Oh my God, Volodos is my God!

Went for the Volodos concert on Thursday and totally loved it. I've been a great fan since his first CD came out back when I was in JC, and despite my pro-piracy stance, I actually have all the CDs he's released (ok so he hasn't released that many). Being the Volodos groupie that I am, I even brought my CD for him to autograph, but a real pity he didn't have any autograph signing session.

Volodos started off the evening with a couple of Beethoven sonatas (Op 26 and 110). Lovely golden singing tone always, unbelievably sublime sotto voces (the wonderful fugue subject in the 110 sounded like it came from the heavens slowly descending onto earth), and absolute control of the colour and sonority of the keyboard. May not agree with everything he did (perhaps a bit over-indulgent in the colour, perhaps the funeral march could have been more stately, perhaps the last movement of the op 26 could have been less impressionistic), but one simply cannot deny the fact that he is just one awesome pianist - there is nothing he cannot do with the piano.

The second half was filled with short encore like pieces by Scriabin and Liszt. I wasn't very familiar with the repertoire but found the sound world of Scriabin quite compatible with Volodos' tone - always velvety, round, never harsh or forced. Unfortunately I thought there could have been greater clarity in the textures for the Scriabin Fantasie - a bit murky at parts, perhaps due to where I was seated. The encores proper brought the house down. A transcription of a slow movement of some baroque oboe concerto, followed by a souped up F major Moszkowski etude, and then the jaw-dropping Mozart-Volodos Turkish March. Still remember AK and I arranging it for one piano four hands back in JC, straining with our ears at the speakers of the Hi-fi set trying to decipher what he was playing. Such a high morale moment in the concert when he played it! The last encore was a short and quiet piece, which I'm guessing is by Scriabin.

On hindsight there may have been things I might not have been totally convinced with, but it was a real high stepping out of the concert hall - my mind was blank while trying to order food after the concert. Great entertainment value, absolutely stunning virtuosity, lovely sounds - who cares about performance practise and musicological concerns :).

As an aside, the games here are quite interesting and thought-provoking.