Evgeny Kissin has reached the point where
Deutsche Grammophon can bill a release with the monumentalizing title
The Salzburg Recital and where he can indeed deliver the goods. This Salzburg recital was recorded in 2021, and there is a lot to like here. The 2021 festival marked its return after the 2020 pandemic cancellation, and one can feel a special electricity in the air.
Kissin's usual virtues are on display, with clarity of line married to brilliance of tone; in the run of
Chopin pieces in the recital's second half, he has never been better. Beyond
Chopin, his usual stomping ground,
Kissin pushes himself into new areas, opening with
Berg's almost-atonal
Piano Sonata, Op. 1, and including such novelties as a group of pieces by
Tikhon Khrennikov, the composer who as
Stalin's yes man, facilitated the second denunciation of
Shostakovich. Lately, historians have argued that
Khrennikov was not quite the villain he has been made out to be, and indeed these angular, rather Bartokian pieces are free of the Socialist Realist dullness one might expect.
Kissin also takes a shot at
Gershwin's
Preludes, and he rather misses the jazz inflections in these works, but this is the thing about
Kissin: it doesn't really matter, for his program and playing have the sweep and command that pulls the listener right through. This live release, a medium
Kissin prefers (although
Glenn Gould fans will be pleased to note occasional noises from the pianist), confirms
Kissin as one of the greats of our time. ~ James Manheim
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