★★★★½ Gavrylyuk stuns in knife-edged journey to Austria, France and Russia.

Conservatorium Theatre, Brisbane
June 12, 2016

Piano took centre stage last week in Brisbane’s classical music scene, first with Lang Lang, the rock star pianist appearing with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra last Tuesday, and on Sunday, when the Ukrainian concert pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk gave a recital.

Whereas Lang Lang walked onto the QPAC stage in a high sheen suit sporting trending coiffed and sculpted hair, Gavrylyuk’s presence was unassuming in manner and his recital ‘look’. But there was nothing modest about the fast and furious way he sparked the piano, taking his audience on a blazing, knife-edged journey to Austria, France and Russia.

Medici recitalists have included Piers Lane, Roger Woodward, Stephen Hough and Sergio Tiempo. Staged in the intimacy of the Conservatorium Theatre, it’s possible to study the recitalists’ idiosyncrasies, the fleeting smiles, the shifting expressions and Gavrylyuk’s need to frequently polish his steamed up glasses.

Schubert’s Sonata in A Major, D664 was ultra controlled, wrapped and ribboned in gorgeous tone. Gavrylyuk illuminated the structure and celebrated the work’s optimism, for when this sonata was written in 1819, Schubert was staying in Steyr in Upper Austria which he found “unimaginably...