This afternoon I went to hear the Slovenian pianist DUBRAVKA TOMSIC at Symphony Hall in Boston. Apparently she was standing in for another pianist that cancelled at short notice. Her program consisted of Beethoven's Sonata Op 31 No 1, Debussy Images Book II, L'Isle Joyeuse, Brahms Fantasies Op 116 and Variations on a Theme of Paganini Op 35 book II.

I was very impressed with the Beethoven sonata. She produced a fine singing tone at the piano with good voicing of melodies and inner parts, well shaped phrasing and unfaltering rhythm.

When she started the first piece of the Images, "Cloches a travers les feuilles" I could tell that she had the attention of the audience and we were absolutely spellbound. She created a misty, eerie atmosphere in the first few measures. Her playing had colour and excellent control of tonal shading and nuances etc. The second piece in the set was "Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut" and it was really enchanting. In fact it was so beautiful I had a tear in the corner of my eye during this piece and in one of the Brahms Fantasies.

The shimmering "Poisson's D'Or" was great. The introduction to "L'Isle Joyeuse" was taken a quite a fast tempo but at no time were there any blurred textures. The cantabile middle section was really gorgeous. She built up to a tremendous climax with an orchestral effect on the piano. This was a very memorable performance, and as beautiful and enjoyable as Pollini's a few month's ago.

In the Brahms Fantasies, she really made the piano sing. Even though the piano is a percussive instrument few great artists like her can produce such a beautiful singing tone. Some of these pieces were really quite moving. She has a wide dynamic range from the quietest pianissimos to the loudest and most powerful of fortes. I was very impressed with her phrasing and rubato, how the dynamics reach a peak and died away within a phrase, how she slowed down towards the end of a phrase making a diminuendo, and balancing the melody against the accompaniment. She never played a repeated section or phrase the same way twice, and this is one thing that makes her playing so interesting.

In many ways her playing reminds me of another great musician and pianist, Alicia Delarrocha. She has many of the same fine qualities.

The Brahms Paganini Variations started with the familiar violin caprice melody that was used by Rachmaninoff in the introduction to his Paganini Rhapsody, by Liszt in one of his studies, Lutoslowski and others. Each variation was played with a different kind of touch. A noteable piece was the variation in F major, the one with the beautiful song-like melody in octaves in the right hand accompanied by broken arpeggio chords in the left hand. For the second repeat she emphasized some inner parts in the right hand which made it even more interesting.

She received a highly deserved standing ovation. She played three encores. The first was a dazzling performance of Liszt's etude "La Leggierezza", (the one that always reminds me of Chopin's Impromptu in A flat major). She achieved an almost "glissando-like" quality in the chromatic scales in the right hand. She then tossed off the Chopin Etude Op 10 in C sharp minor ("The Torrent") as if it were child's play. I had never heard the third encore before. It sounded rather like Rachmaninoff at one time and Spanish music at another time. It was in a miinor key, rather sad, consisting of a chordal melody in the bass harmonizing with a group of five sequential notes in the upper register. I went back stage afterwards to meet her, to tell her how much I enjoyed her playing, and to ask her what the mystery third encore piece was.

When I met her back stage I thought she was a pretty and very charming lady. She told me that the third encore was a transcription of a Bach piece?? by the Russian pianist Alexander Siloti (no wonder it sounded like Rachmaninoff!). She gave me her autograph and I asked he when she will be playing in Boston again. She told me that she will be playing a Saint Saens piano concerto with orchestra in November. I am looking forward to that!

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