Igor Zhukov, pianist City Hall Concert Hall July 8 A small but attentive audience of students and connoisseurs gathered to hear 62-year-old Russian pianist Igor Zhukov in the final concert of the International Piano Festival.
They watched a small man with a gaunt, sad face walk to the piano without fanfare, sitting with the economy of movement learned by those who have lived long.
This image contrasted strongly with the boyish, white-teethed prodigies we have lately had in Hong Kong; the playing was quite different, too.
Zhukov plays for himself, or perhaps for the composer - this is a private exploration by a master, with the audience merely lucky eavesdroppers.
Arabesques are tossed off instead of hammered out to show off technique; a quiet flowing rhythm moves the music forward, and each phrase is in its rightful place, foregrounded or backgrounded to make organic sense.
Zhukov plays in a way that might be called ego-less: he is not interested in impressing us, which lets us enjoy the music deeply and honestly, without pretence.
This playing is untouched by modernism or irony; Schumann's Waldszene was completely natural, never coy or arch in the simplest, most nostalgic passages.