Boris Giltburg @ Phillips

Charles T. Downey, Boris Giltburg’s debut recital
Washington Post, November 5, 2013

Prokofiev, Piano Sonatas 6-8, B. Giltburg (2012)

Another day, another recent competition winner’s debut recital in Washington. This time it was Boris Giltburg, winner of this summer’s Queen Elisabeth Competition for piano, in a concert at the Phillips Collection on Sunday afternoon. The museum’s weekly concert series has an exclusive arrangement with Brussels to present each year’s winner, and the experience confirmed the technical authority and sheer muscular force that brought Giltburg the prize.

Giltburg was hardly an unknown quantity before this victory, already having recordings for EMI and Orchid Classics to his name. He is a steely player who tends to wallop rather than caress the keyboard. He brought the audience to its feet mostly with circus-like demonstrations of virtuosity in Prokofiev’s eighth sonata (Op. 84, B-flat major), especially the blockbuster finale, played with savage accuracy, and in the orchestral vastness of sound he produced in Ravel’s “La Valse.” [Continue reading]

Boris Giltburg, piano
Phillips Collection

SEE ALSO:
Ivan Hewett, Can talented musicians be well-rounded people? (The Telegraph, October 22)

Emilie White, Queen Elisabeth Competition: Boris Giltburg (La Scena Musicale, October 1)