Daniil Trifonov in Recital @ Meyerson Symphony Center
—Wayne Lee Gay
There wasn't any Russian music on the program, but the performance Monday night at Meyerson Symphony Center was very much Russian, in the best sense of the musical implications of the word.
That almost indescribable quality of "Russian" came in the person of Daniil Trifonov, one of the current reigning stars of the piano universe.
Trifonov, 33, came to the United States from Russia in 2009 as a teenager, entering the Cleveland Institute of Music to study with Sergei Babayan (who is now on the faculty at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University). Major competition wins ensued soon after Trifonov's arrival in the U.S., with international fame following quickly.
Trifonov's technique is dazzling and muscular, but what is even more impressive is his ability to stamp each work on a wide-ranging program with a distinctive sense of his own personality. To open, he laid out a delicately etched performance of the Suite in A minor (RCT 5) of Jean-Philippe Rameau, a composer well-honored in the music history books but rarely heard in piano recitals. With a generally narrow dynamic range (and a light, discreet foot on the pedal), Trifonov created a range of colors and moods that brought the work into the twenty-first-century concert hall without betraying the spirit of the eighteenth.
Continuing in the eighteenth century, Trifonov turned to one of Mozart's most achingly melodic piano works, the Sonata No. 12 in F. Again, within well-controlled boundaries appropriate to a work from the Age of Reason, Trifonov found a generous range of drama.
Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses, rich with allusions to Bach but unmistakably romantic in spirit, became a compact drama in Trifonov's hands, building with irresistible momentum to moments of climax before landing on a final, dark cadence.
But the largest part of this evening of large works belonged to Beethoven's monumental "Hammerklavier" Sonata (Opus 106). With the opening fortissimo chords, Trifonov announced that the piano's full dynamic range would be at play for this performance. The work requires mind-boggling virtuosity and makes huge demands on stamina, but the biggest challenges lie how much it asks of the pianist’s emotions and intellect. Trifonov met these demands absolutely, most memorably in the extended mournful Adagio that, in Trifonov's performance, led the listener to the transcendent power of the final fugue.
A roaring audience at this one-night event (presented by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra) insisted on three encores; Trifonov declined to identify the short, jazzy, improvisation-like works he provided. Though he did not speak a single word from the stage, he communicated volumes of musical wisdom and strength in his playing.
WHEN: March 18, 2024
WHERE: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas
WEB: dallassymphony.org
