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MUSIC REVIEW | EVGENY KISSIN
Evgeny Kissin Warms Up, and He Keeps on Cooking
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
There is a sense of breathless anticipation before some concerts at Carnegie Hall, with people seeking and selling
tickets amid the multilingual crowds milling outside. Evgeny Kissin, the Russian pianist, lived up to that
excitement at his Carnegie appearance on Thursday night, but mostly after the scheduled program — when he
played a marathon 12 encores.
The highlight of the first half of the evening was Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations on an Original Theme in C
minor, a brilliant tour de force of crystalline clarity and Apollonian strength. But much of the pre-encore part of
the concert was frustratingly unremarkable, with a soulless, detached rendition of Schubert’s Sonata in E flat (D.
568) and a pleasant but unmemorable performance of Brahms’s Six Pieces for Piano (Op. 118).
It wasn’t until a poetic, colorful interpretation of Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise Brillante (Op.
22), which concluded the program, that Mr. Kissin seemed to relent and rip off his mask.
It was with Chopin that Mr. Kissin shot to fame at age 12, and it’s still his calling card. At 35, he looks eerily similar
to pictures of himself at that legendary 1984 concert in Moscow, tilting his shock of wild, dark hair back in the
same manner.
And there was Chopin, of course, in the encores, including three yearningly expressive waltzes. As the night went
on, the majestic Isaac Stern Auditorium acquired a strangely living-room-like ambience, with people slouched
over seats and in the aisles, some couples with their arms around each other. Mr. Kissin also softened, relaxing his
zombie-like bow and allowing his stern expression to mellow into a smile.
There was also plenty for the audience, some seated onstage, to smile about, from a magical interpretation of
Liszt’s “Liebestraum” No. 3 to a breathtaking (and gasp-inducing) rendition of Vladimir Horowitz’s “Carmen”
variations.
By 11, when Mr. Kissin played Chopin’s “Fantaisie Impromptu” (his 10th encore), he must have been exhausted,
but he was a great sport, continuing to indulge the foot-stomping fans, who honored him with flowers and Russian
slow claps.
He kept going until 11:45, finally concluding the orgy of encores with a playful, sparkling performance of the
Rondo Alla Turca from Mozart’s Sonata in A (K. 331).
Mr. Kissin might have played hard to get at the beginning of the concert, but sometimes the best things in life
come to those who wait.
