Eugene Mursky (piano)

Mazurkas Op 56 - Chopin

Sonata in B flat minor - Chopin

The four Ballades - Chopin

Eugene Mursky's all-Chopin piano recital at DCU's Larkin Theatre last Wednesday evening showed a profound understanding of that composer's music. Yet it was also a frustrating experience, since the audience, as well as the performer, had to cope with a piano which was disconcertingly uneven in tone, especially when the una corda pedal was down; and the effects were emphasised by the dry acoustic.

Even so, this was an elevating recital. Mursky's long-limbed, goal-oriented rhythm and phrasing revealed structure. Yet his flexibility could make this music, by a famous improviser, sound like an ecstatic improvisation. At every turn of phrase there was something new round the corner; and when it came it was so purposeful. What timing!

There was nothing formulaic about this approach, for each piece was thought through in its own right. In the four Ballades each idea and each section was characterised via distinctive tone and pacing, and when ideas and sections merged they could do so with breathtaking subtlety. In this most contrapuntal of Romantic composers, it was a delight to hear part-writing played with such lucidity.

This individual, integrated approach to each piece was underlined by the contrasts between the three Mazurkas of Op. 54 and, especially, between the four movements of the Sonata in B flat minor. The remorseless, measured tread of the Funeral March movement - with the middle section played at the same speed as the surrounding ones - was chased away by an astonishingly fleet-footed Finale.

Mursky's liveliness, his intensity, were always evident. Yet this concert epitomised what can be achieved when a virtuoso serves music, rather than ego.