VITALY PISARENKO Piano Recital / Review

 

VITALY PISARENKO Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (16 January 2026)

I must have been living in a parallel universe to learnt that this is London-based Ukrainian-Russian pianist Vitaly Pisarenko’s third recital in Singapore. How did I miss his first two, held in 2022 and 2023? Perhaps it was the haze of Covid-19 lifting, but am I grateful to have finally caught the 1st prizewinner of the 2008 Utrecht Liszt International Piano Competition, who also got the 3rd prize at the Leeds in 2015. I was even in Leeds that year, caught the eventual winner Anna Tsybuleva but had missed Vitaly completely.

Presented by Finger Waltz Music Productions, Pisarenko replicated the tandem of Schubert and Liszt of his 2022 recital. Opening with Schubert’s Four Impromptus (D.935 or Op.142), he showed the breadth and depth of his musicality. A singing tone was established from the first number in F minor, which opens with the exact same chordal notes as Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, and there was never a moment this extended essay felt like an exercise. The poetry continued in the “easier” A flat major Impromptu. Many students play this for their ABRSM exams, but how many actually capture its essence?

Photo: Finger Waltz

The variations of the B flat major piece were handled so musically that one forgot how technically difficult this actually is. The minor key variation was sonorous and poignant, and the prestidigitation that followed would have influenced the young Chopin and Schumann. The Hungarian-flavoured F minor final Impromptu, aided and abetted by Pisarenko’s mastery of scales closed the set on a high. One just wished the audience had not applauded between every single impromptu as this had disrupted the flow of the music.

Photo: Finger Waltz

The recital’s second half showed exactly why Pisarenko was awarded the coveted Liszt prize. Hyphenated Liszt was represented here by two kinds of transcriptions – one a literal note-for-note arrangement (more a conflation actually) and the other a free fantasy on operatic themes, sometimes called a paraphrase.

The orchestra’s glorious sonorities were captured in Liszt’s direct transcription of Wagner’s Tannhauser Overture. “Too many notes,” one might argue but that was exactly Liszt’s remit and Pisarenko’s thunderous account captured all of its glory. Beginning quietly with the Pilgrim’s Chorus, this soon built in volume and intensity, and then escalated to the freewheeling and carnal realms of Venusberg, before returning to reality with the biggest of bangs. 

Photo: Finger Waltz

This is hardly ever heard in Singapore (although one fondly remembers Kenneth Hamilton’s feverish account in 2007), simply because its too darned difficult to pull off. The only other time I had that “lump in the throat” was in Leeds, by another prizewinner Sung-Hoon Kim in 2006.

How poetic it was for Liszt to title his free fantasies or paraphrases on operatic themes as reminiscences, a recalling of popular melodies and moments from popular or obscure operas. Perhaps The best known is his totally vulgar Reminiscences de Don Juan (after Mozart), also called the Don Juan Fantasy. Reminiscences de Norma after Bellini’s bel canto opera is a far better piece, more subtle but no less virtuosic, revealing a more sophisticated kind of musician. 

Photo: Finger Waltz

Pisarenko is that kind of artist, for whom no technical challenge, however thorny or fiendish, ever fazes. More importantly, his art is not about banging out the notes but bringing out the music, and he did so without fear or apology. By the way, the programme notes mentions the aria Casta Diva, but nowhere in this reminiscence does this appear.

Photo: Finger Waltz

Pisarenko’s sole encore married both halves of the recital in a most poetic way possible, with the Schubert-Liszt Standchen (Serenade) from Schwanengesang. So beautiful, so refined and so sublime. One cannot wait for Pisarenko’s fourth recital in Singapore.