The perfect beauty of Anna Vinnitskaya

I am an admirer of Sofia Gubaidulina since 1994 when she featured on Dutch television in the documentary series "Toonmeesters" (Reinbert de Leeuw en Cherry Duyns, 1994).

In that television series - actually a series of documentaries - each film highlighted one composer. Besides Gubaidulina also Messiaen, Górecki and Oestvolskaja where featured. Each film let us step into the world of the composer, the origins and insprirations of their music, how they conceived music, and how they overlooked a live performance. A perfect way to learn about contemporary music and composers, with full attention to the composer in all its humanness.

If you are new to the music of Sofia Gubaidulina, her Viola Concerto is a nice introduction - visit YouTube to view and listen.

Although Gubaidulina is recognized as one of the most important contemporary composers, her work is not performed that often, and I only own a handful of her works.

So I was searching iTunes yesterday if any new works of her had been added when I came across an album played by Anna Vinnitskaya (new name to me) that contains a work of Gubaidulina, next to Rachmaninov, Medtner and Prokofiev. It appeared to be a very recent album, only out for 5 days. The 30 second clips on iTunes were immediately convincing to buy the album, even if I usually don't listen to Rachmaninov. But such a vigor and balance and depth! It is exceptional to hear music expressed in such a way that you know it should not sound any other way.

I googled a bit on Anna Vinnitskaya and learned that her parents had destined her to become piano virtuoso from the age of 6 with the obvious pressures to play and perform. Anna persevered (and perservered more) and eventually won the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition for Piano in 2007.

See Anna in action in the final round of the competition, with the second piano concerto of Prokofiev: