In 2009, at just 18, Behzod Abduraimov of Uzbekistan won the prestigious London International Piano Competition and became one of the world's most in-demand pianists, called "the most perfectly accomplished pianist of his generation" (Michael Church, The Independent) and drawing comparisons to Horowitz. As a counterpart to Prokofiev’s massive Piano Sonata No. 6, a piece included in his debut album that closes this electrifying 2017 recital in Paris, Abduraimov also brings remarkable assurance to a monument of the Romantic repertoire: Liszt’s stormy, devilishly difficult Sonata in B Minor.
Rounding out the program are two transcriptions by the Hungarian master: the rapturously beautiful piano version of the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (composed a few years before Wagner married Liszt's daughter Cosima) and the Valse Caprice No. 6 from Soirées de Vienne, based on a waltz by Schubert—two of whose Moments Musicaux also get a thoughtful and mature treatment by the young virtuoso.
Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse
Festival de Verbier 2016