Given it was the Polish-Russian war of 1830-31 that forced Chopin to flee his native Warsaw (never to return), it seemed symbolic in the light of the current war for the Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev to be giving an all-Chopin recital at this year’s Edinburgh international festival, part of festival director Nicola Benedetti’s “Hope in the face of adversity” strand.
Pletnev, making his first UK performance in over six years, is undoubtedly an echt virtuoso and brought an impressive lightness to the quietest passages of this technically demanding programme. But there was little here of the heart-on-sleeve Romanticism or emotional struggle for which Chopin’s music is so loved. Instead, Pletnev delivered his programme with the cold detachedness that has come to be accepted as part of his stage presence.
Shuffling on to the Usher Hall stage, Pletnev barely acknowledged the near-capacity audience. The first half comprised four large-scale pieces – the extended Fantaisie in F Minor (Op 49) and the Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major (Op 61), alongside the Polonaise in C-sharp minor (Op 21, No 1) and Barcarolle in F-sharp major (Op 60).
The sequence was played without interruption. But with no obvious tonal arc or thematic connection between these emotionally intense pieces, his intent on playing them straight through – allowing no applause, nor interruptions for latecomers – seemed unnecessary.
In the most dramatic moments, dynamic contrast was missing. The first piece, the Polonaise in C-sharp minor, famed for its blazing opening, lacked power and was merely lukewarm. In the longer works of the first half, Pletnev’s playing didn’t quite have the spontaneous energy required to make the unorthodox shapes of Chopin’s mercurial forms seem natural.
The second half, featuring six of Chopin’s Nocturnes and the “Heroic” Polonaise in A-flat Major (Op 53), felt more cordial; Pletnev’s introverted approach better suited to these short character pieces. The Nocturne in E-flat Major (Op 9, No 2) was strikingly poignant, as Pletnev’s right hand rendered a beautiful luminosity in the piano’s upper register.
Having saved their applause until the end, the audience coaxed Pletnev back for two encores. It was only after the second of these, Moritz Moszkowski’s showy Etude in F major that he gave anything resembling a smile. It was hard not to wonder whether the smaller and more intimate Queen’s Hall would have been a better venue for Pletnev’s introspective style.
