In advance of tonight’s performance of Firebird and Franck with the Yale Philharmonia, here is a Yale News preview, as well as a video teaser.
Review 3: Philadelphia recital
And one more review of my Philadelphia recital.
“The slow movement was unfolded with an easy flow and yet a mordant depth of insight that rendered any questioning of Solzhenitsyn’s choice of tempo otiose. The scherzo was dashed off with seemingly effortless charm. And the taxing textural and rhythmic challenges in the finale held no terrors for the pianist, even in the Presto coda that used to throw even the great Schnabel for a technical loop; Solzhenitsyn followed it, in response to an enthusiastic ovation, with a well-chosen encore in the shape of Schubert’s Hungarian Melody, D.817”
Review 2: Philadelphia recital
Another review of my Philadelphia recital last week.
“A stunning recital… a rock-solid digital technique fully at the service of an ever-more mature musician who continues to explore the internal inspiration for the music he performs.… Employing a vast variety of touches from seamless legato to clipped staccato, a broad range of dynamics from softest to loudest, and a flowing feel for which voice to emphasize from one measure to the next, Solzhenitsyn showcased these expansive miniatures in their proper context of harmonic adventure through melodic development.”
Review 1: Philadelphia recital
Philadelphia Inquirer review of my Philadelphia recital last week.
“The strengths of the pianist found an expressive home in Shostakovich. Solzhenitsyn chose four of the Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, and each was of such boldly different character that they formed a satisfying portrait of the pianist. That golden tone drew you in at the start of the fugue in the No. 1 in C Major. This was the pianist as beauty. No. 8 in F Sharp Minor was about how making a circus of somber events can somehow just make a moment all the more inconsolable. The knotty chromaticism of No. 19 in E Flat Major gave Solzhenitsyn a powerful chance to contrast the proud chorale-like prelude with a fugue of fearsome clusters. He ended with No. 24 in D Minor, whose Brahms-like beginning didn’t last, and which seemed to evolve the pianist into an artist of fearsome intensity.”