The gloriously robust and opulent Royal Albert Hall, standing rotund and distinctive in the heart of South Kensington, has an arguably little-known versatile concert space within it named The Elgar Room.
It is here that Alexandra Streliski, that trailblazer of contemporary classical composition and stellar pianist, performs for us lucky people tonight as part of the Steinway Piano Series.
The space quickly fills with an excited audience as they traverse the richly carpeted and lavishly wallpapered room (complete with its own bar) to sit in long rows, traditional-style, in front of a dimly lit stage with a beautiful Steinway on the left-hand side. The lights, already low, dim to almost blackout and a hush falls as Alexandra, dressed in white, and her violinist and cellist (sisters) walk down the aisle to their places. A single spotlight on the pianist; she waits for a long, exquisite pause before beginning this glorious hour and 20 minutes of virtuosic, mesmerizingly cyclical, emotion-filled, and shared music.
After the first magical piece, “Plus Tot”, Alexandra speaks to us, “Hello, how’s everyone doing? I feel like I’ve made it in life- I’m at the Royal Albert Hall!” She goes on to wish us an evening where we can “dream, and hope a little…”
A neo-classicist in the truest sense of description (one can hear all the greats’ influences in her work), she is ultimately a romantic, an expressionist, a communicator of the deepest, most tender feelings. Repeating motifs, developed sections, tumbling scales and meandering ‘etude-esque’ sections are her alphabet as she uses scales and patterns, repeated and inverted, to tell her stories. Like Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherezade, Streliski weaves the seemingly interconnected pieces one after the other and we are absolutely and wonderingly entranced; sometimes with accompanying words but often without- the silence between each work and the perfect notes enough to convey the depth of feeling intended and so perfectly communicated.
The beauty ends all too soon and a standing ovation demands an encore"
Dynamics are very important this evening; from the merest hint of pianissimo to the most emphatic, terrifying fortissimo, every possible variation of contrast and range explored. At times, we can hear her thumping the sustaining pedal (a few politely alarmed glances from those classically taught in the audience cause Streliski to acknowledge she does this by saying, “It’s actually a rock show!”)
Modulating through relative majors and minors, her left hand is a constant, rhythmic reassurance; her right hand all rippling shapes, shades and meandering melodies; the vibrancy and rapidity breath-taking. The violin and cello’s richly sonorous sounds weave and blend, sometimes taking the lead, at other times underpinning the percussiveness of the piano. Pizzicato, legato, harmonics; full, rich, fast vibrato; col legno- they do it all with such emotive, distinctive, confident mastery, the ebb and flow of each instrument attuned to the other.
Alexandra plays without a sheet of music — it is in her, it is her."
Streliski’s music is the musical equivalent of water- sometimes a tiny stream, sometimes a ferocious river- but always moving on, rippling with intensity or poignancy or anger or frustration or … about any emotion you can name, basically. Rubato playing and those long pauses- oh she is the mistress of every kind of pause – allow us to do as she wishes, to “let it go in your imagination- let it do what the story wants.”
Streliski plays from her new album Neo-Romance. She describes this work as ‘looking outwards rather than inwards’, following a new love and hope in her life. She makes us all laugh however, by then describing it as “some of the saddest music I’ve ever written!”
This music is so powerful. People around are showing an obvious emotional response — and perhaps its power lies in the fact that it is so unashamedly personal. Her vulnerability and raw emotion, translated into music, are shared so willingly and honestly with whoever wants to listen. Yes, she is undoubtedly a hugely talented concert pianist who plays her own compositions superbly, but it is her intent, her absorption with the music, that casts the spell, that creates the quivering bubble around The Elgar Room this evening.
Alexandra plays without a sheet of music — it is in her, it is her. The beauty ends all too soon, and a standing ovation demands an encore, before two more signals it is over; her soft, gentle, heartening last chords resolving in a hopeful major key, so that we are left applauding and smiling; a musical pathos, an ultimate joy.
Alexandra Streliski played The Elgar Rooms, Royal Albert Hall – 6.3.24