“There is no pianist under the age of 30 I would rather hear,” claimed the Daily Telegraph’s critic about the prodigiously talented Alim Beisembayev. And on the evidence of the declaratively beautiful yet understatedly masterful recital on the Maidment Auditorium’s Steinway, who could disagree? Here, in the latest edition of Shrewsbury’s excellent International Piano Recital Series, was playing that entered the bloodstream with hypnotic power, blessed by absence of ego alongside a generous and close embrace of the music itself.
His programme hovered within the hinterlands between classicism and proto-Romanticism, spinnning webs that swayed with lively and resiliently tensile tempi, gleaming with intricate fingerwork and the zest that this repertoire deserves. He began with Haydn’s famous Variations in F minor but, ubiquitous this may be among pianists, he brought a unique freshness to his interpretation which served as a dextrous springboard into the main fare of the first half, Beethoven’s Sonata No.7 in D major. Thematically linked to the opening Haydn, this is Beethoven’s first proper outing of his genius and the young Kazakh inhabited its varying moods and atmospheres with commanding accomplishment. Beisembayev never lost sight of the overarching conception of its musical thought and its art, from the fizz of its opening, the slow heart-break of the middle, then the spritzy Minuet that culminated with a Rondo and final full-throttle whizz of its concluding Presto. He gathered its ending into the ether with a sublime disappearing act that wisped, as the piece began, into nothing. Total class.
The second half saw a return to Haydn – Sonata No 31 in A minor, an earlier work than the Variations – but shot through with all the inventive wit, grace and sense of drama that characterise the Sonatas. The same classical rigour defined his conception of Schumann’s Kinderszenen that followed, in a deft exploration of the roots of German Romanticism – deeply felt, powerfully sung, musing but never over-indulgent.
Beisembayev brought the recital to an end – and the house down – with another set of Variations, this time by Brahms on a theme of Paganini. It was like watching a controlled explosion unfold in slow motion but somehow, impossibly, in real time. Smokingly virtuosic – one imagined the Maidment’s sprinkler system might spark any moment – this was a tour de force finale that showed exactly why he is at the forefront of the new generation of world pianists. A supreme talent we were lucky to glimpse on his way to the bigtime. Bravissimo!
James Fraser-Andrews
