Spring unraveled like a beautiful secret at the hands of pianist Raffi Besalyan as he performed a work called Spring by fellow Armenian composer Komitas. Besalyan threw in some Mozart, a Chopin Scherzo, a few Gershwin tunes (including the ragtime-infused and torrential “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” transcription by Earl Wild), Rachmaninoff and ended on a fiery note with Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz. Classical music fans who don’t tune into the weekly live chamber music series on Wisconsin Public Radio are missing some incredible live performances in this series broadcast before an audience by WPR from the Chazen Museum of Art on the UW Madison campus.
March, 2009
SCENE Newspaper (WI), by Jim Lundstrom