{"id":11092,"date":"2013-05-09T18:39:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T22:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=11092"},"modified":"2013-05-27T21:39:15","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T01:39:15","slug":"a-tale-of-two-pianists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=11092","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Pianists"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evgeny Kissin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two pianistic superstars played two days apart last weekend at Carnegie Hall. I had avoided their recitals for years but thought I should try again since I was in town for the weekend. The first was Evgeny Kissin, 41. His prodigious prowess is documented from his earliest years at the keyboard, and in 1995 he became Musical America<\/em>\u2019s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year. For a time he seemed to grow with each concert, but by the end of the decade his playing had become fussy and self-regarding.<\/p>\n

Not so last Friday night, however. Perhaps most impressive throughout was Kissin\u2019s knowing sense of rubato, a depth of emotion without a hint of calculation. He began with Haydn\u2019s E-flat Sonata, No. 49–the one with the repeated da-da-da-duh motive in the first movement that Beethoven would later \u201cborrow\u201d to open his Fifth Symphony. The pianist\u2019s approach vacillated between classical and romantic, and maybe he\u2019ll make up his mind someday. But there was no doubt of Kissin\u2019s emotional identification with Beethoven\u2019s final sonata, Op. 111. Demonic in the first movement and with a superbly sustained adagio molto semplice e cantabile <\/em>in the second, the maturity of his insight left me breathless and, with the final trills, shaken. No performance I have heard from him in concert or on record quite prepared me for this reaction.<\/p>\n

Schubert composed his four Impromptus (1827) the year before his death at age 31, and Kissin\u2019s muted, pensive playing after intermission reminded one of Claudio Arrau\u2019s dictum that Schubert\u2019s late music must be interpreted with \u201cthe proximity of death\u201d in mind. The final work, Liszt\u2019s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor, brought down the house with an old-fashioned demonstration of virtuosity that sent the audience roaring to its feet\u2014no showing off, just pure, staggering feats of Lisztian pianism. He was rewarded by a young female fan, not with the usual flowers but with a teddy bear. Wonder of wonders, he actually grinned.<\/p>\n

Was the audience trying to compete? I know it\u2019s allergy season, but the uncovered coughing, rustling, the cell phone that inevitably rang in the Beethoven\u2019s quietest moment, the incessant dropping of personal belongings and programs (which have become so laden with donors\u2019 names that they sound like small detonations when they hit the floor), made me contemplate joining the N.R.A. All the more astonishing that Kissin\u2019s concentration was so complete.<\/p>\n

Maurizio Pollini<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyone who has attended Maurizio Pollini\u2019s concerts regularly has a memory bank of unforgettable performances from Bach to Chopin to Beethoven to the European avant-garde: In my account, Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Second Piano Concerto with Boulez and the NYPhil, Chopin Etudes, Boulez\u2019s Sonata No. 2 and Stockhausen\u2019s Klavierstucke X<\/em>, Beethoven\u2019s Waldstein <\/em>and Appassionata <\/em>sonatas leap immediately to mind. In all these, his perfect dexterity, clarity of voicing, and rigorous intellect overcome such deficiencies as brusque phrasing, lack of expressiveness, and monochromatic piano tone.<\/p>\n

These qualities, good and bad, had become all too predictable in recent years, and I preferred to live with my memories and his best recordings. But he was playing an all-Beethoven program that included those two sonatas, and I thought these performances would be instructive. Indeed, his previously infallible fingerwork appears to be a thing of the past. In the opening Path\u00e9tique <\/em>Sonata, smudged passagework and uneven runs were alarming, but he has always taken a while to warm up. The Waldstein <\/em>was hardly an improvement, though,\u00a0and charmless besides. The little Sonata No. 22, Op. 54, was an incoherent rush of notes. The Appassionata<\/em> at least succeeded\u00a0in its obsessive, unrelenting drive, but the two Bagatelles for encores were tossed off with the least charm and shape of the evening. You\u2019d never know it from the audience response, which was loud and long.<\/p>\n

His advocates like to say that his artistry is \u201ccontroversial,\u201d but that\u2019s a copout. I\u2019ll stick with my memories and selected CDs as a reminder of his best days.<\/p>\n

Looking Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

My week\u2019s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):<\/p>\n

5\/9 at 7:00. Avery Fisher Hall. Audra McDonald in Concert: Go Back Home.<\/p>\n

5\/10 at 7:30. Carnegie Hall. Spring for Music. Detroit Symphony\/Leonard Slatkin. Ives: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 (complete).<\/p>\n