Grigory Sokolov presents a protégée
mainThe Russian pianist has announced a Salzburg Festival premiere. Here’s the press release:
Grigory Sokolov & the Salzburg Festival present
ALEXANDRA DOVGAN
(SF, 1 July 2019) Born in 2007, Alexandra Dovgan brings an exceptional talent to the piano. Grigory Sokolov and the Salzburg Festival present the 11-year-old pianist in a concert on Wednesday, 31 July at 3 pm at the Main Auditorium of the Mozarteum Foundation.
Grigory Sokolov says about Alexandra Dovgan: “This is one of those rare occasions. The eleven-year-old pianist Alexandra Dovgan can hardly be called a wonder child, for while this is a wonder, it is not child’s play. What one hears is a performance by a grown-up individual and a person. It is a special pleasure for me to commend the art of her remarkable music teacher, Mira Marchenko. Yet there are things that cannot be taught and learned. Alexandra Dovgan’s talent is exceptionally harmonious. Her playing is honest and concentrated. I predict a great future for her…”
Free tickets to her concert are available starting on 6 July at the Salzburg Festival Shop.
photo: Oscar Tursunov
I heard her a couple of months ago in Kazan and she certainly is a phenomenal young talent, here is my interview with her
http://seenandheard-international.com/2019/04/young-russian-pianist-alexandra-dovgan-in-conversation-with-gregor-tassie/
If Sokolov thinks she’s good that’s good enough for me! unfortunately I’m not hitting Salzburg until the 13th August. Best of luck to her.
They’re killing her. Children shouldn’t concertize, no matter how good they are. Becoming a woman and a stable adult should be the first priority. Exploiting a child and making her work is criminal.
Depends on the child. Menuhin, Midori, Mutter, Barenboim, Argerich etc. etc. all survived being “exploited” and went on to great careers as adults. Even kids who don’t go on to adult careers in music may not all be destroyed.
Midori, Barenboim & Argerich never toured heavily as children and weren’t exploited. They just played occasional concerts, which is OK. But Alexandra Dovgan has been yanked out of school and is playing regularly – that is hard work, and children shouldn’t work. As for Menuhin, his playing suffered later in life, so perhaps had been allowed to be a child, he wouldn’t have had problems later on.
GS does good PR. The same he said about Aime Kobayashi and she didn’t prove his prophecy. AD doesn’t have instincts of wunderkind like E.Kissin, Midori. Mark my word
Perhaps you should read my interview with her, she is doing something she wants to do and has the support of her family and school. No one is forcing her to do anything. I suppose someone is going to complain next about young teenage tennis players beating players 25 years older. There is absolutely nothing criminal about this.
So will she break a few speed records like Chopeng Op10 no1 or the last movement of Rack 3? Can we look forward to the 501st recordings of all the standard repertoire? The world is holding its breath.
Right-another pianist to record the existing repertoire in a copy/paste way.
I shall stick to the “old” ones
Richer,barenboim etc
Another appalling freak show. Wasn’t a 3-year old violinist on a few weeks back?
Alexandra Dovgan is a real deal. Her Rameau was magical, absolutely incredible. I would go listen to her play any day (with or without
Sokolov’s blessings).
Her Rameau’s bland. Just for her age ability to play all notes-nothing special.
LOL. Translation: “Your opinion is only opinion. My opinion is fact.” 😀
AD is an extraordinary musician. The only danger to her is overexposure and performing too much. I hope her teacher and family know better than making a meal out of the allure of a child prodigy.
Alexandra Dovgan is the best child musician I have ever heard. What makes her special is that she evidently understands and communicates what she’s playing, and is not just banging out the notes like 99.99% of them do.
Alexandra Dovgan is the best child musician I have ever heard, also. I speak as one who has seen some of today’s preëminent musicians play as youngsters, including Hilary Hahn and Yuja Wang when they were students at Curtis giving free recitals.