Posted by Maxim Lando, on Apr 26, 2020

Sold out audiences, attention from The New York Times, and performing a dream program including the complete Liszt Transcendental Etudes made these concerts an absolute blast!

I had been dreaming of performing the Liszt for a long while, but not really for the reasons many people think. Sure this work is of such magnitude (both emotionally and virtuosically) that many pianists choose to hold off exploring it as a whole until later in their life, but for me the entire set all together is the definition of adventure – one that I feel so deeply in myself right now. I have no idea how I will play this incredible music in 10 years, or 20 or 40, maybe it will be similar or more likely it will be completely different. All I know is that my feelings now about this work are completely sincere. This music has been in my heart since I was a little boy, with each etude representing a different emotion, story and adventure. It was bursting to come out and be shared!

The first half of my debut concerts began with Nikolai Kapustin’s Toccatina from his 8 Concert Etudes. For me this was a day at the beach, a burst of energy and the perfect way to begin a concert. Next came Beethoven’s passionate and romantic Sonata op. 109 which I have always felt very strongly about, even though for some reason the way I hear the music is controversial to some. I ended the first half with two short Scriabin favorites. I had originally planned a longer Russian set with Rachmaninoff and Lyapunov (as Russian composers have always been some of the music I find myself most excited about), but I was talked out of it over fears that the concert would be too long. Being that these were debut concerts that needed to fit into a set time frame, I completely understood.

In the months since my debut concerts, I have found another absolutely perfect first half possibility – the complete Tchaikovsky Seasons. I had the opportunity to try this program out on a new series at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and now I am completely convinced that the 12 Tchaikovsky Seasons followed by the 12 Liszt Transcendentals is another program to further explore next season.

I am extremely grateful to Young Concert Artists for producing my debut concerts, Peter Marino for sponsoring the concert at Zankel Hall, Irene Roth & Vicken Poochikian for special sponsorship of my concert at the Kennedy Center, and the New York Times and Concertonet New York for their thoughtful reviews.

Excerpts from Anthony Tommasini’s review in The New York Times:

“A Teenage Virtuoso Prevails in Liszt Test” “The pianist Maxim Lando displayed stamina and brilliance in his New York recital debut. On a program that included demanding works by Nikolai Kapustin, Beethoven and Scriabin, Mr. Lando also performed the complete ‘Transcendental Études’ of Liszt, a 70-minute endurance test. Schumann once described them as ‘storm and terror’ études, with passages that ‘exceed all limits,’ playable ‘at most by ten or twelve people in the whole world.’ Schumann’s last claim might still be true.”

Maxim Lando “already has what it takes to dispatch it brilliantly.” 

“The first begins with manic bursts of arpeggios that sweep up the keyboard and cascade down in crystalline riffs, finally breaking into a restless melodic line that unfurls amid rustling figurations and teeming chords. Mr. Lando played it with flinty sound and infectious exuberance.”

“He brought rich colorings and tenderness to the dreamy ‘Paysage’ étude and conveyed the hellbent fervor of ‘Mazeppa,’ with its staggering bursts of octaves. He played with impressive delicacy in the watery, but fiendishly intricate ‘Feux follets.’ There was wild-eyed danger in the aptly titled ‘Wilde Jagd,’ and the final ‘Chasse-neige’ was a shifting mass of radiant tremolos and spiraling runs.”

Excerpts from Roman Markowicz’s review in ConcertoNet (New York):

“Regarding the Liszt Etudes, it has forever been my argument that the reason it is so enormously difficult to find the so called ‘ideal performance’ is because of the issue of finding a proper balance between technical prowess and maturity. In the case of Master Lando, we were all astonished to see and hear how closely he approached that Olympian goal. One could also admit that this young pianist dares to do things not considered by others.”

“It was an exceptional debut, one that will be remembered. Maxim Lando is already on the path to become a leading American pianist.”

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