A Cat Named LuganskyFrom Le Soir, 10 September 2001
Review of a concert given 7 September 2001
Written by Xavier Flament
Translated from the original French by Valour
As the cheers exploded, Nikolai Lugansky regained his magnificent bearing and received the ovations straight as an
i . As this
persists and as he knows that he will have to play again, the pianist returns to the stage of the Palais des beaux arts of Brussels, but with a je ne
sais quoi - an imperceptible change. Precisely the manner which he possessed
half an hour earlier, before launching into the Third Piano Concerto of
Prokofiev. His expression is reserved, his shoulders pulled back, and his steps elongated and
bounding until he reaches the instrument. There is something of the feline in
this young Russian pianist whom the National Orchestra had chosen, on Friday, for its comeback.
At the piano, this
keen suppleness translates into a
breathtaking ease which the artist never exploits in any way but to serve the
music which he offers to share with us. Lugansky is everything in interiority,
sometimes even everything in poetry. Instead of a making a direct attack on the
keyboard with his arm, in a way which would cause a roar, he prefers a whole
body movement which seeks to put the keyboard in full vibration. And perhaps
Simonov, who conducted this evening, did not have sufficient understanding of
his young compatriot to avoid occasionally crushing him, during dynamic runs,
with mass effects. We cannot, however, conclude from this that the National
Orchestra of Belgium proved unworthy, as it put so much communicative enthusiasm
into "Skazka", the symphonic poem of Rimsky-Korsakov, then in the
Sixth Symphony of Shostakovich. Even more notable were the magnificent woodwind
soloists, the clarinet of Ronald Van Spaendonck in particular. Nikolai Lugansky
returns to the Beaux Arts, on January 25th, 2002, with the Third Piano Concerto of
Rachmaninov and the Vlaams Radio Orkest, conducted by Yoel Levi. Information :
02-507.82.00.