Dinara Klinton - July 2022
Dinara Klinton is a famous Ukranian soloist, as well as a Professor at the Royal College of Music in London and the Yehudi Menuhin School. As a Ukrainian, she was disappointed not to be able to make the Shrewsbury Helps Ukraine weekend, so a recital was organised shortly after at Shrewsbury Abbey (pictured). She gave a peerless performance of Beethoven's last piano sonata, followed by one of Prokofiev's War Sonatas written during World War Two, his Sonata No.8 Op.84. She concluded with an emotional tribute to the suffering of her homeland by playing Rachmaninov's Vocalise Op.34. This was a recital to be treasured, full of melodies and passionate emotion. A masterclass in performance.
She was due to play on a Steinway which had been planned to be moved from the Gateway Arts Centre, but this plan was abandoned at the last minute, so she had to make do with the Abbey's Danemann piano. The latter had probably never sounded so good, a strange internal vibration the only sign of its great excitement in its advanced years.