A Review Of Kemal Gekic In Minneapolis, A Comment From Me

Last Sunday Kemal Gekic played an all-Chopin recital in Minneapolis, exactly 25 years after his flamboyant interpretations of Chopin got him kicked out of the CHopin Competition in Warsaw By the way, are you guys watching the Chopin? Here's the link: Anyway, here's the link to the review of that concert: And here's the comment I posted in response. A wonderful review but I have one quibble: the statement "he had no interest in an overly analytical approach" ignores the process by which Kemal arrives at his flamboyant interpretions. It is precisely BECAUSE of his highly analytical mind that he can plumb such amazing depths of musical expression hidden in each piece. He arrives at a richer expression because he has thoroughly analyzed the structure of each composition on many levels. Every "extravagant gesture" you heard was not a result of headstrong impulsiveness but of living deeply with the structural material of these works for decades. It is the result of an uncompromising and unceasing search for the expressive essence, the divine spark hidden within those black dots on the page. The musical results the Gekic achieves prove that analysis can and should be in the end a process of enrichment rather than sterilization... Many thanks for you appreciative words on one of the pianistic world's true giants... Alan Fraser