Olga Kern -- Sioux Falls Washington Pav. March 2003

[Richard Moody]

    From South Dakota Public Radio we were treated with tickets to
a performance of the Olga Kern piano recital at the Washington
Pavilion in Sioux Falls.  The program went from wow, to brilliant,
to stupendous, to unbelievable.
    I listened to the piano as a  technician and rendered a
judgement during the performance of the tuning and voicing.  I
wanted a whiff of "glass" (OK make that "crystal") in the treble
notes at FF and  FFF.  However I don't know if that was because I
was sitting 100 feet from the piano.  The bass though was better
than desired.
     The program could be called an assault on the piano.  However
the tuning held up very well under that "assault".  I actually
expected strings to break several times during the performance but
none did.
     Did I think the piano was being assaulted?  NO!---but Olga
exploited the capabilities of the piano to the max.  What she got
out of the piano I would have assumed was from a well
conditioned 195 pound male if I was blindfolded and didn't know.
That she did  not "knock it out" (of tune) was another amazement.
   So who was the tuner?  Our own Tim Coates according to the
sound engineer.
    He (the engineer) said the concert was acoustic and not with
any electronic sound reinforcement---that the 197x D stood on the
stage on its  own three legs and not on a stage truck because of
acoustic considerations--the legs transmitting sound vibrations to
the wooden stage.
   There was no "baffle" or "shell" behind the piano although I
wondered how that might have sounded.

The  program was;

    a couple of  impromptu's by Schubert

    Variations on a Theme by Paganini, op. 35
                                                Books One  and Two
        (here the performance got dazzling )

                                            Intermission

    Rachmaninoff          Variations on a Theme by Corelli,
            (this was stupendous)

    Sergi Taneyuev      Prelude and Fugue in G-sharp minor
            (this is when it began to get unbelievable)

    Mili Balakirev       Islamey
            (If she plays it like she did in Sioux Falls March
2003               you "won't believe it")