The Russian-born, British-based pianist Nikolai Demidenko made an impressive Bay Area debut on Saturday afternoon. His recital at the Florence Gould Theater, under the aegis of Chamber Music San Francisco, showed him to be a serious, sincere, intense, and engaging pianist of diverse repertoire. In the first half of the program, Bach's ebullient Italian Concerto was bookended by Bach's G-Minor Fantasy and Fugue (transcribed by Liszt) and by Liszt's colossal Variations on a Theme From Bach's Cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen.
With an assured deftness, Demidenko moved from dense, organ-inspired sonorities to a harpsichordlike crispness and back. His fortissimo, never harsh, made the hall reverberate the way a great Baroque organ makes the air inside a cathedral — and indeed a listener's whole essence — quiver. The quiet moments in the outermost pieces had distinct reedy flavors reminiscent of organ stops, while the Italian Concerto sparkled with brittle harpsichord timbres.
Demidenko played all three movements of the ever-popular concerto faster than we are accustomed to. But the ease with which he negotiated all the polyphonic intricacies, lacework embellishments, and a motley chain of events helped make a compelling argument for faster tempos. These speeds cranked up the exuberant festivity of the work, especially against the backdrop of more ponderous surrounding pieces.
The concerto's slow second movement was particularly stunning. Demidenko opened it with a spectacular contrast between a dryly punctuated, austere accompaniment and a free-flowing, imploring melody. Then, toward the end, the accompaniment softened and became more and more gentle, as if gradually yielding to the entreaties of the melody.
This fascinating and unexpected reading of the slow movement bears a striking resemblance to the unusual slow movement of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, the famous "Orpheus Pleading With the Furies." Did Demidenko have Beethoven's Andante in mind when he played Bach's Andante? I don't know, with any degree of certainty. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but then the pianist did play Gluck's Melody from Orpheus as an encore ...
Anatole Leikin is Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has published in various musicological journals and essay collections worldwide and recorded piano works of Scriabin, Chopin, and Cope. His critically acclaimed books The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin and The Mystery of Chopin's Préludes were recently published by Ashgate Publishing (UK) and reissued by Routledge (UK). Dr. Leikin also serves as an editor for The Complete Chopin — A New Critical Edition (Peters, UK).