Vyacheslav Gryasnov — who is performing a solo recital at Lyric Hall this Saturday, fresh off a concert at Carnegie Hall — makes me ask just how near to heaven New Haven is.
Not two weeks ago I heard the Yale Philharmonia in an ideal program: Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F major and Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin providing balanced indulgences, with an unfamiliar (to me) Shostakovich — his Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor — for piquancy. On an outstanding evening the Shostakovich stood out, thanks to a commanding performance by Gryasnov, a young pianist from Sakhalin Island, the remotest reach of Russia.
Impressively potent and percussive in Shostakovich, Gryasnov’s virtuosity made me wish I could hear him in different repertory. Just five days later I was approaching Sprague Hall for his solo recital, the night like early spring and my ears ready to wallow. Heaven came to mind again.
Gryasnov performed his own transcriptions of Prokofiev’s Suite from On the Dnieper and Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, proving as gifted in musical translation as performance. Ravel’s challenging Gaspard de le Nuit was the highlight of the evening, as delicate and fleet as the Prokofiev was crushing. Rachmaninoff’s second sonata closed the program, full-throated and full throttle.
To prove this is heaven, Gryasnov will repeat the entire recital with additions this Saturday at 7:30, at the Lyric Hall Theater on Whalley Avenue in Westville. If you want to hear a major talent in a small room at the beginning of a big career, you have a chance right in town, at popular prices. He sold out his Carnegie Hall recital on Monday, but there are seats for him here in New Haven on Saturday. I say go.
Vyacheslav Gryasnov plays at Lyric Hall, 827 Whalley Ave., on Mar. 11. Click here for tickets.
