Bravi for Pritchin and Emelyanychev

Prominent Russian musicians with a enviable careers, violinist Aylen Pritchin and pianist Maxim Emelyanychev, with their inspired interpretation of Schubert, Prokofiev, Dvořák and Grieg, showed exquisite musicality last night, 4 August in the Rector’s Palace atrium, earning passionate applause and shouts of Bravi! from the satisfied festival audience.

The elegant Sonata (Sonatina) No. 1 for violin and piano in D major by Franz Schubert opened the musical evening with a playful alternating of themes and lovely notes of Pritchin's violin and Emelyanychev's piano in perfect synergy. The audience could not contain their delight, so each movement of the Sonatina was rewarded with applause. Sonata for violin and piano in D major, No. 2, Op. 94bis by Sergei Prokofiev, primarily a classical composition with some folk, impressionist and even blues elements. The violin part is full of virtuosity, which Pritchin, who boasts numerous laureates, presented superbly and lyrically with the steadfast and harmonious support of the piano accompaniment Emelyanychev, also a conducting wunderkind who shone on the Festival stage already, back in 2018. The performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Romance, op. 11, an enchanting miniature with twinkling melodies and skilful structure were interpreted by the brilliant duo with great inspiration and ease of musicianship. The technical excellence and harmony of the musicians reached their peak in Edvard Grieg’s Sonata for violin and piano No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45, his last composition, at the same time the most demanding and the most performed, and of an unquestionably Grieg sound – expressive, dramatic, magnificent. Last night, the Palace resounded with passionate applause and well-deserved exclamations of Bravi! to which the musicians treated the festival audience to the lush and moving composition Romance op. 22/1 composed by Clara Schumann, seeing the audience off softly and dreamily into the warm Dubrovnik night.

Tickets for the next Rector’s Palace concert at the 74^th Festival, which celebrates the big 150^th anniversary of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s and Blagoje Bersa’s birth with the programme prepared by one of the leading Croatian musicians of their generation, the cellist Latica Anić, pianist Krešimir Starčević, and violinist Marco Graziani, are available via the festival website www.dubrovnik-festival.hr or the service www.ulaznice.hr, at the box office in the Festival Palace (Od Sigurate 1) every day from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and in front of the DTS building (Vukovarska St) from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.