Fri 11/5
Halida Dinova is a Russian-born American pianist, who has performed globally as a soloist and with the world’s finest orchestras. Although she is often touring in Europe or performing around the world, the pandemic has allowed her to perform more often near her home in Shaker Heights. Halida and her husband, Paul Abood, love the area and are excited to share her virtuosity with the NE Ohio community.
On Friday November 5 at Cleveland Heights’ Fairmount Presbyterian Church, Halida Dinova displayed her wit and love of musical stories to a broad-based and diverse audience. Halida wanted a program that embodies the sense of story that connects composers to their receptive audience.
She opened her program with her own arrangement of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Halida’s impassioned sound displayed tonal qualities equivalent to a pipe organ. Her intensity immediately caught the attention of everyone and set a high bar for the rest of the program. She made the demanding fugue seem effortless. The audience was left breathless as she went on to describe her next piece, the relatively obscure Scherzo by Felix Mendelssohn. The short piece dazzled the audience with Halida’s signature clarity and sparkling runs.
The next familiar piece was received with adoration, Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” Ms. Dinova isn’t just accomplished in her presentation; she brings a unique sound to Debussy’s poetic piece. Each note has a clarity and tone that shimmers under her spell. She shifted into Mussorgsky’s thunderous octave leaps in “Baba Yaga” with determination and power.
The audience was able to catch its collective breath with an intermission in which the soloist provided dark chocolate. She began the second half of her program with Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons” but the tour de force was Liszt’s Legend No. 2 St. Francis of Paola “Walking on the Waves.”
Ms. Dinova’s mastery over Liszt is legendary. Her Russian passion and intensity brought her audience to its feet. Her performances are exhilarating but her tonal finesse and subtlety mesmerize and catapult her into a league of Russian pianists like male predecessors Richter, Horowitz and Ashkenazy.
The next concert in the Fairmount Presbyterian music series will be headlined by CIM alum and artistic director/pianist Konrad Benienda, who will play an Advent Concert with a cellist on Friday December 3.
[Written by Lisa DeBenedictis]