Festival Music
Daniil Trifonov
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Martin Kershaw
five stars
THOUGH still only 25, Daniil Trifonov has performed at every Edinburgh International Festival since his debut in 2012, and deservedly so – he’s a truly phenomenal pianist. His range, technique and musicality are simply breathtaking, dispatching lethally challenging repertoire with extraordinary assurance. And here was a programme tailor-made to showcase his remarkable ability, unapologetically late-Romantic in its inclination, dizzyingly virtuosic.
We began quietly though, with Brahms’s arrangement of Bach’s Chaconne from the Violin Partita in D Minor. Yes, Baroque in origin, but in this version surely infused with a Romantic sensibility, and Trifonov brought off the blend of styles beautifully – resolved but thoughtful, passionate but poised. To follow was Liszt’s fiendishly difficult Grandes études de Paganini, one genius inspired by another to astonishing effect. The six pieces were played with complete authority, from the intense warp and weft of the Preludio to the crashing arpeggios of the closing Quasi Presto. Trifonov has the enviable ability to perform music of supreme technical difficulty with amazing delicacy and precision. His playing of the second study (Andante) was an object lesson in this regard, pinpoint accuracy but still beautifully shaped and expressive.
The second half was given over to Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonata No 1 – another famously difficult work by another great pianist-composer. At some 35 minutes duration, it is as much a test of concentration as stamina; an intoxicating journey through all kinds of weather. Trifonov rendered it all with unwavering focus – hunched over the keyboard, scrutinising, probing, attacking, enraptured. And whilst the technical display was of itself stunning, it was the ethereal, translucent Lento that was a particular highlight for me – one among many in a wonderful concert.
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