Pasquale G. Tatò DEJAN BOZOVIC IL GAZZETTINO 

 

Trieste, Italy

 

They say, about singing, that a voice is alluring if it manages to please us even with just the linear emission of a single note. We are reminded of this notion as we listen to a voice, not human—for as much as it may resemble it—but of a truly special cello. We choose to speak not simply of the instrument’s sound because the sound that wafts from Sergey Antonov’s bow work transcends, by multiple analogy, into the domain of sensations usually associated with the highest singing qualities. Indeed, even as the musical flow lingers for a moment on a strain, the latter, suspended in mid air, emanates an opulent hypnotic beauty that expands and materializes in an architecture of sensual, welcoming, inebriating softness, almost to the point of distracting one’s reflexion from the young Russian artist’s accomplished mastery. But nothing could be further from the truth of a judgment that does not in the least put on the same level the timbral fascination and every other aspect of Antonov’s interpretations. Interpretations that glide like satin, wide in scope yet capillary, totally immune to angularities, with a subtle passionateness in which every gesture naturally—dare we say, inevitably—descends from the preceding one. After an unusually lithe and sweet yet without a doubt stirring and soulful rendition of Bach’s Suite No. 2, the wonderful readings of Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne and Rachmaninov’s Sonata in G minor feature, next to Antonov, the pianist Constantine Finehouse, a Russian compatriot, though settled in the United States since childhood. The latter’s artistic intelligence and polish is truly priceless, especially in consideration of the cellist’s nature. The duo’s irresistible dialog totally conquers the audience gathered at Teatro Verdi’s Sala Ridotto for the inauguration of the Chamber Music Association’s Salotto Cameristico. Two encores seal the excellent evening.