Evgeny Kissin: The Salzburg Recital album review — clear and decisive

This time last year Evgeny Kissin was touring an imaginative recital programme around Europe. The first half consisted of three very diverse composers from the early 20th century — Berg, Khrennikov and Gershwin — before settling into a second half devoted to Chopin.

The programme was recorded live at the Salzburg Festival and appears here, including four encores, as a two-CD set. “I’m always better in live recordings than when I play in the studio,” says Kissin, but if he is planning more of them, perhaps somebody could have a word and tell him not to grunt so much when the music gets animated.

The pianist is easy to identify, even when the music is taking him out of his comfort zone. Everything here is clear, bright, rhythmically decisive, and the scale of the playing pitched for a big hall (few venues are more challenging than Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus).

Opening with the Berg Piano Sonata, a single movement of highly charged intensity, was daring. Kissin offers less seductive sounds in it than some, but the clarity of the writing is impressive. Khrennikov’s Dance and Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 2, are brilliantly chiselled. Gershwin’s Preludes for Piano come across as showpieces, perfectly honed in every detail. Kissin does not really do spontaneity.

Among the six Chopin pieces, the B Major Nocturne, Op. 62 No. 1, is lit by a spotlight and the two Scherzos (one an encore) are too aggressive, but the technical command remains ironclad. The encores include Kissin’s own tongue-in-cheek Dodecaphonic Tango and a calming Debussy “Clair de lune”.

★★★★☆

‘The Salzburg Recital’ is released by DG