Yevgeny Sudbin has been hailed by The Telegraph as ‘potentially one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century’. His recordings have met with critical acclaim and are regularly featured as CD of the Month by BBC Music Magazine or Editor’s Choice by Gramophone. This recital programme includes Skryabin’s tenth sonata; for recordings of the composer, the pianist was awarded CD of the Year by The Telegraph and received the MIDEM Classical Award for Best Solo Instrument Recording at Cannes.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Funérailles S173 No. 7 (1849)
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) Ballade No. 4 in F minor Op. 52 (1842)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) L’isle joyeuse (1903-4)
Aleksandr Skryabin (1872-1915) Piano Sonata No. 10 Op. 70 (1912-3)
Franz Liszt Danse macabre (after Saint-Saëns) S555 (1876) arranged
by Vladimir Horowitz arranged by Yevgeny Sudbin

Yevgeny Sudbin at the Wigmore Hall BBC live broadcast Liszt,Chopin,Debussy,Scriabin and Saint -Saens .

From the very first authoritative notes it was obvious that here was a virtuoso with a clarity of vision and a technical means to show us the great architectural shape of the music with directness and simplicity.
Revving up with arms like a swimmer in murky waters he delved deep and drew some breathtaking sounds from the piano of enormous sonorities with Horowitzian wizardry.Intimate glowing sounds too of luminosity and fluidity that was more the diabolical world of Scriabinesque contrasts searching for the ‘Star’ rather than the refined aristocratic world of the consumptive poet Chopin.
Having to compete with a pneumatic drill from our neighbours next door Sudbin valiantly played on even though concentration for him and for the audience was unusually strained in this usually most perfect of chamber halls.

Funerailles was played with noble and passionate gestures and the opening although slightly too loud and unvaried was arresting and of great authority.The beautiful melodic episodes were played with radiance and a sense of balance that even in the climaxes the melodic line shone out with passionate abandon.The cavalry too were played with astonishing technical brilliance from their gentle entry one by one until the whole force joined with overwhelming volume and exhilaration.The gentle bass melody of the opening was now transformed into a passionate outcry of heroic abandon only to die away into the distance with heart rending whispered simplicity.

Chopin’s great Fourth Ballade was played with simplicity and a continual forward movement that gave great strength to this ‘pinnacle of the romantic repertoire’.There were many beautiful moments but never lingered over as Sudbin had seen the whole architectural shape leading to the tumultuous final chords before the treacherous final coda.A performance of aristocratic intelligence and good taste that showed us the strength in Chopin rather than his weakness.

Debussy’s view of Jersey from Eastbourne was played with a directness and at times rather dry percussiveness reminiscent of Horowitz’s conception where the dynamic contrasts between fluidity and percussiveness were brought to the fore a little at the expense of the overall atmosphere and etherial beauty of this ‘joyous island’.
Sudbin like Horowitz is the ideal interpreter of Scriabin with moments of transcendental diavolerie mixed with etherial fluidity.Rhythmic shocks that send an electricity into this strange world of trills and thrills and with a vital undercurrent that is like a wave taking us to a landscape of strange shapes and colours.

What better way to end this short recital than with a transcription of Saint -Saens Danse Macabre that luckily in the second half no longer had to compete with the neighbours who had obviously been persuaded to take a lunch break .
Saint – Saens transcribed by Liszt,Horowitz and Sudbin.An extraordinary tone poem of colours and transcendental virtuosity of a real Lion of the Keyboard of which Sudbin like his illustrious forbears was in total command and control.An ovation from a full hall exhilarated and excited by such overwhelming authority but running a little overtime for the broadcast but nevertheless Sudbin generously played a early Mazurka op 25 n. 3 by Scriabin full of radiance and exquisite beauty and the most mellifluous of Rachmaninov’s Preludes op 32 n. 5 .https://youtube.com/watch?v=Colki_YMhw8&feature=shared