One of today’s most outstanding pianists dazzled at the Colón Theater

As part of its 70th anniversary, the Mozarteum once again offered a celebration, in its third concert, with the presentation of the Orchester Philharmonique Royal de Liège together with the Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky.

The Piano Concerto No. 1 by Chopin was the work with which one of today’s most important pianists made his debut on the stage of the Teatro Colón.

The piano is an illusionist instrument and Chopin, in this art of illusion, has tried to transcend the intrinsic nature of a percussion instrument in search of its “cantality”. Lugansky made that testament a distinctive element of his pianism, an ideal of declamation of the human voice.

an extraordinary pianist

After the majestic declaration of the orchestra, the pianist opened his speech with disarming clarity and expressive immediacy in the majestic of the first movement. With a similar effect, the contrast between the powerful first theme and the second, of great warmth and intimacy, was felt.

The delicacy and finely graduated sonic palette that Lugansky achieves in the quietest passages is astonishing.

In the melancholy slow motion it was overwhelming. Without the purpose of creating powerful effects, the Romance it is a journey into an ecstatic calm that Lugansky created with his intense connection between notes and his sonic refinement.

The successful muffled accompaniment of the violins collaborated with the imperturbable climate of that brilliant and serene surface of the theme enunciated by the piano.

What Hector Berlioz wrote about the movement cannot better describe what was heard: “it is like having seen the twilight dissolve harmoniously and then remain motionless in the dark, with eyes still fixed on the horizon where the light has just disappeared”.

To the fast punctuated rhythms of the final movement, based on Polish dance krakowLugansky injected them with enthusiasm and vigor. The pianist lived up to all the needs of virtuosity, an athletic technical performance not without great expressiveness.

The conclusion sounded truly triumphant. Of course, without the virtuosity and unity with which the orchestra played under Madaras, Lugansky’s brilliance would not have been the same. The pianist thanked the long applause with a brilliant performance of the Prelude n. 7, Op. 23 of Rachmaninov.

The beginning

The evening opened with a gem: the Adagio for orchestra quartet The Belgian composer Guillaume Lekeu. The death of César Frank, Lekeu’s teacher, is the background to a painful denunciation that presents itself with a more than original format in the organization and management of the ropes. The soulful voices of the violin and cello rise above a darkly toned orchestral structure, with rhythmic alternations and changes in density.

“The pale flowers of memory”, by the poet Georges Vanor, appears in the epigraph of the passage that resounds like a sweet vibration in the memory of an absent voice.

The concert ended with the bucolic placidity of Symphony in D by Brahms. The beginning sounded so bright that it projected a profound freshness and vitality into the room. The Liège Philharmonic is an exquisite orchestral device, admirable in all its ranks, and under the direction of Madaras it has managed to maintain the suspense from start to finish, holding the knots of intense dramatic narrative.

The skilled hands of the Hungarian director conducted captivating phrasing in every movement, with preciousness in the dynamic, timbral and rhythmic details. Applause for a long time, the orchestra offered as an encore a sparkling version of the Hungarian dance nº5 by Brahms.

File

Qualification: Excellent

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège. Gergely Madaras, director. Nikolay Lugansky, piano

Function: Monday 27

Teatro Colón, Mozarteum Argentino, third concert season 2022.

mfb