Reviews

'In fact he plays extremely well...'

the Financial Times

     'Since he speaks English as well as Russian, Italian and Esperanto, I expect he was embarrassed by his programme biography: "The maturity and breadth of his interpretations defy explanation and the audience will experience the music as if he were discovering it's [sic] fabric afresh, and making for each one of them, an exquisitely crafted gift. You will find his performance of this very demanding programme will change your understanding of the music you thought, you knew." In fact he plays extremely well, and understands perfectly how to defer to his singer without dulling any brilliant passage that comes his way.

 

     Ablaberdyeva sang an all-Rachmaninov first half, nicely varied (and very nice for her eager pianist); only her last song there, the exuberant "Spring Waters", lacked the vital élan. This was understandable: with the hall less than half full, the soprano scaled her whole performance down to parlour-size, and a "Spring Waters" in full flood might have been alarming.

 

     Both artists were sharp and clever in Prokofiev's five Akhmatova songs, op. 27, and in Shostakovich's five witty, mischievous Satires, op. 109.'

 

David Murray, the Financial Times (January 2006)

full text here

Concert reviewed: recital with Alla Ablaberdyeva (soprano) at the Wigmore Hall in London, 28 December 2005.

'Less was certainly more in this Russian's hands...'

Beverly Hills Outlook

     'We were extremely impressed by the restraint exhibited by Second prize Winner Andrei Korobeinikov. On Rachmaninoff’s "Daisies," peaceful melancholy was conveyed by an intonation of contained stillness, despite its fluttering trills. Korobeinikov exhibited an almost clinical passion through the sad circularity of Rachmaninoff’s "Etude-Tableaux", and betrayed an underlying gentleness in the lyrical sorrow of the same composer’s Prelude, Opus 23. Less was certainly more in this Russian’s hands.'

 

"Rachmaninoff speakes through competition"

Charles Lonberger, Beverly Hills Outlook (June 2005)

 

Concert reviewed: Prizewinners' concert of the II RachmaninovInternational piano competition in Los Angeles (2005) at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, 18 June 2005.

'An outstanding young prodigy of today, 20-year-old Andrei Korobeinikov...'

the Mail on Sunday

     'I fell in love with Rachmaninov's second piano concerto as a teenager, thanks to an LP featuring a young Russian prodigy. Rather moving, then, to find myself, 40 years on, in the company of that prodigy, Ashkenazy; now white-haired but still full of vim as he offered sympathetic support to an outstanding young prodigy of today, 20-year-old Andrei Korobeinikov.

    

     That 1963 recording with Ashkenazy and the Moscow Philharmonic is still available from Decca. No one plays it better than Ashkenazy.

    

     Korobeinikov is studying at the RCM as part of a postgraduate programme recently negotiated with the Moscow Conservatory, whose director, himself a distinguished pianist and a former classmate of Ashkenazy, predicts a great future for the lad. And it could happen; he's certainly got the technique, and at least some of the poetry needed.'

 

"Even Caruso was scared of this one"

David Mellor (QC, PC), the Mail on Sunday (February 2007)

full text here

 

Concert reviewed: 'Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Royal College of Music's Symphony Orchestra' at the Royal College of Music in London, 27 January 2007.

'The exemplary musicianship of Korobeinikov's dramatic pacing, nuanced phrasing, and textural voicing was nothing short of miraculous...'

'Fire at the Keyboard...'

San Francisco Classical Voice

     Starting out the program with Beethoven's Op.126 Bagatelles, Scriabin's Vers la Flamme (Op. 72), and Rachmaninov's Sonata No. 2, he delivered a performance that was a feast of amazing pianism, sans any showmanship.

 

     In the set of six bagatelles, Korobeinikov exuded an intimate eloquence in the slower pieces and an exciting bravura in the faster, dramatic bagatelles, as in No. 4, marked presto. In this set of small "trifles," Beethoven can change the mood at the drop of a hat, from quiet contemplation to a sudden four measures of "dashing off to chase a rabbit." The exemplary musicianship of Korobeinikov's dramatic pacing, nuanced phrasing, and textural voicing was nothing short of miraculous.

 

     According to the renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz, Scriabin wrote Vers la Flamme after a psychotic vision in which he witnessed the end of the world. The piece's title reflects the Earth's fiery destruction, as well as the constant emotional buildup and crescendo leading ultimately "toward the flame."

 

Fire at the Keyboard

 

     Our young pianist brought out the piece's many shades of luminescent colors, starting with the opening descending half-step melody over smoldering tremolo harmonies. As the gradual, fiery buildup seemed to burst into flames, this listener was left stunned and breathless at its eerie suggestiveness.

 

     The technical and musical extravagances of the Rachmaninov Second Sonata seemed to melt away in Korobeinikov's hands, as he spun out the lush, multilayered textures and harmonies. The opening Allegro agitato seized you by the hair with an arpeggiated plunge to the bass and, after two sharply peremptory chords, gave way to great waves of kinetic nervous agitation.

 

     In the second movement, the pianist's wonderful chordal voicing supported the long, achingly nostalgic melodic lines. The piece ends with surging chords before a final virtuoso wash of triumphant sonorities. In the hands of this great pianist, the impact was compellingly visceral.

 

     The one encore, Russian Bells, by Rodion Shchedrin (a la Mussorgsky), suitably gave the end of the concert's first half a sense of grandeur and gaiety.

 

 

"Young Russian Powerhouses"

Vera Breheda, San Francisco Classical Voice (February 2007)

full text here

Concert reviewed: Guzik Foundation Award Winners' recital at the Legion of Honor's Florence Gould Theater in San Francisco, 18 February 2007.