Young Russian piano star Avdeeva makes a spectacular return

Last year local audiences found out why Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva is considered one of the best players of Chopin, and now she has returned to confirm the verdict.

Rising Russian piano star Yulianna Avdeeva made her debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra this week.

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Last year local audiences got the chance to find out why Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva is now considered one of the best Chopin players when she gave a recital in Sydney.

That verdict was confirmed this week when the 33-year-old virtuoso returned as a guest of Sydney Symphony Orchestra to perform Chopin’s Piano concerto No 1 conducted by her compatriot Andrew Boreyko.

Avdeeva first came to international notice when she won the prestigious 2010 Chopin Competition and her career has taken off from there. But it’s not only Chopin she is admired for — her discography includes Schubert, Prokofiev, Mozart, Liszt and an all-Bach album.

Chopin’s piano concertos are often criticised for the composer’s below par use of the orchestra compared with his contemporaries, but he maintained that the piano was the star and that the soloist should be allowed to shine through.

PEARLY

Avdeeva has a wonderful grasp of the poetry of his music — the singing lines, dramatic “inner voices” and, of course, the bravura arpeggio runs that encompass the whole of the keyboard.

Phrases are beautifully shaped and her touch is both pearly and clear in the legato passages but with plenty of heft for the stormier moments.

Although the orchestral score is somewhat limited special mention should go out to principal horn Ben Jacks and bassoonist Todd Gibson-Cornish.

Brahms was the other composer of the night, albeit with one piece by Polish composer Krysztof Meyer being in homage to him, embedding Brahms’s “musical signature” in the work and using the opening bars of the First Symphony as a launch pad to a diverse and exciting showpiece.

The concert closed with Arnold Schoenberg’s orchestration of the much loved Piano Quartet in G minor — an illustration of how a revolutionary composer can find progressive tendencies in the works of the older Brahms who was in many ways a musical conservative.

But the star of this show was Avdeeva and to demonstrate its appreciation for such a remarkable and radiant talent the audience demanded an encore, and got one in an exquisite reading of Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: Yulianna Avdeeva with Sydney Symphony

● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

● WHEN: Wednesday, May 15