While the Queen Elizabeth Hall is being refurbished, the Southbank Centre’s International Piano Series is in exile at St John’s Smith Square. Architecturally pleasing and with excellent acoustics, St John’s is an ideal venue for the series.
In a programme of Brahms and Prokofiev, the Russian Nikolai Demidenko’s pianism was heard there to its greatest advantage. Unlike some of his compatriots he’s no banger and even in the most muscular items his tone was always ingratiating — an impression enhanced by the pure-toned Fazioli he played.
Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Schumann allowed him to display his lyrical, tender qualities, with immaculately weighted chording on the expressive dissonances and their resolutions. The same composer’s Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor is a more youthful, demonstrative affair, but even while he bestrode the keyboard’s octaves with fiery brilliance, the playing was exhilarating, never oppressive.
In Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives, a set of miniatures offering a kaleidoscope of “fleeting visions”, Demidenko found the perfect register for each: jaunty, wistful, satirical by turns. Ending with Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 2 in D minor, he once again covered the whole emotional range without any ugliness of tone. It’s quite an achievement to suggest the defiance and savagery of Prokofiev without making the listener want to run for cover, but Demidenko managed it and had us wanting more.
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