John Field Room, NCH, Dublin

Bach –

French Suite No 2; Toccata in E minor, BWV 914; Prelude and Fugue No 19 in A; Partita No 6.

Ukrainian pianist Anna Kiselyova is currently studying for a masters degree in performance at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama where her focus is on issues surrounding the playing of Bach’s keyboard music on the modern piano. That she had thought deeply about these issues was evident in her playing, although not at the start. There was a nervy opening with the

C Minor French Suite

in which odd notes received undue emphasis, and an unfortunate stumble undermined her stylish bravura in the

Courante

movement. To her credit she made a quick recovery, only to follow it soon after with a memory lapse that seemed to reduce her confidence.

But she went on to display the goalkeeper’s essential capacity for self-imposed amnesia, playing on as if the previous goal never happened. She gave the

E minor Toccata BWV 914

with the best show-casing of her specialist approach to Bach on the piano. Her articulation was consistently light and dry, using little or no pedal, even in legato passages; her tempos were deceptively rather than rigidly steady; she limited her dynamic parameters on the piano in sympathy with the narrower confines of the harpsichord or clavichord.

Although there was more playing like this in the programme’s remaining works – the

Prelude

and

Fugue No 19

from Book II of the “48”, and the

E Minor Partita

– it was spotted with little lapses. It was likely as a result of this that there was more of the Partita’s surface than its monumental depth and scale.