Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin: Evgeny Kissin (piano)  Barbican Hall, 5.03. 2007 (CC)

Almost exactly a year ago, Kissin provided one of the great recital disappointments in this very hall. The contrast, last night, was marked. The programme was, in virtuoso terms, a rather conservative one, yet in purely musical ones it showed great imagination. The Schubert was the E flat Sonata, D568; the Beethoven, the C minor Variations; Brahms, Op. 118; Chopin, the Andante spianato and Grande polonaise brillante, Op. 22. So much for the chest-beating virtuoso …

The surprises began at once. The opening of Schubert's early E flat Sonata was blessed with great simplicity. As the music went on, there was perhaps more drama than one might expect. Treble articulation was crystal clear, while the bass end was lovely and rich. Only a certain amount of charm was lacking (maybe next time … ). The slow movement, though, was a definite Adagio (it is marked 'Andante molto' – this was nothing to do with Andnate, molto or otherwise). Kissin's approach had its advantages, as certain passages sounded remarkably experimental. Most of all, though, this provided the most human playing I have yet heard from Kissin, anywhere. He found dark shadows elsewhere in the sonata that made for a thought-provoking experience.

Beethoven's C minor Variations, WoO80 of 1806 found Kissin uncovering a Sarabande basis to the Theme, presenting it very grandly. There was so much to admire here – contrary motion semiquavers were exquisitely voiced and pedalled. There was an identifiably Russian hard-edged attack to fortes, balanced by the emotion Kissin found in the slower variations (what a contrast to last year's recital where any emotion was at a premium!). Unusua, also,l to hear fortissimo chords exactly together.

After the interval, late Brahms revealed Kissin's real depths. The first piece persented an amazing mix of the abandoned with clearly carefully considered voice-leading. OK, he missed a note here (he misjudged a right-hand attack in the second piece, too), but it hardly matters. Op. 118/2 was always going to be a test. In the end it was lovely, with only the gap between the opening A major section and the contrastive F sharp minor being too extended. The famous G minor Rhapsody began with a bang, clearly intended also later to contrast with the rich-bassed middle section. The best piece was the surprisingly capricious fourth, with the fifth compensating by being on the literal side. With the final E flat minor piece, we enter a different world. Kissin was hypnotic, with truly lovely left-hand demisemiquavers and a more than passable imitation of an organ at the deep, sonorous octaves (with G flat cover note).

The final programmed piece was the Andante spianato and Grande polonaise brillante, which opened with a superb left-hand bed of sound over which Kissin could spin his right-hand melody (great legato). I still expect the orchestra to join in at the Polonaise (I grew up on the Zimerman/Giulini version) and it always sounds like an orchestral reduction to me at that point, no matter who is playing  - was that a sigh of relief from the audience that I heard when the 'solo piano' entered?. Whatever, moments of great delicacy led to a positively glittering coda.

And so the encores began. As if underlining his new-found sensitivity, they included a couple of Mendelssohn Songs without Words and Liszt's famous Liebestraum ('Love's Dreams' as Kissin called it). The Horowitz/Carmen note-fest acted as a reminder of Kissin the virtuoso.

Superb!

Colin Clarke