Alexandre Kantorow first discovered Saskia Giorgini through her recordings devoted to Franz Liszt. As a pianist, she asserts herself from the very first bars of Chopin’s Op. 34 Waltzes, with presence and personality to spare. What generosity and clarity in her playing, what timbre, what vitality of sound! The first Waltz is remarkable for its tempo, its brilliance without harshness, its cheerfulness touched only fleetingly by shadow. The second breathes and sings with a sumptuous melodic line. In the third, healthy virtuosity and effervescent fingers give the music real panache.
There is no need to add more than what is essential in Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 15 No. 3, and Giorgini understands this perfectly. She gives the work just the depth and sobriety it requires, shading the contours of the central chorale with restraint yet always maintaining fullness of tone.
Her choice of the Mazurkas Op. 56 Nos. 2 and 3 highlights her rounded, substantial sound, while also bringing out the rustic elegance and cheer of these pieces. The way she colours her left hand, and the vocal quality she brings to every melodic line, reminds us how deeply familiar she is with the art of song.
The vocal warmth of her playing comes to the fore in a vibrant Liebestraum No. 3 and in Liszt’s Valse-Caprice on themes by Donizetti, both delivered with strong character.
It is, however, in Rachmaninov’s Preludes Op. 32 that she reveals a spectrum of colours of striking breadth, creating carefully crafted atmospheres and sharply defined registers. Bell-like cascades ring out in the treble of No. 9 and the sonorous basses of No. 13; the dense atmosphere of No. 10 and the delicate quiver of high notes in No. 12 are equally telling. Balance of texture and clarity of polyphony are everywhere evident. Giorgini shapes sound with a rare plasticity, never losing sight of expressive purpose.
Warmly applauded, she closed with her own sensitive arrangement of Rachmaninov’s song In the Silence of the Secret Night, which found a resonant echo in the great starry tapestry by Jean Lurçat hanging at the back of the nave.
