Bachauer judge shows artistry
By Edward Reichel

Deseret Morning News
ILIYA ITIN, Temple Square Assembly Hall, Saturday.

Each year, in the week prior to the start of the Gina Bachauer piano competition, several members of the jury panel take the stage in a series of recitals. This is an excellent opportunity for those who follow the competition, as well as others, to hear the talented pianists who will be judging the competitors. The five-concert series ended Saturday evening when the Russian Ilya Itin took the stage in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.

Even though Saturday's performance was Itin's first Salt Lake recital, he is no stranger to the Beehive State. A former Bachauer competitor, he took home the bronze medal at the 1991 artists competition. And earlier this year, he appeared with the Orchestra at Temple Square and conductor Igor Gruppman in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.

Itin's career soared after he won first prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1996 and came to the attention of conductor Simon Rattle. Since then, Itin has performed in many of the major venues on both sides of the Atlantic.

Itin is an understated yet wonderfully dynamic pianist who is in possession of prodigious technical and musical talents. At his Assembly Hall recital, he gave the sizable audience a fine sampling of his artistry.

The program that the Russian decided to play brought together two composers one wouldn't normally associate in a brief, hourlong concert — J.S. Bach and Modest Mussorgsky. Yet it turned out to be a stunningly apt programmatic pairing.

Itin opened his recital with two pieces by the great baroque composer, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and the Chaconne in D minor from the Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin, BWV 1004 — the former in Myra Hess' arrangement, the latter in Ferruccio Busoni's magnificent reworking.

The concluding movement in Bach's Cantata No. 147, "Jesu" is a gentle lullaby-like choral piece, which, in Hess' transcription loses none of its disarmingly simple appeal. Itin captured the music's charm with his seamless performance, which was at once eloquent and poetic.

Busoni's adaptation of the Chaconne, an imposing work in its original version for violin, becomes a masterful piece for the piano. At one time a popular recital piece, it has all but disappeared from the repertoire. Itin's reading captured Busoni's grand pianism. He played it with dynamic vigor and an intensity of expression that was forceful and compelling.

The only other work on the program was Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." Better known in its orchestral arrangement by Maurice Ravel, the original piano version allows Mussorgsky's idiosyncratic writing to come through more potently. A tour de force for the pianist, the work received an intelligent yet highly personalized account from Itin. In his hands, it became an invigorating and intense experience that was wonderfully rewarding.

Itin's conceptualization of "Pictures" breathed fresh life into this well-known work. At times, his approach seemed almost Stravinskian in his emphasis on dissonances and off-beat accents. However, and Much to his credit, Itin never let his interpretation become an exercise in dilettantism — it was carefully thought out and intelligently executed.



E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com