Reviews

EMF Festival Orchestra Concert: Performance Art Caught on the Wing

by William Thomas Walker

“A concert is a pure form of "performance art." Even if it is recorded, the event, unique in time – and whether inspired, routine or insipid – can never be experienced in exactly the same way again. Unlike a studio recording, which can be edited or assembled from smaller takes to be note-perfect, a live performance often involves taking risks in an attempt to recreate a view of the composer's intentions. Once in a while, a performance becomes greater than the sum of its parts, sweeping up performers and listeners in an intense, shared experience. To ride the crest of such a wave is the "high" for which musicians and music lovers long.
The concluding performance of the July 22 all-student Festival Orchestra concert in Dana Auditorium was just such an event. . . The main event was Rachmaninov's well-known Piano Concerto No. 2, in c minor, for which faculty pianist Gideon Rubin took his place at the Steinway keyboard and began the soft solo opening with perfectly judged dynamics and phrasing. His deep, dark tone evoked the tolling of distant Russian bells better than any other live performance I have heard. The student string choirs beautifully matched this full, rich sound; the violas and cellos were especially fine during their prominent parts in the first movement. As the performance progressed, there was a palpable sense of everyone being galvanized by how "right" Gideon's view of this warhorse sounded. Since the reading was without any stylistic distortions, it seemed that I was hearing the work for the first time. I will confess that I have always preferred the Third Piano Concerto and Rubin's performance of the Second is the only one that ever totally grabbed me from the first note to the last.” (July, 2004)

“I savored the rare and glowing performance of Gabriel Fauré's Fourth Nocturne in E-Flat, Op. 36, which followed. Lustrous performances of two choice Chopin etudes--No. 1 in A-Flat, Op. 25/1, "The Shepherd Boy," and the famous "Revolutionary" Etude in C Minor ended Rubin's portion. A superb-sounding CD of modern American piano works (ranging from Gershwin's Preludes to Glass's Rush) played by Rubin is available at the EMF gift shop during Dana Auditorium concerts.” (July, 1998)

“Gideon Rubin was superb in two Gershwin works, "I've Got Rhythm" Variations and the Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra. Neither is top-drawer Gershwin but they can be delightful when heard in live concert with a pianist with both the technique and the panache to bulldoze over any objections.” (July, 2002)

- “Classical Voice North Carolina”(cvnc.org) - the online arts newsletter.

“Gideon Rubin played the demanding piano part with clarity and panache.”

-Miami Herald (1997)

“And with the poignant deliberation of pianist Gideon Rubin, violinist Fumino Ando and cellist Kathleen Balfe played the eerily haunting [Shostakovitch] Trio Op. 67, a ferocious score, with uncommonly fine command. . .”

-Miami Herald (1999)

“Rubin played it [The Smetana Piano Trio] with passionate conviction.”

-Miami Herald (1998)

“Rubin gave Mussorgsky’s original piano version [Pictures at an Exhibition]an exciting reading, one that was richly varied in terms of dynamics and virtually without blemish in the technical department. . . one came away from the concert with a sense of awe at Rubin’s pianistic ability. . .”

-The Spectator Online (1998)

“Gideon Rubin’s reading of the Beethoven was elegant. . . His overall technique is superb. . . both his grasp of the work’s details and his ability to weld them into a unified entity auger well for his future. . .reminiscent of the young Rudolf Serkin.”

-The Jerusalem Post (1987)

“Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 17, is a true masterpiece. It was well driven by pianist Gideon Rubin, whose playing in the Andante Cantabile was delicate and quite beautiful.” (1999)

Michael Manning, The Boston Globe

“Gideon Rubin, the pianist of Poulenc’s Sextet and in the Mozart E-flat Quintet, was keenly sympathetic to their very different demands. . .” (1997)

- The Boston Globe

“. . . Throughout the work the piano is often pitted against the strings, and Rubin’s playing was sparkling, intense, and virtuosic. . .” (2000)

- Tim Lindeman, The Greensboro News