A day with Daniil Trifonov II: Verbier Festival Essentials

This Trifonov gala of greatest hits from Verbier (he made his assured alpine debut in 2012) begins on a high note worthy of a grand finale: the feverish Danse infernale from Stravinsky’s Firebird in an electrifying piano arrangement by Guido Agosti. The young virtuoso changes gears to interpret the tenderly poetic Hommage à Rameau by Debussy before dazzling us with selections from Chopin: the passionate Concerto No. 2 and a handful of Études (including the lively “Black Key” and the diabolical “Winter Wind”), played with such grace and fluidity as to belie their immense difficulty.

The same goes for the three astonishing Transcendental Études by Liszt he performs next, part of the set for which Trifonov justly won a 2018 Grammy Award. Aside from a few impeccably rendered forays into Bach, the rest of the program is given over to Russian composers—beginning with Trifonov’s own Piano Concerto and moving through Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, as well as works by Rachmaninov that see Trifonov join forces with fellow piano legends Mikhail Pletnev, Evgeny Kissin, Sergey Babayan, and composer Rodion Shchedrin.

Photo © Aline Paley

Daniil Trifonov appears courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.

Credits