AMC attended a noon-time recital at the Musee d'Orsay Auditorium. The piano soloist was Irene Veneziano (see: https://sites.google.com/site/ireneveneziano/)
The Orsay auditorium seats between 300 and maybe 350
people and every seat was filled. It has a wooden shell and stage and provided a warm acoustic environment, which suited the piano just fine. It looks like it has seen a lot of wear- my
seat was held together with duct tape. But never mind that, AMC was quickly under the spell of Ms. Veneziano. AMC is aware that taking about an artist's
appearance is a sign that maybe there isn't much to say, but not in this
case. AMC will say it once- she is
young, beautiful, has beautiful hair,
and, finally, she does not appear to eat too many American hamburgers.
She choose a delightful program. I did not know the Galuppi, but it is hard to
believe that it was composed in the 18th century. It has long melodic lines and lacks many of
the flourishes familiar to pieces of that era, such as trills. Ms. Veneziano played it as impeccably as she
was dressed. To hear this piece played
by another artist, click here:
The Respighi is a beautiful, atmospheric piece. It is 20th century music that harkens to late
19th Century romanticism. AMC wonders
why more of Respighi's work hasn't made
it into the standard repertory. Maybe it's
the incredible glare from his Rome triptych. Again, Ms. Veneziano played the
piece sensitively. To hear this music, again by another artist, click here:
The Schumann and Verdi pieces can be heard here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdPanlcrPCE (Schumann)
The highlight of this recital was Ms. Veneziano's playing of
an arrangement of Puccini's Nessun Dorma. AMC invites you to click here to obtain
more information about this aria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nessun_dorma.
AMC will also refer the reader to here to
hear this piece played by another artist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5eoLdZE0uc
AMC realizes that hearing the music played by another artist
is a bit unfair to the artist being reviewed.
So, as beautiful as that YouTube performance is, it does not match the
elegance, sadness, longing, and love, that Ms. Venziano breathed into her performance This was absolutely an incredibly sensitive presentation
that resulted in people wiping away tears as the lights went up. AMC has not seen this before and even now he only saw
it through the mist in his own eyes.
This was one of the best solo program I have heard in some time and AMC
looks forward to seeing and hearing from Ms. Veneziano again.
.
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