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Rating: If concerts were matches, we could well say that Sokolov with his six encores beat Pollini's three, after a piano performance that literally captivated the audience in the hall last Friday at the Auditorium of Parco della Musica in Rome, and six are not even many for this Russian pianist who can do even eight!
A "cultured" program, I would dare say, consisting of Schubert's "sonata D958" and a second part of the concert entirely dedicated to Scriabin: a journey into the poetics of this composer, from his early compositions, like the two preludes for the left hand alone op. 9, still in the groove of romantic tradition, passing through the III and X sonata, to the two "Poèmes" op. 69 and "Vers la flamme" op. 72.
A "cultured" program for an audience capable of perceiving the underlying willingness to engage with two authors who do not often appear in programs, in order to offer their own personal interpretation; not a hall full with a "stadium-like" crowd from last Wednesday, some empty seats, and among those present many musicians, pianists, old and new Conservatory students, teachers, concert performers, music critics, all fascinated by a charismatic pianism capable of unfolding and asserting itself in this "unusual" program, also difficult to follow in its entire development but presented in every part like a work of chiseling, like embroidery. No element, no sign was omitted or simply left to chance, every note, every single phrase, every dynamic was cared for to ensure it could be perceived through the outer beauty of powerful cantability, the facets of sound that are never the same as each other, where there is never just one kind of "piano" or one kind of "forte," but a diversity of timbres hard to match, the inner beauty of music, the content.
What makes Sokolov a great artist, which differentiates him from many others, is this ability to use his personal "timbre keyboard" in an absolutely functional way not only to interpretation, which is always something subjective, but also to the pure "execution" of what the composer has "transcribed": the reasons of heart and feeling; thus, the choice of calmer tempos, as in the case of the final "tarantella" of the D958, acquires logic if seen from this perspective: making every note, every theme that modifies and transitions into another in its spiraling progression and reappearance identical yet never truly the same, clearly perceptible, because the mood is different; this is a discourse applicable to Schubert's writing, relatively more simple even for ears not very "accustomed" to listening, whose content always attempts to force the "form" container to the point of losing the structural references within which, like springs, themes, and melodies emerge, even for the much more complex Scriabin.
Sokolov does not play, he tells stories and captivates those who listen because he tells in two voices; I believe this is why after his most historical encore, the transcription of a "Bach" page made by Siloti, after which certainly nothing else could have been played, we would have all remained there, enchanted by the magic of his sound, captivated and amazed like children with a fairy tale.
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