SMS Online - Roman Rudynsky

It was a bit of a marathon of a recital at the Merdeka Palace on March 3^rd where the Sarawak Music Society brought in Ukrainian pianist Roman Rudnytsky to perform.

In a concert that lasted almost 3 hours, Mr. Rudnytsky worked his way through a programme designed to show off his technique on rapid scales, leaps and massive chords – all the trappings of virtuosity.

Most of the pieces came from the so-called Romantic Period of the 19^th Century together with some Impressionistic works by Debussy and the more nationalistic works of some Spanish composers.

From the Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso to a cross section of Chopin selections of a Nocturne, Etude, Waltz, to Liszt – it was a continuous show of glitzy and glib finger agility.

The 4 Debussy Preludes tried to be the tempering element of having some more delicate moments.

And Albeniz, Granados and Bizet’s Carmen are always very popular works to play because of their attractive Spanish rhythms and postures. These pieces, though deceptively “popular” are always tricky to be just that sexy, or that languid or that fiery enough.

I liked Mr. Rudnytsky’s performance of second movement of the Beethoven Sonata in E Flat the best as it had humour and a spark of fire to it. And the final section of Debussy’s “La Puerta del Vino” transcended the ordinary.

There were also 2 pieces composed by Mr Rudnytsky’s father, Antin Rudnytsky – the “Fantasia” and “Hutzul Dance” – the latter having elements of Ukrainian traditional dance.

It was quite amazing that the baby grand piano that was being used survived the pounding it received. It was knocked out of tune by the time the second piece started.

The programme was just too long. However, Mr. Rudnytsky certainly hammered it all out with gusto and great vigour. And if the demands of it was not exhausting enough, he went on to play two more pieces as an encore – a Nocturne by Edvard Grieg and “The Banjo” by Gottschalk which worked quite well with Mr. Rudnytsky as it had a lot of deliberately percussive jangles which was probably from the wonderful Creole and African-tinged Caribbean influences that Gottschalk grew up with in the city of New Orleans.

The Sarawak Music Society under new leadership certainly drummed up quite a good attendance at the recital. Mobile phones which are usually a bane at such events were mercifully silent, but perhaps some thought should be put into how to ban the clicking of SMS messages being typed out as well.

There was a very nice audience in attendance that night. Children and some younger members started moving about towards the end, though this was probably owing to the length of the programme.

But Roman Rudnytsky, showman that he is, took it all in his stride.

- reviewed by Yeoh Jun Lin