A gifted young pianist at San Anton Palace
Talent and beauty are two coveted gifts which are given randomly. Often, parents who cannot be considered good looking produce a beautiful child (and vice-versa). A couple neither of whom possesses a particular gift have a child who is a talented musician, or scientist or writer. In the case of the young Dmitry Ishkhanov, neither of his parents, unlike say, the lad from Salzburg, Mozart, enthroned as the deity of music, or the Bach family, had much to do with music. At the age of 11 years he has a curriculum vitae worthy of a much older pianist.
He was invited to play at San Anton Palace last week, arranged, I am told, through the good offices of Alan Chircop. I was expecting a young Russian man perhaps, with golden locks and slav eyes, a kind of modern Tchaikovsky – I hadn’t yet looked at the programme. But lo and behold who should take the bow if not a little 11-year-old with dark hair and intense dark eyes, a red bowtie and black suit.
Confident in his playing Dmitry gave us great pleasure and very generously, three encores. It was not an easy programme either. Starting with J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C minor. Bach was a fan of two things, coffee and numbers. Lots of his pieces play games with numbers, inaudibly. I remember the late Professor Edwin Borg Constanzi, a mathematician, being very keen on Bach.
Next came the First Movement of Beethovan’s Piano Sonata No. 5 in C. Minor. A pianist friend told me that when you conquered the Hammerklavier (Beethovan’s piano sonata No. 29, Op. 106) you had climbed Everest. As far as I am concerned for a young boy to play so well and be so relaxed about it is climbing Everest anyway. Dmitry then played Grieg’s Poetic Tone-Pictures Op. 3, Nos. 1,2, 3. Grieg, Norway’s most famous musical son, performed as a concert pianist throughout his life so he understood this instrument. I had never heard these pieces before but found them enjoyable.
In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, introduced to us recently by the violinist Charlie Siem, at a concert at the Manoel Theatre. Bull was a family friend for Bull’s brother was married to Grieg’s aunt. He recognized the 15-yearold boy’s talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory.
Dmitry then played Isaac Berkovich’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini. The well-known Variations on a theme by Paganini which we know and love are by Rachmaninoff and I think, Brahms. But I was familiar with the opening of