Victoria Mushkaktol
Born and trained in Russia, pianist Victoria Mushkatkol graduated with highest honors from St. Petersburg Conservatory, where she was a protégé of the eminent teacher Vladimir Nielsen; now living in New York, she honored him by founding a piano festival in his name at Sag Harbor in 2007. She is enjoying an international career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher, and is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division.
Victoria Mushkatkol is a splendid pianist. Her command of the keyboard is complete; her technique is so relaxed and effortless that it is a pleasure to watch her in action. Perhaps the most immediately striking aspect of her playing is her tone: rich, warm and singing, with a perfectly smooth legato, it has a large palette of colors and nuances and a wide range of dynamics. Indeed, it seemed amazing that a person of her delicate stature could produce such a powerful, sonorous sound. Her stage presence is natural and unaffected; she projects total concentration and emotional identification with the music.
In this season commemorating several composers’ anniversaries, she celebrated Chopin before intermission (returning to him for her encore), and Liszt afterwards. Her strong affinity for romantic music was immediately clear. Her Chopin was free and flexible, but the tempo changes were balanced, the transitions poised. The A-flat major Ballade Op. 47 was full of dreamy poetry and passionate ardor; the Barcarolle Op. 60 rocked and lilted. In the B minor Sonata Op. 58, she brought out the character of each movement, carefully building up the dynamic and dramatic climaxes.
The second half of the program began with Schubert’s B-flat major Impromptu, Op. 142, No. 3, a set of variations on the “Rosamunde” theme that he loved to recycle. It is a study in tonal, textural and expressive contrasts whose mood and character changes Ms. Mushkatkol captured very effectively; her rhythmic liberties, though, seemed to hark back to Chopin’s style.
Schubert’s practice of writing variations on his own songs may have inspired Liszt to use them as launching-pads for the brilliant paraphrases favored by the piano virtuosos of his day. Ms. Mushkatkol selected four of these: “Aufenthalt,” “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” “Du bist die Ruh’,” and “Erlköng.” Based on some of Schubert’s most popular songs, they demonstrate Liszt’s skill in weaving the vocal line into the accompaniment. Naturally, this demands great technical and tonal control on the part of the pianist; for example, in “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” the sound of the spinning-wheel’s repetitious whirring must be maintained through all the verses; in “Erlkönig,” where even Schubert’s original piano part with its repeated octaves and chords is a test of endurance, Liszt created a tour-de-force that seems to require more than two hands and ten fingers.
Liszt’s “Rhapsodie Espagnole” with its brilliant writing and idiomatic Spanish rhythms made a rousing finish and elicited an ovation.
The audience included many children of various ages and nationalities, whose rapt attention marked them as budding pianists; from their floral tributes and warm hugs it was natural to surmise that they were paying homage to a beloved teacher.
