“…it was interesting, impressive and exciting how sensitive this young, exceptional pianist, who did justice to the composer and his era, played. The most tender pianissimo merged with the rustling of the trees outside.”
OSTERFRIESEN-ZEITUNG
| ENORMOUS TECHNICAL ABILITY
I.WAGNER | KULTUR IN EMDEN UND DRUMHERUM | TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN
EMDEN: An unusual event took place late Sunday afternoon in the Swiss Church. Pianist Olga Chelova played the 24 Études, opus numbers 10 and 25. A daring undertaking, since these études are among the most artistic the music literature has to offer. One hardly ever hears all of them as a complete work in large houses. And now they sounded in the tranquil Swiss church, where barely 30 listeners in the room lost themselves in the music.
Études are literally practice pieces. But Chopin broke with this notion and turned his études into virtuoso works in such a way that one wonders how it is even possible to play the outrageous fingerings required, especially at such a fast tempo.
Olga Chelova proved to be a master of technical ability here. She played with such a high level of aplomb and security that one could not help but be amazed. In her hands, individual etudes became a large complete work of 24 parts, riddled with extreme difficulties.
Take Étude No. 1 in C major, for example, which poses a real danger to the anatomy of the right hand due to the expansive broken chords that require a constant extension and contraction of the hand. Adventurous to look at – especially because of the speed. The composer György Ligeti once remarked in a conversation that there was probably no one who had ever heard Chopin's fist Etude without mistakes. If I'm not mistaken, the audience on Sunday had exactly this pleasure. It was simply amazing. Then the next piece, the second étude, pushed the degree of difficulty found in the first even further. The Étude in A minor is downright feared, as illustrated in the following anecdote.
The Russian pianist, Swjatoslaw Richter (1915-1997), who by all accounts had an "awe-inspiring playing technique”, is said to have hesitated playing the second etude when performing all twelve and sometimes simply omitted it.
This was not the case with Ms. Chelova, who threw herself into the small but extremely demanding compositions with gallantry and bravado. Nothing could stop her; she played as if in a trance. The powerful notes of the études incessantly dominated the room during the approximately 1¼-hour playing time. A performance second to none.
| OLGA CHELOVA AND PHILIPPE ENTREMONT
THIERRY VAGNE | MUSIQUE CLASSIC | TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH
This review is about the first disc of this pianist of Ukrainian origin, the first disc with a copious program recorded last April.
The piano is well-sounding, very “in the key” for interpretations that are decided and direct without the affectations that one sometimes finds under the fingers of big names. It is moreover very well recorded. It is during the second listen that we better feel the coherence of the discourse within Kreisleriana, with very beautiful internal moments like No. 4.
We appreciate the Paganini études of Liszt just as much, appropriate attack and sense of phrase, what timbres in La Campanella, for example!
And then a young man, a certain Philippe Entremont, who, approaching his 87th birthday, came to join his “student” for the Brahms waltzes for four hands…and it a reading that is superbly timbred, sometimes dapper, joyful or tender, with absolute clarify and a confounding naturalness. We put the waltzes back on at once…a very beautiful Neos record.
| OLGA CHELOVA (PIANO) AND PHILIPPE ENTREMONT (PIANO)
MICHAEL STRUCK / AUSZUG / DIE TONKUNST - REDAKTION / TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN
Schumann – Liszt – Brahms: Kreisleriana – Grandes études de Paganini – 16 Waltzes
NEOS Classics: NEOS 32102 (2021)
Olga Chelova’s debut CD initially captivates the listener with a recording of Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16. These “fantasies”, dedicated to Frédéric Chopin, were inspired by E.T.A Hoffman’s brilliant literary character, Johannes Kreisler, the Kapellmeister who suffered from the dichotomy between “art” and “world”. The Odessa-born pianist plays them in a way that makes one sit up and take notice. The title “Kreisleriana”, already used by Hoffmann himself, is the Latin plural of a made-up word that translates as “Kreisler plays”, “Kreisler stories”, or, corresponding to the work’s subtitle, “Kreisler fantasies”. Together with the Humoreske, Op. 20, which was composed almost at the same time during the end of Schumann’s first major creative phase (1838/1839), the Kreisleriana are among Schumann’s most profound, even most abysmal, piano works...
...The second movement sounds intimate and reflected, contains cantabile legato lines, staccato dancing sixteenth notes, an independent bass line; the combination of these elements results in a multifaceted tonal structure that speaks in the Hoffmannian sense. [Olga’s interpretation] comments and even questions itself and ultimately, results in a higher dialectic: a tone poem. Perhaps because she is both a pianist and composer, Chelova can think and create in structures, beyond the immediate moment of developments. In this sense, her recording stands out from the mainstream Kreisleriana…Overall, Chelova’s technically-superior playing through a balance of foresight and attention to detail, a warm heart and a cool head, is satisfying to hear. And so, her recording entices you to listen to it again and again.