Fearless 25-year-old pianist Natasha
Paremski moved to America when she was eight years old, but she insists that it
wasn’t because she was an amazing keyboard prodigy. Instead, it was due to a
combination of factors: her father, a computer scientist, had the opportunity
to work in California’s Silicon Valley; and their native Russia was in the
throes of many difficulties following the fall of Communism, and so was an easy
place to leave.
Paremski’s thrilling playing is featured
on her recent CD that finds her performing Brahms, Gabriel Kahane and Sergei
Prokofiev, the Russian composer to whom she finds herself drawn again and
again. Prokofiev’s masterly Piano Sonata No. 7—which Paremski brilliantly plays
on her CD—is also on the program of her July 30 recital at La Poisson Rouge,
now the go-to place for “cool” classical concerts in Manhattan’s West Village.
In addition to Prokofiev, Paremski will
also play a new piece by jazz pianist Fred Hersch, Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, along with more familiar
works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Chopin. Joining her for the concert opener, Astor
Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, is her good
friend, violinist Philippe Quint.
Paremski recently spoke about her
passion for Prokofiev, the other music she’s playing at her recital and how she
sees her role as a classical artist.
Kevin
Filipski: Your performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7 is so scintillating;
is it the centerpiece of your performance at La Poisson Rouge?
Natasha
Paremski: Unfortunately, I won’t be doing the whole thing. Lame as it may seem,
I’ll play only one movement. It’s difficult to decide which one to play, because
the 3rd movement is flashy and crazy, but the 2nd movement
is the core of the piece, it summarizes the whole piece beautifully. It’s such incredible
and human writing—it’s harrowing, like one of those dreams you have where you’re
running away desperately. It’s a really painful movement, so frightening to
hear. You come face to face with death, it’s so beautiful and poignant.
KF:
Most experts see Prokofiev and Shostakovich as the two poles of 20th
century Russian music. How do you see them?
NP:
For me, I hesitate to view Shostakovich as an example of ‘Russian’ music. A lot
of people do that with him, he is seen as such a martyr. He was oppressed, blah
blah blah—they were all oppressed. Prokofiev for me sums up the Russian spirit more
than Shostakovich, whose music is a reflection of what was going on—as opposed
to Prokofiev. Music is at the core of the tragedies of that time, with people
being taken away during the night, and Prokofiev’s music is almost a diary of
that time as opposed to reacting to it. With Prokofiev, we see what’s happening—this
is the truth. It’s a raw chronicle of the time.
KF:
Talk about the new work by Fred Hersch you’ll be premiering.
NP:
At the heart of the recital is the New York premiere of Fred Hersch’s Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky,
which he wrote for me. It actually took him a long time to write because his
health was deteriorating: it was very scary, when he started approaching the
work, his health took a turn for the worse and he fell into a coma. It’s a miracle
he’s still alive, but thanks to fate he woke up and now he’s performing a full
jazz concert career, which is another miracle. He plays better now than he did
before. He’s a rather prolific jazz pianist and I look up to him, so for me it was
a no-brainer to commission this piece from him. He decided to write variations
based on a Tchaikovsky theme because we both have Russian heritage which connects
us, along with Tchaikovsky’s music. It’s a really cool set of variations that
has a traditional classical flavor, a strong Bach influence, a tango, ragtime,
and explores a lot of different characters. In his playing and composing, he has
a vast color palette, and he explores that in his variations.
KF:
What other works are on the program?
NP:
I didn’t want to start with Fred Hersch’s Variations,
but instead warming up to them: and
what could be better to start with than Piazzolla? I didn’t want to do an all-solo
recital this time, it’s so much fun to play with friends, so I asked Philippe Quint,
an amazing violinist, if he wanted to do a piece with me. It’s an arrangement
for violin and piano of Piazzolla’s Grand
Tango, originally written for cello. It leads into the Variations, then we’re going to an arrangement of Eugene Onegin’s Lensky aria, then the Prokofiev
sonata, then—so it’s not all Russian music—I’ll do some Brahms and Chopin.
KF:
You love playing classical music. What’s your view of the artist’s role in
these days of iPods, streaming and YouTube?
NP:
As I see it, our duty as musicians is to chase away the fear that people have of
classical music—that it’s too cerebral or whatever. But to me, it’s simply gorgeous
music that moves anyone who hears it, and you can’t allow yourself to let fear
come between you and the music. My responsibility is to show people that it’s
approachable.
Pianist Natasha Paremski
July 30, 2012
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY
lepoissonrouge.com
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