Performer: Ivo Pogorelić

Ivo Pogorelić’s return to Warsaw thirty-five years after his triumphant failure in the 1980 International Chopin Piano Competition should have been an occasion for great expectations. Sadly it was more like Hard Times.

Ivo Pogorelich returns to Istanbul with an utterly arduous programme. Mr Pogorelić may have his adversaries and his admirers, but this was a triumphant evening for piano music.

Ivo Pogorelić returned the London stage after an absence of 15 years in a concert comprising big, popular works of the standard repertoire, which tested the pianist’s technical and interpretative skills to the limit.

Throughout history, artists and composers have been known to cause controversy with groundbreaking new works that shocked and challenged audiences. Yet some, like Tchaikovsky (whose Piano Concerto was rejected by his mentor Rubinstein), managed to maintain the strength of their musical convictions in the face of public rejection.

En lieu et place du concert croisé avec Martha Argerich imaginé initialement, Ivo Pogorelich a proposé un récital intégralement consacré à son compositeur de prédilection, dans un mélange très convaincant d'inspiration et de rigueur.

Loin de proposer un panorama de l'écriture beethovénienne, le récital du pianiste a déçu par ses tempos systématiquement stagnants, son manque de cohérence et de caractère.