by Natalia Di Bartolo – The young Russian pianist in concert at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania with a virtuosic program.
Piano Youth: a breath of fresh air on the stages of today's theaters and a guarantee for the future.
The February 2, 2024 the pianista russo Dmitry Shishkin, born in 1992, already honored with international recognition and prizes, performed at Massimo Bellini Theater in Catania in a piano concert with a virtuoso program. AND’ It was precisely the program that intrigued the writer, since it takes solid hands and arms, as well as obviously great talent to perform the pieces chosen for the Catania evening.
Almost on the sly, it Shishkin started the program with “I call’ to you Jesus Christ, BWv 639, Corale in Fa minore di Johann Sebastian Bach. And’ It's natural for a concert to begin with a song for “break the ice”, but already from the first notes an ability was highlighted that would materialize in the succession of songs on the program.
To follow, “Prelude, Fugue and Variation in Si Minor Opera 18” by César Franck: a big leap in time and style, obviously, but increasingly agile and precise hands and fingers.
Right away, “Dunka, op.59, Russian rustic scene in C minor “Scherzo à la Russe”, op.1, n1 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. And so, in this program, the main artistic predisposition and piano taste of the young musician continue to come into focus, who is a true war machine on the keyboard and who, with the Hungarian Rhapsody n. 5 S 244 by Franz Liszt concluded the first part of the concert, receiving applause from the audience.
But in truth it was in the second part of the concert, with the Sonata n.2 “Sonata - fantasy” in minor tenth sol, Op. 19 in Aleksandr Nicolaevich Skrjabin and especially with i Prelude op. 23 Nos. 1, 3, 5, and the Preludes op. 32 n. 5,8,10,12 by Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov and with the Piano Sonata No. 2 by Sergei Sergeevič Prokofiev, that all the power and capacity of “frame and frame yourself” impressively for precision and punctuality in the execution, even in the most virtuosic passages, of Shishkin it definitively imposed itself on the ears of the listener, who did not hear the slightest technical flaw for the entire duration of the concert. Which, obviously, is an extremely positive fact in evaluating an emerging and talented pianist, of a decidedly Russian school, but now entrusted to the experience and sensitivity of M° Epiphanius Comis.
And’ natural that for a talent choose a program like this: it fits perfectly: lo Shishkin it's like he's comparing himself playing chess with the keyboard, in a performance as if he were playing a game he absolutely wants to win. Everything should have and certainly will, in the future, be enriched by greater interpretative participation. Furthermore, a softer modulation from piano to fortissimo would allow the young Russian musician to achieve perfection.
In fact, if it's true that to play Rachmaninov, for example, let it be said that more than ten fingers would be needed, the very long, very agile fingers of the young man Shishkin they flew impressively on the keyboard and won the match with a grand piano, which, among other things, probably did not, by its nature, have that softness of sound that was partly missing from the performance. We are certain that the aforementioned war machine that won this game with the rebel keyboard will have time and opportunity to diversify “subjects” ed “objects”, eras and styles, expressing that interpretative sensitivity that certainly lies within a soul of marked musicality, which has also demonstrated a simplicity and naturalness in offering itself to applause that are typical only of youth.
Repeated applause and encores, always with the same performance characteristics, have created a pleasant evening of music which, to be performed as it was, without a semi-bisquaver escaping from the pianist's fingers, is nowadays a real gem.
Natalia Di Bartolo ©
Photo by Giacomo Orlando ©