The second last concert of the Gstaad New Year Music Festival offered a stage for young talents in the church of Lauenen. Bohdan Luts (violin) and Kim Bernard (piano) shared the concert evening and played works from Bach to Fritz Kreisler.

The 23-year-old Kim Bernard chose a broad epochal arc for his programme. He opened the second part of the evening with the two contrapunctus 1 and 9 from “The Art of Fugue” and closed with Debussy’s “L’isle Joyeuse”. A journey from the 18th to the 20th century, whereby he also paid tribute to the 19th century with Haydn’s Sonata No. 60 and Chopin’s “Berceuse” op. 57 and “Barcarolle” op. 60. The young pianist had made a challenging selection. However, the main highlight of his performance was the four Préludes op. 23 nos. 4 and 7, and op. 32 nos. 5 and 12 by Rachmaninov. Bernard seemed to be one with himself and impressed with virtuosity, energy and sonority. Kim Bernard is a prize winner of the Gauthier Capuçon Foundation.

Winner of the Lysy Competition

19-year-old violinist Bohdan Luts played the first part of the concert. The winner of both the audience and jury prizes of the 2022 Alberto Lysy International Violin Competition, he thus collected his first prize – a concert performance. The Lysy violin competition takes place every two years in the church in Gstaad at the end of September/beginning of October. 20 young violinists from all over the world are invited by pre-selection to show their skills. Bohdan Luts was the youngest participant and a clear winner of the last edition. His prizes include concert performances at the Gstaad New Year Music Festival, the next Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Festival Le Bois qui Chante.

With the Solo Sonata No. 6 by Eugène Ysaÿe, he stood out from the start with his violinistic skills and intuitive, natural musicality. This was followed by the Sonata op. 18 for violin and piano by Richard Strauss, where he was accompanied by the experienced pianist Dmytro Sukhovienko. The two recently gave a concert in France with this sonata, which did not go unnoticed by the listeners at the concert. One could hear that they are a well-rehearsed team, although the pianist could perhaps have been a little more restrained with his “mighty” instrument on one or two occasions. Luts also pleased the audience in the Strauss with fine detail work and harmonically balanced dynamics and tempi. Unconsciously, he manages an almost ideal mixture of youthful insouciance and seriousness for his age, with which he captivates the audience. “I was very nervous and practised a lot for this concert,” he admitted frankly afterwards – as a listener, I didn’t notice any of that. A young artist with great potential; that much is certain. It remains exciting to observe his further development. The next opportunity to do so here in Saanenland will be at the Menuhin Festival this summer.

BASED ON AVS | ÇETIN KÖKSAL