Schwaebische Review

Christel Voith

Konzert zeigt Todesahnung mit Schwung. Intoxicating Sunday matinée with pianist Saskia Giorgini

Saskia Giorgini played a varied program in a thrilling piano recital.

The beautiful and charming winner of the 2016 Mozart Competition in Salzburg came on stage with a refined backless glitzing shirt and black trousers, but more impressive was her mature, cultivated playing.
It was fascinating watching her graceful hands play the powerful passages in Beethoven sonata op.53. An imaginative playing, with poetic restful moments, a happy sputtering but persistent flow in a lively dialogue between both hands. The Adagio was started quietly and introverted, slowly a melody was born, creating a marvellous entrancement, until the light came out again in the last movement.
The concert started with Mozart’s Fantasy KV 475. With the deepest calm, after sitting down, the pianist deeply sank in a world of grief and death premonitions, where sometimes, with soft passages, a light hint of hope would shine through. Completely different were the dazzling 6 Preludes (1967) by W. Rihm that stretch from virtuosic studies to octaves and feverish chords sequences, a waltz caricature and an alienated cantilene. With exciting lightness and liveliness Saskia Giorgini finished with Mikhail Pletnevs piano suite from Tchaikovskys ballet “Sleeping Beauty”. A liberating and virtuoso music making from the Dance of the Pages until the effervescent finale.