Ukrainian virtuoso Vadym Kholodenko coaxes ravishing sounds from piano

The rule about never giving away one's secret favourites may apply to bars and restaurants, but certainly not to pianists.

- Geoffrey Lim

Victoria Concert Hall June 12 And on the evidence of this recital, keeping a pianist like Ukrainian super-virtuoso Vadym Kholodenko under wraps would be a crime.

Kholodenko has one of the world's great techniques and commands the keyboard with a controlled power reminiscent of Russian-French pianist Arcadi Volodos. But there was also an innate sprezzatura to his playing at Victoria Concert Hall on June 12 that transcended mere dexterity to reveal an intuitive musicality and enormous nuance of phrasing and tone.

Kholodenko can coax ravishing sounds from his instrument with the suavity of a much earlier generation of pianists—his fellow Ukrainian Benno Moiseiwitsch comes to mind.

His second and final encore, Der Dichter Spricht (The Poet Speaks) from Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood), a work whose sparseness on the page belies its aphoristic density, perfectly captured the richness of his tonal imagination and the infinitesimal variegations of his touch.