Music that takes your breath away

Last Jan. 10, I almost missed an enchanting piano concert at PhilamLife Auditorium. The pianist is a graduate of Azerbaijan State Gajibekov Conservatory and Moscow State Conservatory with an honorary diploma from the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, a top prize winner in the International Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris and a gold medalist at the International Music Festival in Plevin, Bulgaria.

Valida Rassoulova holds the title of Distinguished Artists of the Republic of Azerbaijan, performing as soloist and chamber musician in major venues in Europe and Russia.

Her repertoire included works by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Haydn, Karaev and Chopin. Her interpretation of Scalatti’s Sonata in D minor and Sonata in C major was so beguilingly out of this world! Beethoven’s Sonata Una Fantasie op 27, no. in Eb Major is not one of his most emotional and not one of the most played of the 32 sonatas the composer has done, but it was in its performance that I was convinced of Valida’s ultimate artistry. She goaded us to silently dance in our seats as she essayed the second movement allegro molto e vivace in large song scherzo form. It was again in the adagio con experessione third movement that she brought us heavenwards with her ethereal tone quality and expression before seducing us again to dance (inwardly of course) to her lively interpretation of the finale rondo allegro vivace presto.

After intermission, Valida played four of the 24 Preludes of Soviet composer-teacher Kara Karaev (a student of Shostakovich), giving us glimpses of Azerbaijani music tinged with Prokofievian chromaticism with Azerbaijani folk melody, based on polyphonic form. Romantically reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, it veers towards neoclassicism and is a model system, thus making his works universal.

From impressionist Claude Debussy’s Images Book 2, Rassoulova interpreted for us Et la Lune Descend Sur le Temple and Qui Fut Poisson D’or, her tender touch so breathtaking as she gently descents with the parallel chords of the ninth in organum-like setting describing the moon’s rays descending on the temple. In Poisson D’or, we imagine a stationary gold fish suddenly move in different direction, its fluttering fins brilliantly colored by the iridescent sun rays. Valida’s touch was so right for this modified rondo piece in ABACADA coda describing the interplay of gold, sun rays and water.

After interpreting four of the more than 50 Mazurkas of Chopin (the Bb major, op. 17 No. 1; E minor Op. 17 No. 2; a minor Op. 68 No. 2 and B minor, Op. 33 No. 4) giving us Chopin’s most intimate expression of Polish temperament expressed in morbid depression and exaltation, the themes so folk like but his own creations, using sometimes drone basses, strong accents on the third beat and chromatic sequences,

Valida gave a most inspired virile rendition of Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, her octaves so powerful and her arpeggios so fluently clean and virtuosic. In the trio, she interpreted a softness suggesting a choral played on the organ. This trio appears again in a middle section of E major, then expressed mournfully in E minor and ends in C# major leading to a brilliant coda. The audience rose and gave Rassoulova a spontaneous standing ovation.

The concert was presented by Antonietta Chan to raise funds for the San Antonio Formation and Enhancement Center Inc. (SAFEC) founded by Maria Teresa Chan which provides shelter, training and a solid Christian education to abused, abandoned, orphaned street children of Bacolod City.

(Editor’s note: The writer studied piano under Julliard-trained William Phemister).