Deeply Satisfying
Elena Kuschnerova
plays J S Bach -
selected by
HOWARD SMITH'... decisive and fresh as a dewfall.'
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In Bach's keyboard works, Gramophone, the BBC and British press lavish unstinting praise on Canadian/UK pianist Angela Hewitt (Hyperion) and without a doubt she tackles his music with superb intelligence and disarming poise. But her evident affinity with Bach's mindset seems no greater than that found in Elena Kuschnerova's recording (2000); captured here during a concert in her resident home base: Baden-Baden, South west Germany.
Kuschnerova's dazzling technique is more than equal to the complex contrapuntal demands Bach asked of Baroque performers. Her Stravinsky and Prokofiev CDs reveal an artist unfazed by the most taxing scores, whether of the eighteenth or twentieth centuries.
More than that, Ms Kushnerova shows a rare insight into Bach's grandeur and reverence and his dual capacity in conveying both surpassing quiescence and high drama...
Copyright © 3 February 2011
Howard Smith,
Masterton, New Zealand
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