Washington Classical Review

Kiron Atom Tellian performed Tuesday night at the Kennedy Center, an event presented by Young Concert Artists. Photo: C. Downey

Young Concert Artists presented its latest laureate, Kiron Atom Tellian, in a daring recital Tuesday night in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The 23-year-old Austrian pianist focused on the virtuosic form of the romantic etude, mixing examples by Chopin, Scriabin, and Robert Schumann.

Tellian opened the program with a non-etude, Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, subtitled “Sonata-Fantasy.” With technical challenges a-plenty, the pianist displayed some of the finesse side of his musicianship, for which he has won awards for playing Bach and Haydn, among others. In the more wistful first movement, he phrased the main motif, a triplet slowly receding in sound, like an ebbing wave.

The complex textures of the piece came across in meticulous detail, sometimes so much that the topmost layer practically evanesced out of existence. Tellian’s left hand is particularly powerful, booming in octaves that underpinned the first movement’s climaxes. The second movement, taken at a roiling Presto tempo, had little of that subtle approach, with a buzzing cloud of musical ideas surging in a stormy mass.

At the recital’s heart came a selection of thirteen etudes, alternating between works of Chopin and Scriabin, drawn from the former’s Op. 25 and from three of the latter’s sets. (A few selections were wisely shorn from the program published in advance). Tellian would have done better to let his playing speak for him, rather than discussing his achievements at great length.

The juxtaposition often revealed similarities between the two composers, as in the opening pairing of Chopin’s “Aeolian Harp” (Op. 25, no. 1) and Scriabin’s Op. 42, no. 1. Chopin’s whirring sextuplets and Scriabin’s opposition of nine notes in the right hand versus five in the left created a harmonic blur beneath a delicate melody.

Delicacy marked Scriabin’s Op. 42, no. 3 with measured trills in both hands creating a tinkling music-box effect. Tellian overdid the soft pedal in the ensuing Op. 42, no. 4, with the lack of greater virtuosic feats leaving an overall muted result, one indication of a need for maturation in this talented musician.

The next two etudes from Chopin’s Op. 25 set highlighted the pianist’s interpretative strengths. The syncopations of No. 4 sounded jaunty but admirably shaped, with Tellian’s avoidance of an overly clipped staccato evening out the piece’s overall effect. A rare technical lapse came in No. 6, where some of the dizzying skeins of parallel thirds in the right hand ended up not quite complete and effortless.

Tellian showed a more masterful control of the parallel sixths in Chopin’s Op. 25, no. 8, partly by relaxing the tempo. Scriabin seemed to echo that work’s texture in his youthful Op. 8, no. 10. Scriabin composed the Op. 65 etudes a couple years before his death, with the right hand of no. 1 moving in disturbing parallel ninths. No. 3, with its lack of tonal center, prominence of tritones, and crushingly loud dissonance added a sound world far distant from the other etudes. The return to Scriabin’s romantic idiom in the last etude, Op. 8, no. 12, sounded jarring in contrast.

Tellian’s bespoke etude set paralleled Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, with both of the non-variation etudes (No. 3 and 9) and two of the posthumous etudes restored from the composer’s cuts. A greater variety of touch kept the ear engaged throughout this long work. Extraordinary contrapuntal clarity distinguished Variation I, and lovely rubato marked Variation II. Melodic pings popped up in unexpected places in Variation III.

Tellian did not take all the repeats, but those he did observe, as in Variation IV and Posthumous Variation V, featured some sparkling shifts in voicing to bring out inner lines. The intense rubato of Variation VI and the odd French overture of Variation VII were stamped by admirable extremes of expression. Putting Posthumous Variation IV, in pensive minor, after Posthumous Variation V, set up an exciting push through the concluding variations. The full-throated rendition of the Finale, with its surprising shift to a different theme, again relied on the foundation of Tellian’s puissant left hand.

Referring to the “half of my family” with Armenian heritage, Tellian offered a reflective encore, an unspecified Armenian Dance by Komitas, the Armenian priest, folk-song collector, and composer. The music’s modal differences and folk-like simplicity made a bracing contrast to an ultra-refined evening.

President Trump’s unexpected attendance at opening night of the musical Chicago, downstairs in the Opera House, required the usual security perimeter. Although it took longer to approach and enter the venue, the disruption proved less onerous than the last executive visit in January.

YCA presents five of its recent laureates and esteemed alumni in Elizondo’s Latin American Dances, Ernst Von Dohnányi’s Serenade for String Trio, and Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major, 2 p.m. April 26. kennedy-center.org