In March, Behzod Abduraimov toured Spain with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andris Poga, performing Prokofiev's "Concerto No. 2" in Salamanca, twice at the Miguel Delibes Cultural Center in Valladolid, and at the ADDA - Auditorio de la Diputación de Alicante -. Critics have praised his interpretation and execution of the work. Congratulations!
"This has been the most important aspect of Abduraimov's performance, as he has managed to unravel all this complexity, approaching the work with a direct concept and firm execution. This was aided by the great collaboration of the conductor, who was in tune with his idea, appropriately balancing the orchestra with the piano's expressive grandeur at the end of the first movement, after a superb exposition of the grandiose cadenza, overwhelming within the concertante piano repertoire, where the spirit of the author appeared in all his genius. At the conclusion, Maestro Poga resumed the main theme with a surprising lyricism due to the beauty of the sound achieved from a very concentrated reading. With spectacular mechanization, the pianist delved into the following Scherzo-Vivace, uncovering its linearity in a single stroke, a difficult feat when often only the technical exhibition that this second movement entails is offered, to the detriment of its rare musical univocity. In the third movement, the mechanical skill displayed by Abduraimov at the beginning was admirable, manifested with a grandiose march rhythm contrasting with the more softened sense that later appears in the discourse of this time. A dialogue was generated with the orchestra of a very marked chamber character, enriching the harmonically indeterminate sensation of its development. Returning to the lyricism of the initial movement, the soloist shone again in the Allegro tempestoso that closes the work, honoring this air with a markedly contrasting reading, highlighting the incisive character of some melodies leading to the second cadenza of the work, which was treated with dense bravura before the surprising false ending where Maestro Andris Poga propelled the orchestra with great vigor. As if wanting to dilute the solid formal transcendence of this singular concerto, Behzod Abduraimov offered as an encore the Neapolitan Song from the eighteenth number of Tchaikovsky's Children's Album, Op. 39, which was very pleasing due to the stylistic naturalness with which the pianist made it his own."
José Antonio Cantón, Ritmo.
