For his third Oberlin solo recital, Aleksandr prepared a program that featured a satisfying balance between the familiar and the novel, between the simply melodic and the wildly complex. It proved a winning assortment of pieces, at least in his capable hands. From the most beloved Bach work to the most arcane Russian showpiece, Aleksandr proved himself quite at home. He presented his program for a small audience in our most reverberant performance space, Fairchild Chapel. (For a review of his previous programs here, look at his Freshman Recital and his Sophomore Recital.) The full program is reproduced at the end of the post.

Aleksandr Lapshin on stage in Fairchild Chapel

He opened up with Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro. The Prelude has seldom sounded more beautiful, filling the soaring space in the chapel with beautiful phrasing and guitar tone. His fugal counterpoint and the Allegro’s running lines both landed comfortably.

He followed with two Lieder ohne Worte of Mendelssohn. They were drawn from a book of them I released some years ago and used to perform in concert often, but have never taught to my students. Working on them with Aleks reminded me of how very beautiful they are and how perfectly they work on the guitar, at least in experienced hands! Aleks played them with lovely sound and careful phrasing, proving a perfect Romantic balance to his Baroque offering.

Next, Aleks played the deeply expressive Capricho de Goya No 18. This piece is a short set of variations, and with each passing variation, Aleks was able to demonstrate mastery of another complex technique, all while conveying the beautiful melodic line on which the work is based.

He played another Romantic work next, the seldom-heard Estudio sin Luz of Segovia. Segovia wrote very little music, but this piece makes me wish he’d written more. It is nicely crafted and the melody is haunting. Aleks played it as if he clearly loves it.

Finally, Aleks played his showpiece of the night, the brilliant Troika Variations of Orekhov. I had heard this piece once before, when the late Russian virtuoso Alexi Zimakov played it at the GFA Competition Final in 1991 (he won, but my student, Oberlin alum Randall Avers, won 2nd!). The piece takes a lovely Russian folk melody and treats it to a kaleidoscope of variations that includes lightning fast melodic block chords, scales and numerous other pyrotechnics. I’d been working with Aleks on this piece all year, but I’d never heard him play it as well as he did on the recital. He sounded like a true force of nature. He proved himself a virtuoso, and the audience was stunned and thrilled.