Yura Margulis May 25 (K. Asbo Photo)

MUSICAL ALCHEMY INSIDE A HIDDEN GEM

The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum is a hidden gem of Sonoma County, a gracious building that is one of Sonoma County’s loveliest venues for chamber music concerts, with a fine period piano particularly suited to Romantic music.  Of the surprisingly large array of festivities there, one of the most anticipated each spring is the annual appearance of pianist Yura Margulis.
 
Mr. Margulis is a professor of piano at the Musica and Arts University in Vienna, and the May 25 recital affirmed his reputation as a stellar artist of Romantic sensibilities. 
 
Mr. Margulis began with comments to the audience on music as language, and in his words, “Music only reveals the truth. It does not lie”. The first half of the program consisted of six Scarlatti sonatas.  These are little baroque jewels, each one revealing a different facet of Mr. Margulis’s charismatic musical personality, from the  plaintive and haunting F Minor to the jaunty and bold military-inspired E Major.  By turns playful, aggressive and tender, Mr. Margulis’s emotional range in this music was truly breathtaking.  If he took liberties of rhythm, articulation and pedaling unimaginable to the Baroque era, his interpretations were still always thought provoking and deeply felt, with a nuanced interweaving of voices.  

The concluding D Minor prestissimo was a marvel of pianistic technique: rapid fire repeated note passages, swirling scales in thirds and perfectly even trills. Evoking the fire of a flamenco dancer (Scarlatti wrote this so-called Iberian sonata while living in Spain) the pianist left audience members gasping in astonishment and laughing with delight and disbelief at his bravura  precision.
 
Following a gracious intermission of gratis wine and cheese, Mr. Margulis turned to Russian music. A performance of Tchaikovsky’s Op. 59 Dumka (from 1886) was redolent with both inward, lyrical sensibility and heroic grandeur. The soulfulness of Russian folksongs emerged in its musical unfolding, seemingly drawing the audience inwards. It was in the four Preludes that concluded the program that true magic emerged. One could not wish for a pianist more deeply connected to the spirit of Rachmaninoff’s music, and each piece unfolded as an enchanting meditation aching with longing. The gossamer delicacy and poignancy of the G-Sharp Minor Prelude (Op. 32, No. 12) wove a spell of wonder, while the concluding G Minor (Op. 23, No. 5) erupted with molten passion.  This last prelude requires the most herculean of keyboard techniques to master its thunderous military octaves and yet demands the most elegant and lyric spirit to render its pleading middle section.

The artist’s virtuosity generated a standing ovation before the final chord, reflecting his potent musical alchemy. Mr. Margulis’s encore was the Scriabin Prelude in C sharp for Left Hand, Op. 9, No. 1. The poetic spirit and rich tone color warmed the heart and could not have been more satisfying.