Criticism of Evgeny Kisin in Salzburg: Bloody swords | News and criticism | PR Classic

He is one of the regular guests at the Salzburg Festival: the pianist Evgeny Kissin. On Wednesday, he performed a program full of darkness and extreme emotions in the “Haus für Mozart”.

During the encore, the sun rises unexpectedly. Before that it was night. With Prokofiev there was bitter irony, with Brahms there were Scottish horror stories with parricide and bloody swords, with Chopin there was a victory over enemy troops fought with sweat and tears. A very dark program by Evgeny Kissin. He works only in minor keys. Kissin does not even allow the final melodic movement of Beethoven's Sonata No. 90 to sing and flow freely. Nothing sounds indifferent, nothing goes easy, everything is loaded with meaning, every line is luminous, every thought is well thought out.

But then the official program ends. Kissin does not take long to ask and plays Chopin's mazurka as the first of three encores. Suddenly, worlds of surprising emotions open up. Magic, humor, and the lightness of dance shine through. Of course: Kissin can do that too! And how. He almost forgot after that evening.

Kissin the Truth Seeker

In recent years, Evgeny Kissin, once a prodigy and a high flyer, has developed into an almost serious artist. A seeker of truth. Absolutely rude. Of course, he is talented in every sense of the word, but he is not satisfied with himself. Kissin does not want to impress or win people over, he does not need to impress or show off. He wants to immerse himself in music and lose himself in it. But to show everything that is important to him as accurately as possible.

respect beethoven

In Beethoven, this is the madness of ideas. Kissin follows the process of thematic work almost explicitly: everything said is constantly questioned, distorted and transformed. The temperatures are deliberate, the lines are very clear, the dynamics are rich in the middle levels. Kissin's face is working, and he keeps shaking his head nervously as he plays. You almost wish you could be more spontaneous and more self-confident in your approach. Yet the intensity of the discussion captivates every second: Kissin could become one of the greatest interpreters of Beethoven if he approached this repertoire in a slightly less precise way. He still sounds as if he has a great deal of respect for the classics.

Chopin's house game

Quite different with Chopin. Kissin plays it in a more conventional way, it is essentially his mother tongue. Here he has all the spontaneity and freedom, here he dares: a home game. However, Kissin's cautious seriousness can be observed again in Chopin, in the Nocturne in F minor and the Fantassie in F minor. Of course he has joy and courage. But what really interests him are the psychological processes in which a depressive mood is transformed into fighting energy and ultimately into a rush towards victory.

Mastery, passion and absolute audience

Kissin is also perfectly at home with the young, so to speak, untamed Brahms. The “Four Songs” in Op. 10 are not about the tension between feeling and formal mastery, as in Brahms’s mature works, but about direct, unfiltered emotion. Kissin enjoys them to the full, sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes wildly. And with Prokofiev Kissin is finally able to open the doors of his virtuosity without reservation. He literally throws himself into this ghostly, torn music. The audience goes mad mad at the end and with their enthusiastic reaction the last notes, barely faded, continue uninterrupted. It is only by the third encore that the matter is calmed down: Brahms’s delicate waltz – finally in a major key!

Broadcasting: August 9, 2024 From 6:05 am on BR-KLASSIK