Metronome Inc. - Halida Dinova

			Cabrillo College Aptos, California March 11, 2006 "...total mastery and a magnificent refinement in her playing" Lyn Bronson, Originally Published at www.bronsonpianostudio.com
	Although she was billed as a “Russian Piano Virtuoso,” this is not the true story. She is a first class musician who just happens to play the piano. If you think this is an insult, it is anything but. The world is full of Russian émigré pianists who have the hidden agenda, “I am Russian virtuoso — world owes me a living.” The majority of these huff and puff, and bang their way through the virtuoso piano repertoire, in the process making lots of noise, but little music. Halida Dinova proved to us that she knows how to make music, not noise, and she made quite a bit of it on this occasion. Ms. Dinova took a few minutes to settle in, but by her third and fourth groups, consisting of Debussy’s Réflets dans l’eau, Poissons d’or, and Saint-Saens Etude en forme de Valse, she had hit her stride, and this concert kept getting better and better as the evening wore on so that after intermission we were hearing total mastery and a magnificent refinement in her playing.
	Refinement is a double edged sword, for there is a danger that the music can become so refined that it becomes dull and loses its ability to engage the attention of the listener. This never happened. Her performance of the Brahms Klavierstücke, Op. 76, revealed new beauties in these familiar works. The opening Capriccio in F-sharp Minor was at times bold and commanding, while at others it was silky smooth and seductive. The lovely Capriccio in B Minor, often played too fast and aggressively, here had a more leisurely approach and was utterly convincing. The Intermezzo, No. 3, was lovely with its tonal magic and beautiful shaping of phrases, and the concluding Capriccio in C-sharp Minor (a work even more difficult than it sounds) was performed with compelling mastery. It was in the concluding group of Scriabin pieces that we heard Ms. Dinova at her absolute best. In these works she demonstrated how she can use her tonal palette with its many subtle shades of dynamics, from the most delicate pianissimos to the most robust and meaningful fortissimos, not for pianistic effect, but always for musical purposes. The smaller Scriabin pieces were like exquisite jewels, while the more demanding pieces like the Etude Op. 42, No. 5 (this is ten times more difficult then it sounds) and the Sonata were played with glorious abandon. Responding to an appreciative audience, Ms. Dinova rewarded us with two encores, Scriabin’s Valse, Op. 38, and Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G Major from Op. 32. I have to say that I have never heard this particular Rachmaninoff Prelude played any better, for its lovely cantabile and exquisite phrasing were absolutely bewitching.

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