One of the world’s five greatest violinists Sergej Krylov (based in Italy) will make his Australian debut in Melbourne at Live at Yours on March 10, a at the Toorak Synagogue, praised for its beautiful acoustics.
Krylov will perform in a duo recital with Australian piano star Konstantin Shamray, performing Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Franck. Krylov will be playing his 1710 “Camposelice” Stradivari violin, valued at US$20 million. On a one-year loan from Japan’s Nippon Music Foundation, this historic instrument has passed through European collectors and is named after the 19th-century French Duke of Camposelice.
The Toorak Synagogue is rarely opened heritage venue and is celebrated for its superb acoustics.
FOUR MASTERPIECES. ONE EXTRAORDINARY NIGHT.
Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso— Written for Pablo de Sarasate, this piece was made for a violinist with presence. It begins with polish and restraint, then gradually reveals its appetite for brilliance.
Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2 — Ravel wrote this in his jazz-fascinated years, and the famous Bluesmovement says a great deal: lean, dry, precise — Paris glancing toward America, but entirely in Ravel’s own language.
Ravel: Tzigane — Ravel wrote it after hearing Jelly d’Arányi play late into the night and asking for more. You can feel that charge in the piece: it begins as if discovered in the moment, then keeps raising the temperature until it becomes an inferno.
Franck: Sonata in A major — Franck gave this sonata to Eugène Ysaÿe as a wedding gift, and Ysaÿe later said he played it con amore. It is the emotional centre of the night — generous, luminous, and quietly devastating by the end.
Descriptions are a bit like reading a menu — enticing, hopefully — but the real thing is being in the room: the first note, the spark, the silence, the sound — and the feeling of being carried away by it.