Mikhail Lidsky seems to have come from Gogol's pages: stocky,
corpulent, plump, moustached, with large legs and shins visible
because of his too short trousers, dressed neither in tailcoat
nor in smoking. Besides, he is rather awkward in his stage manner:
coming onto the stage to answer the applause by a Russian style
bow, first time he came up to the middle of the platform, then
halfway, then remained at the door-way.
However, Mikhail Lidsky (born 1968 in Moscow) is a great pianist,
one of those to whom you could apply this adjective with an
easy conscience. His performance of the last Schubert's Sonata
in B flat on Monday at 'Serate musicali' recital was poetic
and full of an infinite longing (before the interval eight Scarlatti's
Sonatas were played). He seemed to be playing at Schubert's
bedside rather than in the hall seating two thousand: very slow
tempi (in one of the longest piano compositions), repeated exposition
of the first movement (a risk taken by just a very few pianists),
deliberate rejection of any spectacular effects or pretty simplicity.
Suicide, as the modern pianists wishing to be successful would
probably think, but the interpretation is unforgettable. Lidsky
articulated Schubert's phrases as if come from distant twilight
worlds: never affirmative but interrogative, whispering, evoking;
you hear the noble melancholy in the phrasing and the beauty
of a powerless voice in the piano sound (within the colour bounds
deliberately set by Lidsky). Heart intermittence, as Proust
put it.
Francesco M. Colombo, Dr.
Corriere della Sera (Milan, Italy). 14 April 1999
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Mikhail Lidsky, a pianist from Moscow, has given four recitals
in Volgograd during the last eighteen months. Such diverse composers
like J. S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann,
Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Medtner with their variety
in style were presented full of deepest thought and divine musical
sense.
Utterly concentrated and seemingly unaware of this world when
on stage, Lidsky totally controls his audience and makes his
listener share the artist's feelings. Lidsky's richest sound
palette, splendid virtuos-ity and excellent construction skills
are employed for attaining his main goal - Harmony of Beauty.
Lidsky easily comprehends any musical style and Liszt's Transcendental
Etudes played last December were really exceptional. "Etudes
d'execution transcendente" are the pinnacle of Liszt's
piano art. "I think, I have eventually found a good balance
between style and content", Liszt wrote to his teacher
Carl Czerny (to whom the Etudes are dedicated). And I think,
now Liszt has eventually found his adequate performer in person
of Maestro Lidsky. The Etudes' astounding bravura and enormous
difficulty remained backstage while the audience experienced
the boundless space of human spirit. Lidsky's Liszt is sublime,
philosophic, religious, delighted to give people the invaluable
gift of faith.
Another distinguishing, truly unique, feature of Mikhail Lidsky's
playing is his immaculate sense and complete command of sound
energy. When in the hall, you really feel these energetic beams
emanating from the outstanding pianist. Many listeners, e. g.
experienced music teachers told me that maestro's art made them
look at piano playing from a new angle and discovered absolutely
new horizons in music. A while after the concert some of my
colleagues kept saying it was still hard to listen to another
pianist. And that was true: our criterion became a cut above.
Maestro's art is not only astonishing but also instructive.
Only a virtuous man can become a musician of such attainments.
I believe, this is the case of Mikhail Lidsky's personality,
which ensures further advancement of the Russian piano tradition
after Rachmaninov and Horowitz.
Helena Padilova
Gradskiye Vesti (Volgograd), March 1999
(excerpts)
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Mikhail Lidsky gives no 'ordinary' concerts - his extraordinary
talent brings extraordinary value to his every appearance before
the public.
Always serious and deeply concentrated on stage (nothing spectacular,
no showing-off), Mikhail Lidsky firmly knows that his service
requires both hard (happy!) labour and self-restraint. Not many
are able to answer the requirement.
Actually, 'everybody plays well now', as Anton Rubinstein put
it, and plays a lot; among those players there are quite a few
not really good for playing (which fully corresponds with Rubinstein's
sarcasm). Supply exceeds demand. The borders between 'good'
and 'bad, 'genuine' and 'fraudulent' are nearly eroded. No doubt,
Mikhail Lidsky retrieves the criteria. His playing bears nothing
of the palling "prize winning style" - bravado, ballyhoo,
showiness; meanwhile, his virtuosity is unlimited - very few
pianists of his generation could touch him.
Well, what is there in Mikhail Lidsky's playing? Above all,
meaningfulness. Every moment of music is precious for him. Also,
the convincing logic of musical 'flow'. Lidsky hears music in
his own way and 'articulates' it correspondingly, while his
approach to time in music is delicate and control over it complete.
Basically, Mikhail Lidsky prefers moderate tempi which let him
view music as if through a lens. Music is self-sufficient for
him and he addresses it directly.
Lidsky's recital programme included three Beethoven's sonatas:
in G major opus 14-2, in E flat ma-jor opus 31-3 and in B flat
major opus 106 ("Hammerklavier"). Mikhail Lidsky played
wonderfully immersed into music, as he always does; his perception
of Beethoven's style is faultless. He carefully peruses and
perfectly knows the text - the only message Beethoven has left
for us - that does not at all eclipse his personality. In Sonata
opus 14-2 the pianist delicately followed melodic lines (main
theme), the music flowed unhurriedly (especially the finale)
while its contrasts were daringly stressed (e. g. development
of the 1st movement). These details are certainly interesting
although subordinate to the general structure - har-monious
and well balanced.
As for splendidly performed Sonata opus 31-3, the variety of
its four movements was especially clearly displayed. Not to
enumerate but to mention at random, the beautiful sonority in
the finale's theme and 'orchestration' of the Minuet's middle
part. With all diversity of moods and 'pictures', Mikhail Lidsky
embraced a unified musical body.
And now we come to Sonata opus 106 ("Hammerklavier").
As Alexander Goldenweiser wrote, 'performing Beethoven's last
sonatas, especially opus 106, presents enormous, nearly insurmountable
difficulties for best pianists of our time'. I am ready to attest
that Mikhail Lidsky has surmounted these difficulties. I wouldn't
say they did not exist for him - such a pianist could hardly
exist - but the 'resistance' of the material only helped, having
made even more spectacular the dramatic struggle and, in effect,
victory of the human spirit over... continue yourself. To conclude
(and not to be taken for advertising, impossibly blatant nowadays)
- follow this pianist; attend his concerts and do not rob yourself.
Grigori Gordon, Prof.
"Philarmonic" (Moscow), No.3, 2000 (excerpts)
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Mikhail Lidsky: Theme and Variation
There are many reasons why a potential listener lays aside his
duties for a concert, e.g. a big artist's name or his own personal
partiality for a certain artist, a favourite work on the programme
or an intriguing rarity. There existed nearly all these reasons
for going to the piano recital in The Gnessin Hall on December
14, 2000. Mozart and Medtner performed by Mikhail Lidsky, pianist.
The pianist is already known well enough both in Russia and
abroad by his numerous concert ap-pearances and recordings as
a phenomenally gifted virtuoso with an enormous repertoire including
rarely performed works. However, it is not these features alone
that distinguish the pianist among his colleagues and make his
every concert - and the recital in The Gnessin Hall as well
- an important event in the musical life. There is a certain
enigma in the performer that makes it felt in each of his concert
appearance. Take up the programme itself as it was given on
the posters:
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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
VARIATIONS ON THE AIR 'COME UN`AGNELLO' BY GUISEPPE
SARTI, in A major, Ê 460/454à
ADAGIO
in B minor, Ê 540
ANDANTINO
in E-flat major, Ê 236/588g
6 VARIATIONS ON ALLEGRETTO,
in A major, K Anh. 137 (composer's arrangement of
the finale of Quintet for clarinet and strings,
K 581) |
NICOLAI KARLOVICH MEDTNER
DREI ARABESKE, îðus 7
Ein Idyll
Tragoedie-Fragment in A minor
Tragoedie-Fragment in G minor
FAIRY-TALES:
in G major, opus 9 No. 3
in A minor, opus 35 No.
3
in C-sharp minor, opus 35 No. 4 ("King Lear
in the fields")
in F minor, opus 42 No. 1 ("Russisches Marchen")
SONATE ORAGEUSE, îð.53
-2 |
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All the minor details - not only opus and Kochel numbers, but
also the sources of the varied themes and composers' middle
names - are given fully The ignorant would take it for just
a superfluous routine information while the cognoscente will
see here a sign, a first indication of the peculiarity of the
pianist's present day's style.
The artist's creed could be formulated as the deepest reverence
for the text, up to fully refraining from the personal 'collaboration'
with the author. The ideal seems to be the absolutely objective
approach, which lets nothing personal, external - be it the
performer's own emotions or his wish to present a given work
to his audience - affect the composer's idea. Pure text only.
However, it would be a serious mistake to see in this Lidsky's
main distinguishing feature. His performance is replete with
paradoxes fully represented in the reviewed recital.
The unusual juxtaposition of such diverse authors as Mozart
and Medtner in one programme is in-triguing by itself, because
performing Mozart and performing Medtner require drastically
different qualities. The selection of the very rarely performed
compositions, which during the concert came to their new lives
after a long non-existence, is intriguing, too. The programme
structure is also somewhat mysterious because of the two non-chalant
Mozart's sets of variations surrounding the deepest Adagio in
B minor and the enormously difficult, both technically and in
its idea, somewhat similar, may be, to the famous Liszt's Sonata,
Sonate orageuse as a finale of the Medtner part.
The recital rather resembled a proverb with its many unanswered
questions than a detective story where all the problems are
solved at the end.
Lidsky's Mozart is unusual.
Lidsky's Mozart is objective.
No trace of the familiar lightness and vivacity sometimes approaching
playfulness but suddenly changing to mourning. This Mozart has
no lyricism, its drama is just sketched, but it is full of epos!
A real 'Jupiter'! Some traits of Schubert's sonatas (which we
have also had a chance to hear magnificently played or, rather,
built by Lidsky in his previous concerts) are noticeable in
these monumental structures. The lis-tener is captured by an
extraordinarily dense flow of music. No stops, the rests are
even shortened a bit, no time to enjoy the piano sound beauty
- there is only an intellectual tension of expanding a piece
of music.
On the other hand, Medtner's most complicated texture sounds
clear and transparent, as if Mozar-tian. It seems quite easy
to write down the text in detail when listening to Lidsky's
performance. Something of an irresistible "never-happened
but ever-happening" ancient myth is hidden under the cover
of the colour-ful marvellous Fairy-tales. Plot and picture are
subordinate to structure and drama in Lidsky's interpretation.
To the paradoxical juxtaposition of the composers was added
to the performer's style and it, eventually, led to another
paradox. Despite the artist's obvious purpose to refrain from
intervening in the author's text, we have heard Lidsky's Mozart
and Lidsky's Medtner.
The idea of the recital programme was somewhat curiously tinted
by the liberty - no matter, by accident or intention - of the
performance organisation. There were no bells, no viva voce
announcements, and no encores (despite the demands of the long
applauding audience). Only Mozart's music and Medtner's music
put together by the pianist's powerful will.
In the context of the recital, it all appears as an appeal for
a certain order, for obtaining a certain spiritual structure
by everybody who experienced the marvel usually called Mikhail
Lidsky's recital.
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Leaving Mikhail Lidsky's recent piano recital
at the Kamyshin Art College hall one feels hope that Moscow
musicians' interest in visiting Russian towns rendered powerless
the financial factor, in so far as the true service to music
and people is concerned.
Schubert, Schumann and Chopin are most important chapters of
the wonderful romantic music. Its diverse moods, thoughts, melodies
of love and youth followed one by one and the audience was immersed
into the rich sounding world of feelings. The programme included
Schubert's sonata lasting as long as a symphony and some rarely
performed compositions by Schumann. There was a risk of remaining
unintelligible. However, the artist treated his provincial audience
as his equal, without flirting or simplification; there was
nothing outward or superficial in Lidsky's' interpretation of
Chopin, either - only the logical flow of musi-cal thoughts
and the intellectual Inner concentration of feeling together
with a high-class technique, that created many-sided and integral,
well-balanced musical images.
The royal instrument readily responded to the grand musician's
touch and filled the space with a noble, deep and rich sound
of an extraordinary diversity of timbre. The personality of
the great artist was clearly felt in everything: the two?hour
communion with this music "lifted you up".
The public was listening in an atmosphere of a concentrated
silence. A child and an adult, a musi-cian and a music lover
were listening each in his own way, everybody emotionally imbibing
the musical philosophy of Schubert, Schumann and Chopin.
…The music came to an end, melted and left the sensation of
a precious event.
Kamyshinsky ezhenedel'nik (Kamyshin
weekly), No. 16 (April 17, 2002) (abridged)
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