Jaap van Zweden commenced his role as music director of the New York Philharmonic with a première by Ashley Fure, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major featuring pianist Daniil Trifonov.
“Wigmore Hall is flooded now!” confessed Philippe Cassard. It was Claude Debussy who left the tap running, with every form of precipitation – rain, snow, fog – pouring from the Steinway's keyboard, trickling from fountain, springing from river beds.
The monumental shadow of Pierre Boulez loomed rather too large over Ravel's Left Hand Concerto and the full Firebird in François-Xavier Roth's detailed readings.
Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin combined intimacy, heroism and virtuosity in a concert of music by Field, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin and Yehudi Wyner.
The young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov gave a thrilling, absorbing and pianistically matchless performance of works by Bach, Rachmaninov and Liszt in his Royal Festival Hall debut.
Daniil Trifonov dazzled, for sure, but at times he did slightly more than that. And when he did dazzle, it was always very musical dazzling; he is far from the empty dazzler one might expect so young a virtuoso to be. No – there’s no doubt that Trifonov is a highly intelligent musician, as well as a highly talented one, and there was much to enjoy in this varied programme for Wigmore Hall.
