On Tuesday evening, an overcapacity audience at Carnegie Hall reveled in the dazzling and spellbinding artistry of pianist Daniil Trifonov whose program showcased his astonishing virtuosity in grandeur as in exquisite delicateness. Trifonov began with Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Suite in A minor from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, composed between 1729 and 1730, a refined, expressively intricate blend of traditional dances and pieces of the time. At the start, Trifonov instantly enveloped the Hall in a floating spell with the Allemande, turning delicately effervescent in the Courante, and solemnly majestic in the Sarabande. He followed with the astounding “Les trois mains” with its challenging hand-crossings that, for him, seemed less like a challenge and more like play among pearly, nimble ornamentations that fluttered into bright trills in the “Fanfarinette” and blossomed into full-fledged radiance with “La triomphante.” The ending Gavotte with six doubles—variations—built up spiraling cascades of arpeggios that awed through speed, power, and skill.
Trifonov opened Mozart’s 1783 Sonata in F major, K. 332 with luminosity, supple agility, and playful passion in the Allegro, gliding into an adorned tender and melting lyricism in the Adagio and ending with an exuberant Allegro assai. At the heights of his speed, he never overlooked the subtle nuances and shifts in mood of the piece.
The fiery Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 by Mendelssohn are a showcase of varying musical dispositions, textures, and structures, from the intense somber beginning to the brilliant coda. Throughout the seventeen variations, Trifonov took the audience on an elaborate, breathtaking ride in this work composed in 1841 to raise funds for a monument dedicated to Beethoven in Berlin. The exciting buildup of tension was just the right finish before intermission, electrifying the atmosphere of anticipation of the “Hammerklavier” Sonata by Beethoven. The name of this Sonata, literally meaning hammer-keyboard, derives from Beethoven’s occasional use of German words for musical terminology and instruments, thus naming the pianoforte—or fortepiano—Hammerklavier.
Completed in 1818, the “Hammerklavier” is Beethoven’s 29th sonata, considered by many to be his longest and most technically challenging. An impetuous, rousing beginning in the Allegro gave way to an array of contrasting dynamics and moods, brusque register shifts, and touches that ranged from delicacy to turmoil, turning sprightly yet somewhat menacing in the Scherzo. Trifonov conveyed this fascinating musical kaleidoscope with flexible versatility, power, and ample imagination. The soul of this sonata lies in its third movement, the Adagio sostenuto with its atmosphere of suspension and muted sorrow, mystery and transcendence. While Trifonov constructed an ethereal yet emotionally-bound out-of-time dimension, at times it felt like the contemplative spaces in which he played with and colored those sublime emotions were stretched a bit too much, thus losing rather than growing in tension and intensity within the arc of the entire piece. But these were only a few moments that wouldn’t have stood out if the third movement had been performed on its own. Yet the over-lingering in those spaces detracted a little from the overall unity of the sonata’s musical narrative. The resplendent finale impressed in its whirlwind fugue and contrapuntal brilliance.
The three encores that followed transported the audience into a mellow atmosphere with Johnny Green’s jazzy and sweetly lilting “I Cover the Waterfront” after Art Tatum, the subdued Andante from Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 23, and Frederic Mompou’s haunting Chopinian echoes from his “Variations on a Theme of Chopin.” A gentle ending that, with its final pianissimo, melted into silence like a whispered nostalgic goodbye to an evening of extraordinary virtuosity and complex musical and emotional landscapes.
Top photo: Daniil Trifonov – Photo by Dario Acosta
