Alexander Gavrylyuk in Sydney

Alexander Gavrylyuk plays

The Ukrainian born Australian virtuoso pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk played in Sydney last night. The audience held their breaths as he wrung emotion from Bach, Haydn, Chopin, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and wildly applauded whenever there was an opportunity. As the man in front of me nodded in time to Rachmaninoff's Preludes I wondered when he had last heard them played so convincingly. 

The little sketch above was made early in the evening and captured Gavrylyuk in one of his seldom upright moments. He danced with, pounded and caressed the piano, often bent so low that he looked as if he might hit his head on the music stand. Whatever his posture, his playing was extraordinary.

Stephanie McCallum talks Gavrylyuk

The piano virtuoso Alexander Gavrylyuk gave a concert in Sydney last Saturday as part of the Sydney Symphony piano series which is held in Sydney's Angel Place, a hall with much better acoustics than the Sydney Opera House concert hall (which is why I bought a subscription to this series).

Stephanie McCallum talks music

The pre-concert talk was given by pianist Stephanie McCallum. It was such a pleasure to hear the thoughts of a pianist on the program we were about to hear. Some of the excerpts she played were her own recording.

Alexander Gavrylyuk earned wild applause for his virtuosic performance, perhaps partly because we understood better what we were listening too?