ending in Messiaen’s signature intervals. The movement ends with the same imagery as the finale of the ‘Quatuor‘, the slow passage of a soul to Paradise. In ‘l’Amen du Désir’, idyllic music foreshadowing ‘Jardin du sommeil d’amour’ from the ‘Symphonie‘ opened the movement (goosebump-inducing). Debussy’s musical language is borrowed for passionate arousal and orgasm, Twice. Both sweet afterglows are pure Messiaen. Superbly played. ‘Angels, Saints and Birdsong’ comprise the fifth evocation. Rich radiant chords evoke the supernatural beings, while the humans are earthier and more emotionally engaging. Stylised birdsong is Messiaen’s forte, while emulation of the Indonesian gamelan in the rhythms makes a surprising early appearance (before ‘Turangalîla’) to wrap all in a Buddhist cosmology, driven and impassioned like in the Symphonie. The sixth ‘Amen’ is ‘Judgment’, sternly static with block chords of irresistible power, set against triplets and descending chords in groups of three. Awe-inspiring. The final ‘Amen’ is ‘Consummation’, Eternal Life, perhaps, for Christians, but Messiaen is after something more universal. Elements of the previous movements are gathered together in an optimistic brilliant multiple build-up and relaxation, like the finale of the Symphonie. Carillons of bells ring out in the final climax, an eruption of pure joy. A compelling and moving realisation of a masterpiece. When the echoes of the final chord had died out, the applause was tumultuous.
There was a delicious encore, another musical ‘consummation’, the finale of Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose’, ‘The Enchanted Garden’, in the 4-hand version. Perfect.