Ordinarily, the main attraction of this London Symphony Orchestra concert under Daniel Harding would have been Mahler’s Seventh symphony, a special-occasion piece which is still relatively rarely performed compared with its peers. But this was also Daniil Trifonov’s much anticipated first appearance in London since before the pandemic. The buzz among a capacity Barbican audience about the celebrated Russian pianist’s return was palpable.
Trifonov did not disappoint. Under his hands, the reading of Robert Schumann’s A minor piano concerto was searchingly individual in the very best sense, with Trifonov illuminating the muscularity of Schumann’s piano writing as well as its delicate poetry. Trifonov unquestionably commands the restraint of dynamics that Schumann’s scoring requires from the soloist – his passagework was exemplary. But he was unafraid of making weightier keyboard statements too, even in the opening bars and especially in the first movement cadenza.
