![\"Ivo](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/abPogorelich.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 Ivo Pogorelich<\/a> wants to continue to play. He has recital programs planned out till 2020. He keeps several concertos in his repertory, the Chopin F-Minor and Prokofiev Third performed here persuasively in recent seasons. He is \u201cpleased,\u201d he writes, about a new box<\/a> of his old CDs, and he returns to the recording studio \u201cthis year\u201d for \u201cStravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Balakirev.\u201d Trouble is, the comfort zone has shrunk, and the technique, while still prodigious, suffers momentary ruptures, often of meter or rhythm. He has been as a result trashed by The New York Times (\u201cinterpretively perverse\u201d) and, last month, London critics. But he shows a samurai\u2019s perseverance.<\/p>\n Yesterday morning at the Prinz-Regenten-Theater<\/a>, the pearly tones, grace and authority that have always distinguished his playing were much in evidence. Liszt\u2019s Dante Sonata (1849) emerged in deliberate, pensive blocks, each relating to context and not without tension. A sumptuous dissection followed of Schumann\u2019s C-Major Fantasie<\/em> (1838). Its M\u00e4\u00dfig, durchaus energisch<\/em> movement, taut and powerfully executed, caused an eruption of applause and an acknowledging pianist\u2019s smile. This distanced the third movement, helping cast it as a sequence of reflections, also beautifully traced. After the break, however, the tall Croatian failed to summon the virtuosity required of Stravinsky\u2019s Trois mouvements de P\u00e9trouchka<\/em> (1921), producing only maddening shreds. To conclude he brought handsome character to the majority of Brahms\u2019s Paganini Variations (1863), albeit with further rhythmic jolts. Scores were open throughout this recital, presented by 50-year-old Bell\u2019Arte<\/a>. There was nothing mannered (or perverse) about the playing. Indeed the impression was of a quest for truth in each score, hindered only by some undisclosed debility or disquiet.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Alfonso Batalla<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: March 16, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n
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