A CONCERT OF ANGELS AND DEMONS

ANGELS AND DEMONS

Natalia Nikolaeva piano recital

Tias Theatre, Lanzarote 5th October 2024

review by Norman Warwick

We arrived at Arrayate Un Millo at 6.00 pm and enjoyed a leisurely meal before facing our own Angels and Demons in the theatre, only twenty yards across the town square in Tias.

This is a wonderful restaurant that has pleasant and cheerful staff. They take orders from a wide ranging menu in a room that somehow looks very like a typical Spanish restaurant and, with its tapas and talk, always has a buzzing atmosphere.

The décor is quite incredible, with huge landscape paintings of the island adorning the high walls. There are even old black and white photographs of ´old Lanzarote´, taken in the days before the planes came, but most remarkable is the fact that  some of the painted landscapes hang down from the ceiling on chains. To view such art work while stretched back so that you can view them from underneath can be a bit of a pain in the neck, but the panoramas can be viewed from a unique perspective.

The menu, full of tapas, fish and meat dishes also has some rather more humble items listed. When we lived in the UK, until ten years ago, when we came to settle here, I´m not sure we would have booked in at such a splendid restaurant and simply ordered egg and chips !

On Lanzarote, however, their egg and chips are splendidly dressed with Iberian ham, cloaking two fabulously runny friend eggs, themselves laid on a bed of chips and thinly sliced potatoes. They are excellent in almost any restaurant you might visit, but the golden yoke here and the long strings of ham are sublime.

Dee´s white wine was perfectly chilled and my beer tasted of a touch of frost.

The shared dessert was wonderful, apparently of Ugandan descent. The little bit Dee let me taste was crispy and creamy and cold.

We paid our bill of less than forty euros and ambled across to the theatre, showed our pre-paid tickets and picked up the programme at the door.

Only a few minutes later Natalia took to the stage. She spoke to the audience to give us details of the whole programme, as she would be playing for over an hour.

The opening piece, Microludes, musician, she told us was written by Nino Diaz, (left) who was born in Tías, Lanzarote on 28/05/1963. His father Benigno Díaz Mesa, a great music lover, instilled a passion for music in the whole family. Since learning the timple at the age of 7, Nino showed a great interest, not only in music, but also in plastic arts and photography, his other great passions. 

He has a degree in Clarinet, Composition and Instrumentation, and Orchestra Conducting – from the Barcelona Conservatory of Music. He also has an official Master´s degree in Cultural Management obtained at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Barcelona. 

Nino Diaz is undoubtedly one of the most prolific and internationally renowned living composers from the Canary Islands.

More than a hundred of his published works have been performed in numerous countries in the world, by musicians such as Valery Gergiev, Carlos Karlmar, Harry Sparnaay, Kai Gleusteen, Jean Pierre Dupui, Salvador Brotons… with many of his works being performed in places such as The Konzerthous in  Berlin, The Grand Auditorium of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, The Auditorium in Barcelona, The Gran Teatro del Liceo, The Alfredo Kraus Auditorio, The Teatro Guimerá, and The Auditorio de Los Jameos del Agua. 

In 2007 he was made a member of The San Miguel Arcángel Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts, for his international career as a performer and as a creator.  No doubt the award reflected, too, his contribution to the generation and dissemination of new contemporary heritage. 

In 2008, with his work El muro, he won the XV Contest of Radiophonic Works of Creation, organised by RNE Radio Clásica and the Ministry of Culture.

He is the owner of the Belgian-based publishing company ‘Periferia Music’, which has more than 700 works in its catalogue, by composers from 56 countries. 

In 2016 he was appointed director of the Canary Islands International Music Festival.

In 2017 he created the Nino Díaz Foundation in Lanzarote, where he is carrying out a wide range of transformative activities through music.

In 2022 the Spanish Association of Bassoonists and Oboists (AFOES) selected his work “Belial” (oboe and piano) for publication.

Since 2012 he has divided his residence between Berlin and Lanzarote, where he continues to work on his different projects as a creator and entrepreneur. 

It is amazing how you can be introduced to an artist when you hear another great artist playing their compositions.

In fact Natalia had selected the perfect opening piece, written as it was by such a highly acclaimed local musician. It perfectly captured the theme of the programme, Angels and Demons, because it floated in and out of dark shadow and ephemeral light. How she played so delicately on the light notes and yet allowed the dark notes to echo and resonate was a sign of her excellent technique.

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style.

Natalia played three of his sonatas, and these also carried Angels and Demons side by side, leaving the audience continually looking out for the demons and then being gathered back in by the angels, a theme Natalia´s style reflected throughout the rest of the evening.

Only two nights later Scarlatti was the subject of a question on University Challenge and I pressed my buzzer (from my sofa) and scored ten points.

Mendelssohn, of course explored themes of light and dark, or angels and demons, throughout his career. Preludio y fuga en sol menor was perfectly performed by Natalia and I found it fascinating how she so perfectly recaptured the tropes of each musician. Being one of my own favourite composers, I was delighted by how Mendelssohn suited her perfectly.

Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber groups, orchestra, choir and the opera. His works typify the spirit of the Romantic era in German music, This was another perfect selection by Natalia, who was by now obviously immersed in her delivery, and his opus In The Night was one of the highlights of the evening.

Sadly, the performance had not drawn a full house, but those of us who were there were held spellbound by a lady who is a mistress of her art. We have seen and heard Natalia many times over our ten years on Lanzarote, and these have included several piano and violin concerts with her friend Iya Zmaeva, and the two friends are among the island´s most loved musicians.

Here, as a soloist she continued on to Beethoven, another composer who explores the heights and depths where angels and / or demons hang out, we heard plenty of both, of course, in Beethoven´s Sonata.

Alexander Rosenblatt was her final selected composer and she played his variations on a theme of Paganini and this was, fittingly, delicately and joyfully played.

Natalia (left) had played with no breaks for applause from the knowledgeable audience who recognised tonight´s concert as being a whole. Nevertheless the admiration and respect for the player had been tangible in its silent respect and when the recital of over an hour closed the Tias audience rose to its feet. Bouquets were presented and Natalia delivered a joyous encore.

It might even be that the pieces she had collected have created a classical playlist. There was loud and soft, fast and slow, dreams and nightmares.

A great playlist introduces its listeners to new names, as Nino Diaz was a new name to me, as well as highly regarded musicians. Another name I did not know but came to recognise the music by Natalia´s playing was Rosenblatt. Then there must be well respected and familiar composers such as Scarlatti selected alongside the great composers, known for music that has endured for hundreds of years to this day: Mendelsohn, Schumann and Mendelssohn with thier instantly recognisable music.

A great playlist creates a linear narrative storyline, with clear moments of drama and longeurs. A playlist, like a writer, should show not tell, creating vivid scenes that still allow the listener to paint in a backgrouind and to imagine the chases and the clashes and the reconciliations. The music on a playlist must create a mood and maintain that mood even as it questions that mood.

Natalia´s selection was not only perfect for a live performance, but would also, I´m sure work as a cd that would make a suitable lover´s gift, for birthday, Valentine or anniversary.

It worked effectively as a live piano performance but a recording would accommodate other instrumentation and I´m sure Natalia knows colleagues who could and would play their instruments of choice, violin and cello particualry but also perhaps some percussion and wind and brass too.

What a collection a recording of this Angels and Demons selection would be to showcase the wealth of classical music talent we have on the island.

We set off on the dark drive back to Playa Blanca, a trip that sees demons coming towards us with headlights full on, but there are angels, too, who knew how to dip and spare my poor old eyes.

We were home in time to catch-up on Strictly Come Dancing, with its own cast of angels and demons (if you read the papers) and the comedic Paul Merson, (former footballer and now Sky tv pundit) who certainly survived his own angels and demons through his playing career, was definitely on the side of the angels with a full on cowboy dance.

So, tonight was another great night out on Lanzarote.

We are also fans of the classical concerts occasionally held at The Camel House, truly a unique and iconic venue, and our next review will bring you a report on a string quartet ensemble who are promising a classical concert that will also include a tribute to Coldplay.

Watch this space