Sunday ‘Roast’ concert at Bechstein Hall.
Nikita Lukinov with a dish fit for a dashing Russian Prince. A triumph of cuisine and masterly music making
Thomas Masciaga opened the Bechstein Young Artists Series with canons covered in flowers
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/02/02/thomas-masciaga-opens-the-bechstein-young-artists-series-with-canons-covered-in-flowers/
Evening concerts starting from 18 pounds and a sumptuous restaurant that is also opening for luncheon.
A beautiful new hall that is just complimenting the magnificence of the Wigmore Hall and the sumptuous salon of Bob Boas.Providing a much need space for the enormous amount of talent that London,the undisputed capital of classical music,must surely try to accommodate
Next week’s roast will be Nikita Lukinov (13.45). Nikita Lukinov at the National Liberal Club ‘A supreme stylist astonishes and seduces’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/11/07/nikita-lukinov-at-the-national-liberal-club-a-supreme-stylist-astonishes-and-seduces/
With hors d’oeuvres ( 10.30). Jeremy Chan Young Artists Recital at Bechstein Hall ‘Intelligence and Artistry combine with words in music’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/02/23/jeremy-chan-young-artists-recital-at-bechstein-hall-intelligence-and-artistry-combine-with-words-in-music/
I have heard Nikita many times since listening to his first recital for the Keyboard Trust in 2021. Since then he has gone from strength to strength with tours in Germany, Italy,Switzerland and all over the UK with engagements designed to give experience to young star pianists who in order to progress on the first steps of a career need an audience. It is only with an audience that artists at this stage can learn from listening to themselves and experiencing the magic of live performance.
Nikita this year has organised a 20 concert tour of Scotland taking music to some of the most beautiful places on earth but with rare access to live performances. Bringing his music to communities that are deprived of live music and at the same time gaining experience of playing to different audiences.
The concert at the Bechstein Hall was a culmination of this experience and thanks to Terry Lewis and Luka Okras for providing a much needed space in London for young musicians to be able to play in what is regarded by many as the capital of the music world
Nikita had come armed with Mussorgsky and Debussy, the works he had been playing on tour. I had heard his performances before and during the the tour and my words of praise can be read in detail below.
Nikita Lukinov ……..”If music be the food of love play on ….and on” A Master on a voyage of discovery and sharing in Scotland
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/08/19/nikita-lukinov-if-music-be-the-food-of-love-play-on-and-on-a-master-on-a-voyage-of-discovery-and-sharing-in-scotland/
But today there was a different Nikita. Still the same dashing Russian Prince with impeccable musicianship and technical training, mostly at the Purcell School and Royal Scottish Academy with teachers from the Russian school, but now there was added an authority and sense of communication that all those present at the Bechstein were immediately aware of.
His playing of Rimsky Korsakov /Tchernow transcription of ‘A Night on the Bare Mountain’ was played with breathtaking brilliance and rhythmic energy from the very first notes. Nikita had a full orchestra in his hands as he delved deeply into this magnificent Bechstein Concert Grand and found a glorious luminosity with a natural fluidity of rare beauty. Full sounds never hard or ungrateful went side by side with barely whispered asides.
Debussy’s ‘ Reflets dans l’eau’ was given a ravishing performance of brilliance and subtle beauty. Streams of notes just flowed from his hands but always with the melodic line glowing above this torrent of fleeting water. The ending was pure magic as Nikita barely touched the keys, but with his supreme sense of balance could guide us through this extraordinary page of ravishing imagery.
A monumental performance of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ showed off Nikita’s extraordinary self identification with the pictures that had so inspired the composer to write what is his undisputed masterpiece. But it was his arrival to ‘Catacombs’ after an extraordinarily brilliant ‘Market Place at Limoges’ that one was suddenly aware that there was magic in the air. One of those rare but miraculous moments when strangers are united by the magic that only music can hold. From here, together with Nikita we were even more aware that the only thing that mattered was the music that was filling the room. Nikita felt it too because his fearless performance of ‘Baba Yaga’ and the ‘Great Gate of Kyiv’ were played as I can never remember hearing before.
Nikita from being a star student of great promise has become a great artist who will go from strength to strength bringing such moments to a world at a time when quantity reigns over quality. People will realise the need for shared experiences and the isolation that media can provoke will be interrupted only by shared human experience. As Gilels so wisely said, it is the difference between canned and fresh food!
Talking of which the cuisine at the Bechstein is also a unique experience!
Nikita was so inspired by this shared experience that for the first time in public he risked improvising an encore on the notes of the promenade we had just heard. Magical sounds wafted through the hall with the same atmospheric intensity as the music of Pärt or Adès. Another shared experience from the hands of this valiant Knight of the Keyboard .
Nikita Lukinov ‘A knight amongst the armour shining brightly’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/27/nikita-lukinov-a-knight-amongst-the-armour-shining-brightly/
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 