Alexander Djordjevic: Reviews

Alexander Djordjevic might be characterized as an 'objective' pianist in the sense that he remains always in scrupulous control of the music: Chords are immaculately voiced to yield the most minute harmonic changes; sonorities mix, hang around and then dissolve just when they should; and the musical line is scrubbed clean of artifice, clutter and distracting exaggerations. What then emerges is a constant infusion of original insight that freshens the music and makes even repertory staples seem new.

Djordjevic's recital Sunday afternoon at the Phillips Collection traversed two of the most notoriously difficult pieces in the repertoire -- Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' and Schumann's Symphonic Etudes -- and both benefited immeasurably from slower than usual tempos and his predilection for playing comfortably within his subtly precise technique. The Mussorgsky sounded almost civilized, and though the primitive Russian sweat the composer poured into this piece was missing almost entirely, compensations bloomed throughout -- a big sound that was opulent because it was always related to its antecedents, and a sure sense that every sonic picture was etched at the keyboard exactly as the performer envisioned it.

Djordjevic pressed out unexpected colors in the Symphonic Etudes without braking momentum or fussing with the composer's linear design, and gamboled innocently but with gleaming elegance through Mozart's sunny Sonata in C, K. 330.

In the first section, he attacked the brilliant runs, trills and scalar passages with confidence. Djordjevic's playing had glitter when this virtuoso display piece called for it, but he also showed the ability to evoke a deep emotional response in the consolatory theme of the slow movement. In the exciting finale, Djordjevic and the orchestra under [guest conductor Gregory C.] Cunningham kept the musical ball whizzing over the net to a brilliant conclusion. As a gentleman sitting nearby said to me, 'Well, that woke us up!' Many in the audience stood in appreciation at the end of the concert.