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It was not easy for Kemal Gekic to go through with his recital
Wednesday evening for the Miami Festival of Discovery. Shortly
before he was due onstage at the Lincoln Theatre in Miami
Beach, he heard that NATO bombs had fallen on his hometown
in Yugoslavia as the Kosovo crises widened into Operation
Allied Force. All communications were down, so he could learn
nothing about family and friends.
The Croatian-born Gekic, who heads the piano
department at a Yugoslavian University, toyed with the idea
of canceling this South Florida debut. But he decided to go
ahead, he told the audience, out the respect for the founding
sponsor of the festival, Patrons of Exceptional Artists. Within
a few minutes, he was playing a piece by Liszt inspired by
a Petrarch sonnet that begins: "I find no peace, but do not
want war." The outside world rarely makes itself so painfully
felt in a concert hall.
Gekic delivered a demanding program with intense
concentration; his playing was as notable for the technical
security as for the probing approach to each score.
The second set of Liszt's unique travelogue,
Annees de Pelerinage, with its sensual reflections on Italian
arts and letters, proved to be a well-fitting vehicle for
Gekic. Using a subtle, caressing touch, he re-created in sound
a Raphael painting, a sculpture by Michelangelo, and the eloquent
verses of Petrarch; then, in the concluding fantasy based
on Dante's vivid imagery, he unleashed a massive keyboard
storm. This was pianism on a grandly virtuosic scale.
Gekic was equally imposing in works by Scriabin
and Rachmaninoff. If his tone lacked a little warmth at times,
the phrasing had a keenly communicative edge; there was always
an interest in what was going on underneath a surface of moody
melodies and lush harmonies. The sheer polish of the playing,
not to mention the power backing it up, provided ample evidence
that Gekic is, indeed, an exceptional artist.
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