In 1770, whilst visiting Bologna on the first of his European tours, the musician and author Dr Charles Burney attended a concert given by the 14 year old Mozart, who just four years earlier Burney had also heard play in London. “….The little man is grown considerably but is still a little man. He has been in Rome and Naples, where he was much admired….There is no musical excellence which I do not expect from his quickness and talents.”
On Saturday, May 3rd this year. I and many others were privileged to hear a modern-day prodigy of the same age in the sublime surroundings of the ballroom at Walcot Hall, the venue for so many wonderful musical performances over the years, especially opera.
This was the British debut for the fourteen-year-old Russian pianist, Elisey Mysin, who thanks to the tireless efforts of Janet Wantling, was brought to the UK to give a very special performance for a capacity audience, eager to hear this exceptional young player. A decent Kawai grand had been obtained from Stuart Jones pianos of Newtown, and by 7.00 p.m., expectations were running high.
Reading Elisey’s substantial biography in the programme was more like reading that of an artist of much greater age and experience, so many are the number of prizes won, performances given and countries visited. The parallels with the young Mozart, who along with his sister Nannerl, was the toast of European capitals, cannot have been lost on any of us.
One of the challenges for any young pianist is that the repertoire often requires physical stretches for the pianist’s hands which can prove impossible until later in life but it is hugely to Elisey’s credit that technically during his recital this rarely if ever seemed to be an issue in a repertoire that was both hugely demanding and challenging. His technique is brilliant in passage work, robust and powerful when needed in a bravura and expressive repertoire, but most important is his intuitive stylistic understanding of the music he is playing.
He began his recital with Mozart in a minor and serious mood with the first movement of his Sonata K310a. Stylishly played, with lovely attention to detail of dynamic and phrasing. A good choice to settle this young performer, whose youth belies his musical strength and passion. Schumann’s Papillions are tricky, hard to make real sense of, but as with nearly all Schumann, pieces of great beauty and intensity. Sublime miniatures that flicker and fly from one mood to the next, and so it was with Elisey’s brilliant capturing of their romantic, quixotic spirit. To play the two pieces of Liszt, Les Cloches de Geneve fro, Les Annees de Prelermage, and the Tarantella (Venezia a Napoli), requires a well-formed and sophisticated grasp of advanced pianistic technique, and Elisey showed with abandon all the colours of Liszt’s monumental pianistic style in a performance with emotion and wonderful cascades of notes and soulful melodies.
After the interval, Elisey brought the music of his native mother land to south Shropshire in the form of Prokoviev’s stunning 5th piano sonata, and Pletnev’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s timeless ballet score for the Nutcracker. The Prokofiev was probably my favourite performance of the evening, and one felt that Elisey was himself just so personally in tune with the rhythms, colours and sound-world of this most brilliant of twentieth century Russian composers. Intellectually and technically, Prokofiev’s sonatas make huge demands on any performer, and this was a wonderful rendition that would have stood comparison anywhere. Pletnev’s Nutcracker transcription is great fun to listen to, but demanding to perform successfully, and Elisey showed us once more that there is little or nothing which he cannot achieve, even at his comparatively tender age. It was just the repertoire with which to end the evening, but the thunderous standing ovation which followed it demanded encores, and like the true professional he is, Elisey left the last word to the genius of Frederic Chopin in two perfectly realised pieces.
This was a recital to treasure for all the right reasons. Elisey has already achieved so much, and one can only look forward to what the future holds for such a brilliantly talented young performer. It proved the perfect venue and occasion, and those there can be hugely grateful to Janet Wantling for having the vision and perseverance to bring Elisey to the UK, along with his mother Olga and to Lucinda Parish and all at Walcot for making the evening, as ever, a pleasure and one to treasure until hopefully Elisey is once again back in the UK to perform.
John Moore