Talented Russian-Israeli Pianist Viktor Goldberg Plays to a Full House at the Goethe Bangkok

Russian-Israeli pianist Viktor Goldberg is presented flowers by the German ambassador to Thailand (left) and the Israeli ambassador (right) following Goldberg's successful Bangkok recital.

August 09, 2010. Bangkok, Thailand. Russian-Israeli Pianist Viktor Goldberg is among the seemingly endless supply of pianists in their 20s, who play so well and so musically that an evening spent with them is guaranteed to please, even if one doesn’t entirely agree with what one hears. Goldberg’s August 9th recital at Bangkok’s Goethe Institute auditorium began on an unusual high note even before he took to the stage: the recital hall was filled to capacity. So many pianists end up playing to sparse audiences in Bangkok, that this event, which was jointly sponsored by the German and Israeli embassies and was attended by the ambassadors of both countries, stands out, and it affirms that the energy generated by a packed house, even a small house, is an essential ingredient of public performance.

Beginning his program with Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2, Goldberg showed that he was well-grounded in the classical repertoire and that he had thought out what he wants to do with this frequently-played piece. Although I found his performance somewhat choppy, still there were moments of interesting interpretation, and overall, Goldberg’s performance was, if not quite beautiful, satisfying.

The highlight of the evening for me was Goldberg’s perfectly beautiful performance of Mozart’s Sonata No. 9, the technically easiest part of his program, but the musically most difficult. No composer is more capable than Mozart in exposing chinks in a pianist’s technical and musical armor. The sforzando pedal is no aid whatsoever in covering up a pianist’s deficiencies when playing Mozart’s transparent music. In this well-known Mozart Sonata, Goldberg was in total control, a slip or two in the final movement to the contrary notwithstanding, and played cleanly and elegantly to produce what I would describe as a “Mozart sound.” In the Scarlatti sonata. which began the second half of the program, Goldberg produced the same clean sound necessary for a successful performance of this baroque master, and introduced some ornamentation that I hadn’t heard before, which I liked.

As for Goldberg’s performance of Scriabin’s Sonata No. 5, I have little to say because I’m only just beginning to listen to a fair amount of Scriabin, way too little so far to express any opinion of what sounds to me like an extremely difficult piece. Suffice it to say that Goldberg was quite at home negotiating the technical difficulties of this complex piece, and that I wouldn’t be surprised if Scriabin lovers gave Goldberg high marks.

The “big” work on this evening’s program was Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel. Goldberg treated each variation as a miniature, a sort of vignette, and so gave different styles and sounds to each, which made the performance extremely interesting and lovely. But, alas, it lacked the gravitas of what I conceive to be the essence of this piece, as exemplified by Serkin’s magnificent recording, and so after enjoying Goldberg’s “pictures at a….” I proceeded home and listened to Serkin before I went to bed.

Goldberg’s efforts this evening were amply rewarded by abundant and enthusiastic applause, which was returned by the playing of three encores followed by the presentation of flowers by the ambassadors of Germany and Israel, after which we all exited to be confronted by a tropical downpour during this, Thailand’s rainy season.