Russian pianist holds keys to audience’s heart

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra kicked off its 2025/26 season with a bang Saturday night, welcoming back to its stage Russian superstar pianist Alexei Volodin.

Its inaugural Saturday Classics program, Volodin Plays Tchaikovsky 1, led by maestro Daniel Raiskin, featured the dynamo performing one of the world’s best-loved keyboard concertos, one that never fails to enthrall with its power and might.

Less than 24 hours later, the indefatigable artist treated audience members to the composer’s second concerto during the Shirley Loewen Sunday Classics matinee opener, Volodin Plays Tchaikovsky 2. (For those keeping score, he also played an evening-length solo recital at the Desautels Concert Hall last Thursday night, as the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg launched its own slate of concerts for 2025/26.)

Born and trained in Moscow, the now Spanish-based pianist — a longtime musical collaborator with Raiskin — famously took top prize at the prestigious Concours Géza Anda in 2003. He continues to circle the globe, performing with an A-list of orchestras as soloist and as a chamber musician with various ensembles, as well as with his pianist wife, Edith Peña.

Closer to home, audiences might remember Volodin’s stunning back-to-back performances of all five Beethoven concertos over two nights in March 2020, notably the last WSO concert before the world went into lockdown owing to the pandemic.

The virtuoso triumphantly returned to the WSO stage in March 2023 with Rachmaninoff’s Concerto Nos. 2 and 3, further solidifying his status as a towering giant in the classical music world.

Saturday’s program also marked the maiden voyage of the WSO’s newest concertmaster, Karl Stobbe, and welcomed no fewer than 13 new musicians, including several principals, to the orchestra’s ranks, with the maestro commenting on “generational change” during his welcoming remarks.

After striding assuredly onstage to take his position, Volodin launched into the opening movement’s iconic introduction, immediately taking full command of his instrument with his heart-stopping block chords thundering across the crowd. His fearlessly muscular approach belies a more tender sensibility, with his second theme, first introduced by acting principal clarinet Ilya Shterenberg, showcasing the pianist’s renowned lyricism and luminous tone.

His cadenza began in introspection before building to a ferocious climax that saw even more firestorms unleashed. Raiskin’s strong rapport and connection with the soloist proved palpable, as he skilfully cued the players during each of the orchestra tutti sections with equal passion and verve.

Then it became time for the eloquent slow movement, Andante non troppo, in which Volodin suspended time with gracefully arched, exquisite phrasing, following newly appointed principal flute Christian Paquette’s evocative opening solo.

A briskly paced finale, Allegro con fuoco, bristling with the rhythmic vitality of a Cossack folkdance, once more saw Volodin punching out syncopated accents like a tiger, contrasted with the strings’s fluid second theme.

The final, electrifying torrent of octaves across his keyboard resulted in an immediate standing ovation, including cries of bravo and a demand for three curtain calls.

Beaming and showing little sign of fatigue, Volodin treated his rapt listeners to an encore of Chopin’s Impromptu No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 29, tossed off like child’s play and leading to another rousing ovation.

The 130-minute program (including intermission) opened with the WSO première of Berlin-based, Canadian composer/conductor Samy Moussa’s Elysium, a captivating tone poem commissioned by the Vienna Philharmonic in 2021.

Inspired by the paradisiacal Elysian Fields of Greek mythology, Moussa creates a kaleidoscopic sound world of woozy pitch bends and string glissandi, with its multi-strata of sound including pungent dissonances cresting like waves before settling again.

A few tentative brass entries that might have been mitigated with more rehearsal time did not mar the overall performance; kudos to the WSO for taking us along on this highly abstract, right-brained journey into brave new underworlds.

The evening rounded out with Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98, with the darkly hewn, four-movement work infused with moody pensiveness.

Raiskin led the players through its sonic climes, with its opening Allegro non troppo taking several moments to fully gel. The subsequent Andante moderato fared better, with its expressive themes swelling before arriving at a peaceful close.

A second evening highlight was the ebullient penultimate movement, Allegro giocoso, with the maestro’s animated delivery creating forceful accents and thrusts of sound.

This led to the dramatic opening of the finale, Allegro energico e passionato, with a special nod to principal timpanist Justin Gingrich for his unfaltering, no-room-to-hide drum strikes. This satisfying performance rose to a crescendo and triumphant finish, earning another enthusiastic ovation as the new season began.

holly.harris@shaw.ca