Speech by Boris Giltburg at the Tchaikovsky Competition.

In the age of technological progress, you often think about how good it all is that there are television, the Internet and other means of communication, and how people did without them before. For example, they divided the Tchaikovsky contest between St. Petersburg and Moscow - but they provided an online broadcast of superb quality, so those who wanted to listen to the contestants could follow their performances without leaving home. So I watched the news of the contest, the parents called to the computer, when the site appeared video from the qualifying round. On small fragments it was heard that the participants were well prepared, but one of them, Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg, especially attracted attention. His performance was very different from the others: the music began to speak, the piano playing turned into speech and became the artist's appeal to the listener. After the first round, this opinion, if changed, is only for the better.
The chacon of Bach (Tr. Busoni) sounded great. The pianist is more difficult than other instrumentalists in regard to Bach's style: his works are not designed for a modern grand piano, the minimum number of author's instructions. When interpreting clavier works, they most often rely on the principle described by Schweitzer, that is, they strive to "reveal a natural, monumental line that must itself appear in front of the listener in all its plasticity," without a "motley and witty change of dynamic shades" .e. Oriented on the form. "We must find this construction of the play in order to correctly convey it. Otherwise, an arbitrary understanding is introduced, involuntarily distorting the composer's intention. " In Gilburg, the sections of the form are indicated not just by a change of dynamics, but by a change of state (for example, psychologically reliably, a fine change occurred upon returning to the minor after a major episode in the chacon). But, at the same time, how many different timbres and nuances inside the section were transferred! No wonder Bach harpsichord preferred clavicle: clavichord gives the possibility of such nuances. And the organ, Bach's favorite instrument, is by nature a tool of tremendous dynamic and timbre ranges. Perhaps, Schweitzer meant such a performance when he wrote: "Bach's music is gothic. Just as the general plan grows out of a simple motive, it develops not in stiff lines, but in a wealth of details, and only then does it give the impression that all the smallest elements really come alive, and so the Bach play influences the listener if the performer has given equally Clearly and vividly the main lines and details "(Schweitzer, p.257).
Tchaikovsky was amazingly executed, the very sound conveyed the character of the plays; The Little Red Riding Hood obeyed in one breath, the kinship with Moussorgsky's Hopak (from Songs and Dances of Death) broke out in increasing tension, expressed through the genre element. Form, sound, genre - everything here is aimed at clarity of presentation of the idea from beginning to end.
I remember Corto's words: "The most important thing is to give free rein to the imagination, creating the composition again. This is an interpretation. " The works that Gilbourg played, we heard in the performance of many pianists, but a convincing interpretation is not "how right" or "to distinguish", but as it is. In his performance, the compositions sound as they are, not distorted in "their understanding." As a consequence, the ideal hit in the pace of Allegretto moderato in the finals of the "Aurora", the variants of which are as many as the performances. The pace chosen by Gilburge is natural, it's not just the tempo indicated at the beginning of the sonata part, but the one demanded by its music, in which all the details will sound, and the storyline is clearly visible from beginning to end. It was interesting to listen to the performance with notes in the hands, because following the author's instructions was combined with their fresh perception. "Again creating an essay," the pianist finds new colors for him. This is the interpretation, not the reproduction of the text with computer accuracy.
Boris Giltburg is not only different from other contestants. Music here speaks, breathes - in a word, lives. You catch yourself thinking that you do not follow the brilliantly executed passage, but you understand what the pianist is playing. Listen, like a story. Such pianists were not long ago. Chopin wrote some punctuation marks to some of his students in notes , showing that musical speech is a language that needs to be heard and understood.
... In the age of technological progress, you often hear that the history of the piano comes to an end with the advent of new instruments. One thing can be said for this: while there are such pianists, the art of piano playing will live.