By Stuart Isacoff

It was not so long ago that Evgeny Kissin was just another new kid from the bloc. In 1990, as a rising tide of former Soviet artists arrived on these shores to great fanfare—and gradual obscurity—there had been hints that the then-19-year-old pianist had something special to offer. There were some early recordings, a handful of terrific reviews from Europe, and an impressive music video, “Kissin Plays Chopin,” recorded live in Japan when he was just 15. (“Isn’t it to die for?” pianist Ruth Laredo once asked when the video came up in conversation.) Yet, he remained largely an unknown to many American pianophiles. In September of that year, though, when the virtuoso descended on New York’s cultural scene with a stunning double debut—performing both Chopin piano concertos with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, and a solo recital at Carnegie Hall—the impact was immediate and electric.

In reviewing the Carnegie date, the critics went wild. One writer even wondered how many of the professional pianists in the audience “went home and burned their instruments in despair.” Many followed the lead of Harold C. Schonberg, who, writing in the New York Times, recalled hearing the young prodigy in Moscow. “Suddenly I was in the presence of greatness,” he marveled. “All I could think about were pianists like Benno Moiseiwitsch and Josef Lhevinne. The boy had everything.” Even those who later took issue with some aspects of the playing, such as the Times’s Bernard Holland, called the pianist “wildly talented.” It is a talent shown to best effect in highly Romantic repertoire, for which, Evgeny Kissin freely admits, he has the greatest affinity.

He seems born to play this music, in which he demonstrates an instinctual flair and natural gracefulness—in addition to jaw-dropping technical control. A Kissin performance is guaranteed to be a highly polished affair, and there is never a hint of insincerity or pretension in his playing. The effect on audiences is heightened by the shy, even awkward stage presence he projects. At 23, his movements to and from the piano—a bit mechanical but clearly earnest—convey a youthful vulnerability that is instantly endearing. He is equally shy and equally endearing in person.

Meeting him for the first time in 1992 at the offices of BMG (he has also recorded for Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, and Melodiya), I was struck by his insistence, despite a sizable entourage, on always being the last one through a door. To call him polite would be to understate the case. Though he talked openly about his hopes and limitations, he seldom smiled—even when, after being told by an executive at BMG that too many interviewers were treating him as a pop star rather than a serious musician, I asked if he were really going to dye his hair green. But there was never in the course of the conversation an inattentive moment.

At that time, he talked about his admiration for Krystian Zimerman—“a real musician, serious and inspiring” and of how much there was to learn of Bach from Glenn Gould and of Chopin Arthur Rubinstein. And he discussed playing Beethoven in public for the first time. “I always loved his music,” he said, “but apparently there was something that made it hard for me. I think that in order to succeed at Beethoven, it’s not enough to have a Romantic, lyrical gift. There has to be something else for which you have to mature.” For a pianist who played his first Mozart concerto in public at age ten; who performed two Chopin concertos at age 12 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic; and who has since played all over the world with the likes of the late Herbert von Karajan, Vladimir Spivakov, and Claudio Abbado, the statement is remarkable for its genuineness.

As it turns out, after performing the “Choral” Fantasy and the “Emperor” Concerto, Evgeny Kissin is still planning on more Beethoven—he is now at work on the “Moonlight” Sonata and the Second Concerto—and Haydn sonatas, too. (At Alfred Brendel’s recent Beethoven workshop in Carnegie Hall, he was one of the very few professional performers of international stature in attendance.) The pianist is determined to allow his repertoire to grow naturally: “I’ll keep trying new things all the time; what doesn’t work I’ll try again later,” he explains.

His most recent program, which included Schumann’s B-major Sonata and Fantasy in C, as well as works by Liszt, drew critical cheers at Carnegie Hall—and demands for 13 encores in Bologna! “I had prepared four encores,” Kissin reports, “but as it turned out, I had to come back on stage 13 times. By then it was 12:30 in the morning and the firemen objected, so we all went home.” Typically, the pianist attributes all the excitement to the specialness of the music itself and the extraordinary receptivity of Italian music lovers.

What does the future look like from here? All expectations on his behalf are of a deepening musicality and an even greater range of repertoire. What musical criticisms have come his way are attributable largely to Evgeny Kissin’s youth: The playing can be a bit on the careful side, reflecting a pianism of refinement rather than of risk-taking. And a more seasoned musical personality would tackle with more facility the subterranean pathways of musical form. Yet, in Evgeny Kissin we have a young pianist who believes that “playing spontaneously is never bad”—and who says of his first attempts, in 1985, at the Chopin B-minor Sonata, “It wasn’t so good yet because of the structural problems; I was too young to deal with it.” From this vantage point, the signs are all pointing in the right direction.

His career, which has come so far in these few short years, clearly bears watching. “I’m curious,” I told him during a recent phone interview, “to hear how you will put your personal stamp on the Viennese classics.” “I am curious too!” he responded, with—did I really hear it?—a small chuckle.

Stuart Isacoff, a pianist and composer, is editor of the magazine Keyboard Classics & Piano Stylist.