Technical excellence but muted expressivity: Arcadi Volodos at the Barbican

From Schubert and Schumann to Liszt, Arcadi Volodos makes a triumphant return to London's Barbican. 

Arcadi Volodos displays consummate artistry in Schubert's last piano sonata and two other keyboard pieces by Brahms.

Arcadi Volodos is a big man, and when he sits down to the piano, he produces a big sound. The extraordinary richness of timbre was obvious from the first notes of Brahms' 6 Klavierstücke, Op.118.

Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos held the audience's attention with live performance at its best, at times eccentric, yet totally captivating and always uplifting. 

For anyone lucky enough to have witnessed the last Barbican residency from Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the striking, thoughtful and vivid accounts of Brahms they gave here should not be a surprise. In Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2, however, orchestra outdid soloist.

Arcadi Volodos ofreció un recital inconmensurable desde la sencillez y familiaridad que dan la madurez de un pianista técnicamente brillante y de una gran sensibilidad.