By Dr. Jonathan Tyack from 19th January 2020
“Memories; winter wind; great loss; pure passion; love; victory.” With these words the softly-spoken Luka Okros introduced Rachmaninov’s Six Moments Musicaux Op.16, by way of a personal gloss on each movement. Each listener will have felt their own “great loss” during the third, but the loss of Anthony surely resonated particularly for Octagon Music Society. Head bowed during this movement, Okros focussed in on the music’s sweet dissonances and their bitter resolutions. Loss was inescapably prominent again in the ‘Funeral March’ from Chopin’s Sonata No.2 in B flat minor Op.35. Okros showed - perhaps unexpectedly - an interior quality to this music, again playing stooped low over the keys as if to draw his listeners closer to his relentlessly taut lines. Okros is not only a pianist who can draw an audience along on the arc of a beautiful line, but who can also inject drama through rupture. In the opening movement of the Chopin Sonata his left hand punctured the serenity of high pitched chords, as if with intrusive negative thoughts. In Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 he frequently brought out destabilizing accents and rhythms, thereby refreshing a well-known classic. Here was a pianist whose musical intensity was belied by his gentle demeanour. At the end of each piece he took his richly deserved applause in a businesslike manner, as if impatient to get on to the next. As an encore, Okros played an exquisite composition of his own; perhaps he might have called it “hope.” And it is with hope and impatience we look forward to the next Octagon concert, and to many more in the future. Luka's concert for this season will be streamed concert on 31st January 2021 - head to our concerts page for more information!
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