Ivana Gavrić, named Gramophone’s One to Watch and BBC Music Magazine’s Rising Star, has performed on the major concert platforms in the UK
including The Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, as well
as across Europe, in Canada, Japan and Russia.
As a chamber musician, she has performed with violinist
Maxim Vengerov in 2007 as part of Live Music Now, the outreach scheme
established by the late Lord Menuhin.
She has partnered colleagues on the
concert platform in festivals in the UK and Europe, taken part in the IMS
Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Sessions and is an alumna of the Britten-Pears
Young Artist Programme. Outside the concert hall she is featured playing Chopin
and Beethoven in BBC2’s adaptation of The Line of Beauty, and Bach in Anthony
Minghella’s film Breaking and Entering.
Born into a musical family in Sarajevo, Ivana was initially
taught by her mother. On moving to the UK, she studied at the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, Junior Department; University of Cambridge and the Royal
College of Music. Her teachers have included Niel Immelman, Peter Bithell and
James Gibb, as well as further study with musicians such as Menahem Pressler,
Ferenc Rados, Dmitry Bashkirov, Boris Berman, Stephen Kovacevich and Leif Ove
Andsnes.
Champs Hill Records
www.champshillrecords.co.uk have recently released Ivana Gavrić's third
disc featuring Edvard Grieg’s (1843-1907) www.mnc.net/norway/EHG.htm Ballade in G minor, a selection of Lyric Pieces and Slåtter (Norwegian Peasant Dances) and his Piano Sonata in E minor.
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| CHRCD067 |
Grieg wrote his Ballade
in G minor, Op.24 during the winter of 1875-76, around the time he was also
completing his incidental music for Peer Gynt. The opening, descending theme
receives just the right amount of firmness to lift the music from being too
gentle, too introverted. Elsewhere Ivana Gavrić provides a lovely ebb and flow to
the music and some extremely fine playing in the more dynamic passages. She has
a lovely fluency and purity of tone that is quite beguiling and which reveals
all the different moods of this attractive piece.
Ivana Gavrić gives us a selection of six of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces from his Op.38, Op.43, Op.54 and Op.65 collections. Butterfly, Op.43 No.1 is played with a
lovely lightness of touch and a gentle, subtle rubato. With Waltz, Op.38 No.7 Gavrić extracts so
much feeling from this simple waltz and Little
Bird, Op.43 No.4 reveals this pianist’s exquisite touch, beautifully done.
Gavrić plays with such restraint in Notturno, Op.54 No.4
that it is elevated to a minor gem whilst her directness of approach in Peasant’s Song, Op.65 No.2 brings so
much to the folksy little tune. Finally we have perhaps the best known of
Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, the Wedding Day at
Troldhaugen, Op.65 No.6 played with such a delightfully buoyant touch that
this is a performance to treasure. This has much of the feel of a live
performance.
Grieg’s Slåtter,
Op.72 (Norwegian Peasant Dances) date from 1902, Slåtter being Norwegian for Tunes.
Here we have four drawn from that collection, opening with No.14, Tussebrurefœra på Vossevangen (The Goblin’s Bridal Procession), where
this pianist gives us some lovely,
pure sprung rhythms; again revealing her fine touch – so beautifully controlled
and nuanced providing delicacy with power. No.4,
Haugelåt halling (Halling from the Hills) follows where Gavrić again shows
her affinity with this composer with playing that reveals such character. In the odd little No.17, Kivlemöyerne Gangar
(The Girls of Kivledal Folk Dance), Gavrić’s clarity and fine touch reveals
all the little twists and turns of this piece and No.2, John Vaestafae’s Springdans (John Vaestafae’s Dance), shows how
wonderfully this pianist handles all the little rhythmic variations.
The Piano Sonata in E
minor, Op.7, from 1865, has a
lovely flowing, rippling opening to the Allegro
moderato. As the bolder phrases arrive, Gavrić displays such fluency and
power in her playing. She brings a sense of nostalgia to Grieg’s lovely Andante molto before broadening out,
beautifully, in the middle.
A richness, with clarity fills the Alla Menuetto, ma poco più lento, with lovely delicate playing in
the central, so finely paced. Whilst this movement never seems to sit well in
this work, this performance ties it in far better than one could ever expect.
The Finale: Molto allegro is full of tremendous
playing, such fine dynamics, again clarity and great panache.
How apt is was to conclude this fine disc with Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s – Lyric Piece
Contemplation (Lyric Piece in Homage to Grieg) written on four bars taken
from the slow movement of Grieg’s Sonata and given a wonderfully free treatment
that nevertheless retains the essence of Grieg in this sensitive performance.
Ivana Gavrić is a fine advocate for the works of Grieg and
this new release will bring much pleasure to listeners.
The nicely produced CD booklet, with notes by Daniel Jaffa
and a forward from the pianist herself, tells us that she visited Grieg’s composing
hut at his home in Troldhaugen outside Bergen. There are interesting booklet
photographs taken near Grieg’s home as well as interesting photographs of a
Hardanger fiddle, an interesting Norwegian folk instrument, on which the
Slåtter would originally have been performed and for which Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981)
wrote two concertos which have been recorded by BIS Records www.bis.se/index.php?op=album&aID=BIS-CD-1207
Ivana Gavrić has a number of UK engagements coming up
including Wigmore Hall, London at 1pm on 28th November 2013. For
further details please see her website www.ivanagavric.com/concerts
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