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Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva brought her Chopin bona fides to Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on Tuesday night. A First Prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition 14 years ago remains prominent on her C.V. and sets expectations for listeners. This consummate keyboard artist lived up to them, offering a wide selection of Chopin masterpieces. In the second half of her concert she set up Liszt’s legendary B Minor Sonata with two intriguing short works from that composer’s later years.
Chopin and Liszt
She began with Chopin’s three Op. 59 Mazurkas, playing one right into the next. With focus and fragility, her No. 1 in A minor immediately established a clarity of touch and tone that filigreed through the entire concert. Her rubatos felt very natural and her subtle touches of tension and release, such as the moment when Chopin switches to a major key, were exquisitely affecting.
A denser, woodier tone characterized the Mazurka in A-flat major, which concluded with a gorgeous rendition of the closing flourishes. For the third Mazurka, in F-sharp minor, she applied a choppier motion. This made it easy (and fun) to follow and admire her management of the piece’s rhythmic fluctuations and hints of dissonance. The image that came to me was of a whirlwind of disorienting passions.
Avdeeva’s limpid approach allowed the beautiful harmonies of the Barcarolle in F-sharp major to shine, with expressive grace and no pushing. Throughout the piece she revealed a range of textures and displayed great emotional sensitivity. The dramatic ending exuded power, resulting in (for me) the evening’s most heart-melting moment.
I distinctly remember being assigned the Prelude in C-sharp minor Op. 45 during my days of piano lessons. It was a revelation: a Prelude, but not part of the familiar Op. 28 set, and a gorgeous piece that I could manage despite my limited technical mastery. The extraordinary descending stair-stepped chords posed the only major challenge. In my experience, pianists seldom include this piece in their recitals. It was a joy to hear an accomplished Chopin interpreter like Avdeeva give it its due. In her hands it had a phantom-like aura, both buoyant and delicate. I was charmed.
A scintillating performance of the Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor spun into the Andante Spianato and iconic Grande Polonaise Brilliante. In the latter, Avdeeva wrested a bright, sparkly tone from the piano, marshaling her wonderful technique purely in service of the music’s emotional content. Her voicings and right-hand passagework had astonishing clarity.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
Avdeeva sustained her hold over the audience through the Liszt portion of the concert. It began with two short pieces from late in the composer’s life. The playful and strange Bagatalle Ohn Tonart (“without tonality”) was Liszt’s last composition. The experimental Unstern! Sinistre, disastro, bleak and spookily cinematic, benefited from Avdeeva’s skillful use of what Debussy valued as “the spaces between the notes.”
I liked hearing these less familiar works before the infamous Piano Sonata in B minor. That is a piece I admit I appreciate more than I like. If Brahms indeed fell asleep attending Liszt’s performance, it may well have been exhaustion more than disinterest; this music must have bowled over audiences of the 1850s. But I do find myself getting bored during the half-hour or so of the one-movement piece, and that’s truly not a reflection on any pianist. The nearly full page of notes I took during Avdeeva’s performance includes the words “thudding power,” “fireworks,” “lyrical,” and “glistening.” It also includes “a lot of sound and fury signifying not much.”
But just as I acknowledge the piece’s singularity for its time, I appreciated Yulianna Avdeeva’s highly thoughtful rendition. So did the rest of the crowd, which demanded she return for two encores. Her interpretive gifts, her intensive engagement with Chopin’s eternal music, and the astounding energy of her charismatic pianism made this an evening I will remember.
Avdeeva will perform this program again October 27 in Seattle, then embark on a European tour. Details are on her website. Her new album, Chopin Voyage, is out now.
