Levine, Kissin make prolific pianist duo
James Levine chose to round out the first season of his BSO music directorship with a program of Schubert piano duets with the Russian virtuoso Evgeny Kissin. It was another tribute to his versatility, and an acute reminder that he remains one of the world's most complete musicians.
Last night's substantive program also showed that great chamber music can result from the meeting of vastly different musical styles. Kissin's pianism is dynamic and impulsive, Levine's more reserved and fluid. They are two strongly individual voices, and though they may make for an odd couple on paper, in the concert hall they each played with such sensitivity and care that they seemed like the most natural pairing in the world.
Playing on facing pianos, they began with the F-minor Fantasy and the A-minor Duo known as ''Lebensstuerme" (''Life's Storms"). Both were written in 1828, the last year of Schubert's life, and both are concentrated works of almost unremitting darkness, filled with angst. But the performances were remarkable for their subtlety. The Fantasy grew incrementally from its first melancholy theme to the shattering double fugue near its end. The opening of the Duo sounded less like the violent storm it often does, and more like a single arc of grim inexorability.
Not even minor quibbles attached themselves to their playing of the Grand Duo in C major. This is one of Schubert's most expansive works. Levine and Kissin captured every one of its wildly varying moods, and yet the piece has rarely seemed so coherent and perfectly structured as it did in their hands. Everything -- pacing, phrasing, incisive rhythms, and sheer gorgeous sound -- came together so well that it was hard to imagine the piece going any other way. By the end, stylistic differences between the pianists had disappeared. They played like mind-readers.
Audience reaction was at fever pitch, and two encores, including Schubert's popular Military March in D major, put a fitting exclamation point on an evening of uncommon music making.
