Boris Berezovsky will perform Chopin and Mussorgsky tomorrow.

A concert in Seoul tomorrow by Russian-born pianist Boris Berezovsky, who has been praised by critics for his technique and power, is expected to be an entirely Slavic affair.
Berezovsky will play the Polish pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky’s “Studies on Chopin’s Etudes,” as well as the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” at the Seoul Arts Center.
Boris Berezovsky surprised Seoul audiences last year with a three-hour-long program that included all five Beethoven piano concertos.
The German newspaper Die Zeit has described Berezovsky as “a pianist with surprisingly overflowing power.”
“Boris Berezovsky knows how to play the piano at his own will,” said Le Monde de la Musique. “Even when he demonstrates his enormous energy, his performance seems to be carefully calculated.”
Tomorrow’s program would seem to reflect a certain experimental spirit.
The first part of the program consists of Godowsky’s “Studies on Chopin’s Etudes.” Berezovsky will play eight original pieces by Chopin and 11 Chopin pieces as arranged by Godowsky, in order to give the audience an opportunity to compare the originals with the arranged versions.
During his lifetime, Godowsky was famous for his interpretations of Chopin as a pianist.
The second part of the concert will feature Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
As Berezovsky performs, paintings are to be projected on a large screen behind him. The intent, of course, is to lead the audience to make connections between the music and the paintings, which are similar to those that might have inspired the Russian composer.
Born in Moscow in 1969, Berezovsky studied at the Moscow Conservatoire before debuting in London in 1988.
Upon his debut, the London Times described him as an “artist of exceptional promise, a player of dazzling virtuosity and formidable power.”
Gramophone magazine called him “the truest successor to the great Russian pianists.”
In 1990, Berezovsky won the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Berezovsky has performed as a soloist with orchestras including New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Conductors with whom he has worked include Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Berezovsky won a German music critics award for his recording of Rachmaninov’s sonatas.
The concert will be held in the concert hall of the Seoul Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Ticket prices range from 30,000 won ($26) to 80,000 won. For ticket information, call 1588-7890 or 1544-1555.

by Limb Jae-un