Fwd: More on Grigory Sokolov - great Bach pianist

[Katherine Lee <katherine@dnamedia.com>]

Hi:

I happened to forward the message on Grigory Sokolov to a good friend of
mine who I know is a fan.  I thought his additional info might be of
interest to F-minoreans (sorry for the non-Gould content):
------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 00:35:38 -0800
Subject: Re:  More on Grigory Sokolov - great Bach pianist

Thanks for the forward on Grigory Sokolov.  I too, am a very big fan of
this guy.  I first heard him 2 or 3 seasons ago in recital at the Queen E.
 He was fantastic.  The next year I heard him at the Orpheum - all alone
on that huge stage.  The first half was an incredible Bach program which
was simply the complete book 1 (I think) of the Well Tempered Claviar.
The second half was Chopin if I recall correctly.  He was amazing.  When
he returned last year to play the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Vancouver
Symphony he blew the orchestra away.  I've never heard the orchestra play
so well - they were being really challenged by this guy.  It was
phenomenol.

I have heard two of Sokolov's disks on the Opus 101 label.  He is one of
the main stays of this somewhat new french CD level (Canada's National
Arts Centre Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock has just been signed to the
label as well).  The playing is pretty good but the performances suffer
from the sound quality of the disks.  I hope that Opus 101 has been able
to afford better equipment now that they are becoming established.   I own
the Brahms (Ballades and Sonata No. 3) and borrowed a Beethoven recording.

If the guy who wrote the note is interested - Sokolov was a winner of the
International Tchaikovsky Competition in the former USSR sometime in the
early seventies (71 or 72?).  He spent his life behind the iron curtain
and did not gain exposure to the western world till just recently.  He is
phenomenonly talented but rumour has it that he is kind of a pain in the
ass to work with.  I think if he were not so difficult to work with - he
would be a really big star in the classical world - but unfortunately, no
one wants to work with him.  He performed with Commisiona before in Europe
and  Commisiona aparantly swore never to work with him again.  I guess the
VSO forced him into it.

In any case - he's well worth seeing.  His Bach is incredible - and that's
not his specialty.

Hope your friend finds these notes interesting.

Gregg.

_________________________________________________________

	k a t h e r i n e   l e e    m u l t i m e d i a   p r o d u c e r

   	 DNA Productions Inc.   Tel: (604) 730-0306, ext. 103
     230-1737 West 3rd Avenue    Fax: (604) 732-7331
	          Vancouver, BC    Email: katherine@dnamedia.com
	        V6J 1K7 Canada    http://www.dnamedia.com