This year’s Toronto Summer Music; theme “Metamorphosis”, kicked off on Thursday evening in a packed Koerner Hall.  It was TSM at its best; the concept a bit odd, even a bit mad, the execution brilliant and the result exciting and very enjoyable.  Basically take two seriously virtuosic pianists and as the late, lamented Humphrey Lyttleton might have said “given then silly things to do”.  Well they weren’t really silly, just a bit unusual.

Indeed things startyed off about as conventionally as they possibly could with John Kimura Parker playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.  Except I’ve never heard it played like that.  The familiar first movement was played with lots of rubato and sounded very different and fresh.  The final “presto agitato” was just that and more.  Most exciting, and quite intriguing.

Next it was the turn of young Ukrainian pianist Ilia Ovcharenko.  He played the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major K.414 in Mozart’s own chamber arrangement (piano plus string quartet and bass).  This was proper chamber music playing.  There was excellent communication between Ovcharenko and the five top notch string players and the overall result was fresh and much more intimate than the orchestral version.

After the intermission we got the first of the pieces for four hands; Milhaud’s Scaramouche.  As the title suggests this is quite a transgressive piece with the two players sometimes playing in different keys and so on.  It’s fun and the two pianists were so obviously enjoying themselves that one could not but be drawn along.

Ovcharenko then played two etudes by fellow countryman Levko Revutsky.  These are rather lovely and draw on Ukrainian folk music for themes.  I enjoyed them more than the Liszt “La Campanella” that followed though it was played in suitably demonic fashion.

The final work on the programme was the Rachmaninoff Suite No.2 for Two Pianos, Op.17.  More first class pianism and very obvious chemistry between the two guys.  It just about brought the house down and the audience was suitably delighted to get an appropriately light hearted encore in Copland’s “Hoe Down”.  All in all, a most enjoyable evening and a great start to the Festival.

Photo credits: Lucky Tang