The young pianist Panayiotis
Demopoulos brings together a rather
diverse program of solo piano works
here into one recital with some rather
mixed results. There is no question
that Mr. Demopoulos has developed a
solid and distinct keyboard technique,
nor is his innate musicality in question.
He does however make some choices that
are at times rapturously satisfying
and at others disappointing in their
lack of maturity.
Opening with the late
Brahms Op. 117, Demopoulos shows himself
to be in best form with these quiet,
melancholy and introspective works.
He plays with a rich, burnished tone
that is well suited to the music. He
also seems to understand the sense of
loss and sorrow Brahms must have been
feeling when he wrote the music, owing
to the recent deaths of his sister and
a number of close friends. In all, this
is the most successful playing on the
disc, with performer and composer seemingly
on the same wavelength.
We next hear a work
composed by the pianist himself. I am
all for new music, but I tend to find
so much recent work to be episodic to
a fault and rather formless. Thus I
found these brief works which seem to
be more about technical display than
musical expression. They are not short
on flashy writing, but I found myself
rather shocked by their abrupt nature,
especially following such serene music
as the Brahms works. Perhaps if I heard
them in another context, I might have
been more impressed, but as it stands,
these works could have been left off
of this recital without detriment to
the program.
I found Mr. Demopoulos’s
reading of Pictures to be rather
curious, with some playing that was
absolutely magnificent, and some that
struck me as being overly aggressive
and not well thought out. For example,
the opening Promenade seemed brash and
hurried to me, as if the viewer were
angry at the paintings and not enjoying
his visit. Gnomus also seemed too harsh
and hurried; I would have preferred
a sound more akin to Ravel’s orchestration.
Other moments are simply glorious, such
as Baba-Yaga and The Great Gate of Kiev.
In spite of some criticisms,
I do not want to detract from Mr. Demopoulos’s
obvious talent and musicianship. He
is certainly talented, and although
some of his choices were not to my personal
taste, he is a passionate and thinking
player with tremendous promise. I certainly
hope to hear more from him, and will
be anxious to see how he develops as
an artist as he matures.
Sound quality is crisp
and clear. The booklet is pretty vanilla
but accurate and informative.
Kevin Sutton
see also reviews by
Dominy
Clements and Ian
Milnes
Panayiotis Demopoulos
(piano) 
