More remarkable playing from this young Ucrainian pianist only 19 years old, playing with extraordinary mastery and mature musical understanding.
Mozart,Debussy and Chopin were all treated to her glowing fluid playing where every phrase was imbued with rare musical meaning.A beauty of sound from fingers that like limpets could suck the meaning from each note with a kaleidoscope of ravishing sounds.A technical mastery that allowed her to dig deep into the architectural shape of each work as she could shape so fearlessly even the most challenging music.

Mozart’s Fantasia where drama and beauty combine with it’s imperious opening with a purity and luminosity of sound contrasting with the dynamic fearless drive of the Allegro. A sense of weight without hardness brought Mozart’s very precise dynamic markings vividly to life with a sense of orchestral colour where even the rests had an important part to play in a musical conversation of extraordinary beauty and startling originality. Even the contrast between legato and staccato was of orchestral proportions where the staccato was more an expressive non legato that she phrased with such sensibility.The Allegro that made such a dramatic entrance was played with remarkable solidity with the imposing bass declamations answered by the beseeching elegance of the reply. It expanded to a beautiful melodic outpouring of aristocratic good taste and style with the imposing left hand returning to take us to the cadenza played with nobility to the bottom of the keyboard where it took flight chromatically for the gentle preparation of the Andantino. Again another question and answer of operatic proportions gradually spread over the entire keyboard finishing on high before the eruption of the Più Allegro. Playing of masterly weight and rhythmic precision gradually dissolving into a series of arpeggiandi interspersed with calming chords ending in the whispered hights.The silence that followed was indeed pregnant with expectation as the imposing opening returned with ever more dramatic contrasts before the final scale that shot from the bass to the final chord on high.A remarkably mature performance of style and controlled passion.

The desolation of Debussy’s Footprints in the snow was played with an extraordinary maturity of musical line with it’s gently insistent footsteps proceeding in whispered tones of ‘piano’ and ‘pianissimo’ but which Khrystyna managed to give an architectural shape to with a kaleidoscope of colours that illuminated this trail of emptiness with extraordinary sensitivity.The clarity and character she brought to the West wind showed off her complete technical mastery and a fantasy that brought this extraordinary tone poem vividly to life.Quite extraordinary explosions of sound with some transcendental playing of astonishing precision and clarity where the insistent repeated notes created a hypnotic background to a melody ‘main en dehorn et angoissé it built to a tumultuous climax of extraordinary mastery, with the swirling whirlwind of sounds just pouring out of her fingers with amazing control and subtle colouring.The amazing crash of the waves at the end just prepared the way for the clear mist of sound out of which emerged the Sunken Cathedral . An aristocratic poise as the sunken cathedral made its emergence from the depths appearing in all it’s glory. A plain chant is heard with the tolling of bells as the gently rumbling bass prepared the scene, as the cathedral descended once more into the depths with wondrous magical sounds.
Fireworks I have rarely heard played with such clarity but also a vaste range of colours which showed her total mastery of the pedals. A remarkable control of sound allowed the Marseillaise to ring out above the smoke with glowing radiance after a most extraordinary exhibition of fireworks . I have never heard the sparkle of the fireworks ,as they shot off in all directions ,played with such precision over a mist of quite extraordinary clarity all played in pianissimo! A tour de force of technical mastery which gradually lead to the swirls of notes that enveloped the atmosphere with fireworks erupting with great insistence.A scherzando played with dynamic drive dissolving into a beautifully elegant series of arabesques before the final eruptions dying away to a whisper ‘de tres loin.

Chopin’s B flat minor Sonata showed off her remarkable musicianship where the second subject was allowed to emerge so naturally with sumptuous beauty and disarming simplicity.The opening introduction was not repeated but was transformed into a menacing development of passionate outpourings.
The Scherzo showed off her crystalline technical perfection as she allowed the music to unfold fearlessly and the trio to sing so eloquently.
Her youthful passion almost took over in the Funeral March which she obviously felt very deeply but it might have been even more expressive if she had played it with the same simplicity that she brought to the other movements.Of course the perpetuum mobile of the wind blowing over the graves held no terror for this young lady who brought this masterpiece to a tumultuous conclusion.

Khrystyna Mykhailichenko is a young Ukrainian pianist who was born in Crimea. She began to play the piano when she was four. Within six years, she was winning international piano competitions and was performing in concerts throughout Europe and in the USA. The venues include Salle Cortot in Paris, Bozar Hall in Brussels, the Music Academies of Bruges, Antwerp, Krakow, Bremen, Gariunu concert hall in Vilnius, the University of Miami and Broward Centre for the Performing Arts, the World Bank in Washington DC, the UN residence in New York and all the National Philharmonics of Ukraine. Her repertoire includes major piano concertos by Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt and a wide variety of solo recital’s programme. At the outbreak of war in February 2022, she fled to Poland with her mother and sister before settling in the North East of the UK in June. As well as continuing to travel extensively for performances, she studied at the Junior RNCM under Graham Scott. She won a full scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music in London and has started her undergraduate course there in September 2023 under professor Joanna MacGregor. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, the Royal Academy’s principal, said: “Khrystyna Mykhailichenko is an extraordinary talent of rare maturity for her age. She came and played the Chopin Ballade No 1 to me recently and revealed what a serious artist she is, almost as if the burdens of a hard life were being channelled through her playing. This was well beyond the carefree virtuosity one hears in this piece so often. It also had real grip and originality.” https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/10/24/khrystyna-mykhailichenko-at-st-marys-mature-artistry-and-refined-musicianship-of-a-great-pianist-in-the-making/