ALEXANDER MALOFEEV Piano Recital / Review

 

ALEXANDER MALOFEEV Piano Recital 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Wednesday (14 May 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 May 2025 with the title "Former child prodigy matures into nuanced adulthood".

There comes a point in time when a child prodigy ceases to be wunderkind, possibly dissipates into obscurity but hopefully morphs into an adult artist. 23-year old Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev, who last performed here as a teenager in 2019, has taken the latter route. While his previous recital was packed with typical virtuoso fodder, his most recent offering on a C.Bechstein grand was far more nuanced. 

Quite unusually, Franz Schubert’s Drei Klavierstucke (Three Piano Pieces, D.946), sometimes referred to as his posthumous Impromptus, opened the programme. Written in his final months in 1828, these were not published until forty years later. 

Malofeev found a wellspring of responses; restless agitation for the first piece, pure lyricism in the Lied-like centrepiece and a succession of syncopations in the last. Never for a moment did its pages sound like note-spinning, as every musical moment was made to count. 

Soviet era Russian composer Dmitry Kabalevsky’s Piano Sonata No.3 in F major (Op.46) is popular with youngsters hoping to flaunt their digital dexterity before moving on to more serious repertoire like Sergei Prokofiev’s sonatas. 

Malofeev however regarded this like the real thing, and not some throwaway virtuoso fluff. His genuine effort to make its rather thin material stand out was laudable, balancing well percussive exertions with lyrical insights and wry humour. Like the great Ukraine-born pianist Vladimir Horowitz before him, he made it sound like a real masterpiece. 

The recital’s second half highlighted more of Malofeev’s multi-faceted musicianship. Czech composer Leos Janacek’s four-movement suite In The Mists revealed introspective and melancholic sides. His mastery of its aching melodic lines and intriguing harmonies mined a wealth of feeling, the final subdued Presto movement being a true portent of tragedy. 

Without pausing for applause, he continued directly into the tolling bells of Franz Liszt’s Funerailles, which was the most appropriate and natural progression. Here was programming nous at its most canny. Instead of being bombarded with the usual barnstorming of rampaging octaves and chords, one was instead made to feel a genuine outpouring of grief. 

The same approach informed the recital’s final part, beginning with Alexander Scriabin’s Four Preludes (Op.22). These four exquisitely varied miniatures were delicately voiced, the fourth in B minor leading directly into the single-movement Fantasy (Op.28), also in the same key. 

Here was the lost art of preluding gloriously relived, the idea of preceding a major work with thematically or harmonically related shorter pieces. The Fantasy received a grandstanding performance. Like Scriabin’s mature works with a messianic complex, its soaring melodic line transcended thickets of dissonance to find an ultimate harmonic nirvana. 

Drawing loud cheers, Malofeev’s three encores were all Russian. Mikhail Glinka’s graceful Nocturne in F minor (La Separation) contrasted with the folksy charm of his Chopinesque Mazurka in C minor. In between was Prokofiev’s Toccata in D minor (Op.11), a flame-throwing performance that brought down the house.

All photography by Chen Haotian.

ALEXANDER MALOFEEV Piano Recital / Review

ALEXANDER MALOFEEV Piano Recital
Victoria Concert Hall
Saturday (2 November 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 November 2019 with the title "Pianist shows brilliance at Singapore debut".

Eighteen-year-old Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev is already a celebrity. Thanks to Youtube and social media, the former child prodigy who won the Tchaikovsky International Youth Piano Competition at the age of 13 has now a universal following. His Singapore debut recital was thus greeted with a large audience in Victoria Concert Hall, which he reciprocated with a programme of unabashed virtuosity.

Some might quibble about the absence of works by Mozart, Schubert or Chopin, which favour discretion and musicianship over outlandish display, but this lanky young man has a seemingly effortless facility and enviable technique to burn. He displayed little emotion on his face and was economical in motion. Yet he is no off-the-assembly-line automaton with steel-tipped fingers.

In Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata (Op.57), he allied brawn with brain in a performance of requisite brilliance. Even if the opening movement had a poker face about it, the slow movement’s variations were unfurled with no little patience and good judgement. Fetters were let loose for the finale, and there was little time to catch one’s breath for Malofeev’s thunderous and whirlwind response.

Arguably even more impressive was the reading of Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata (Op.36), heard in its shorter 1931 edition. Common fodder for piano competitions, the work found a sympathetic ear in Malofeev who resonated its myriad bell sounds with much trenchancy. He even tried teasing out hidden inner voices in the lyrical central movement, but it was the mastery of massed notes in high speeds that eventually stood out.

The recital’s second half was all Russian, and that suited him to the tee. Tchaikovsky’s Dumka mixed Slavic doom and melancholy with the boisterousness of a country dance. That was merely a warm up to Balakirev’s fearsome Islamey, an Oriental fantasy where more speed records were broken. The clarity and accuracy of his delivery was nothing short of astounding.

To calm things down, the Andante Maestoso from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker in Mikhail Pletnev’s exacting transcription was the lyrical icing on a well-baked cake. And make no mistake about it, this was not an easy piece to overcome.

Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata, the middle instalment of his “War Trilogy”, completed the evening’s programme. Again, this was no faceless shock and awe performance, but a well-nuanced one which balanced jagged dissonances with unusually lyrical asides. Being able to differentiate when to apply extreme percussiveness and when to sing made this a highly satisfying outing. Even the precipitous final movement opened quietly but gradually worked itself to a frenzied chord-laden conclusion.  

There were two encores. Tchaikovsky’s Autumn Song (October) from The Seasons was touching for its sheer simplicity and song-like lines. In contrast, the rapid machine-gun fire of Prokofiev’s Toccata did exactly what it was supposed to do, that is triggering a spontaneous standing ovation.

Alexander Malofeev is greeted by

Russian ambassador to Singapore

H.E. Mr Andrey Tatarinov.