KEY POINTS:
Muza Rubackyte introduced the first half of her Sunday recital as an exploration of the Chaconne, a musical form that gains its effect from the often trance-like accumulation of ever-varying repetitions of one often simple musical statement.
And so the final Prelude from Shostakovich's Opus 87 set worked its magic with a disarming transparency, followed by a Fugue that capitulated into the celebratory.
Busoni's mighty recasting of the great Bach Chaconne and Beethoven's implacable procession of C minor variations were conceived by Rubackyte as a writer might a fashion a novel or play, with an array of unforgettable musical characters.
The occasional falter, with running passagework in the first and repeated notes in the second, detracted little from the impact of such committed playing.
This Lithuanian pianist comes to us with impeccable Lisztian credentials, having made her name with her one-day marathon performing all of the composer's Annees de Pelerinage for Radio France.
Five pieces from the Italian book of Liszt's journey proved to be the revelation of the evening.
For a few phrases, the wedding scene of Sposalizo seemed as mysterious as a Debussy Prelude while the passionate outpourings of Liszt's three Petrarch Sonnets were cause for utter marvel. The first of the sonnets impressed with the lovely, cushioned sonorities that Rubackyte coaxed from the Fazioli instrument, the second with its eruptions of cascading fioriture while the third had a winning touch of whimsy.
The massive Apres une Lecture de Dante, generally known as the Dante Sonata, was inspired as much by Beethoven's Choral Symphony as by the Italian poet's love story of Paolo and Francesca da Rimini.
Rubackyte did not flinch from the piece's almost superhuman demands with staggering octave work. How expertly she tracked Liszt's many moods from the first slightly ominous Presto to the unfettered virtuosity of the final pages.
Generous to a fault, Rubackyte gave us two encores: Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's Erlkonig, a tale thrillingly told, ending with the cool serenity of a Bach Aria arranged by the pianist herself.
This start to the 2008 Fazioli International Piano Recital makes one impatient for Martin Roscoe's Beethoven recital in May.
