Evgeny Kissin Plays to a Packed House

My 4th concert in as many weeks in the splendid Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall of the Yerevan Opera House! I am pinching myself.

Evgeny Kissin

Evgeny Kissin offered a solo piano performance to a SRO crowd last night. At 10,000 AMD, the tickets were the most expensive in the International Music Festival, except for Michel Legrand, who is pulling down 20,000 AMD for best seats. Kissin, who came to fame as a child prodigy in Russia, has been a British citizen for several years and has won a Grammy. I think I am the only person who had not heard his name before. And he still looks like a child prodigy to me.

As we approached the concert hall it was immediately apparent that once again we were going to have a unique concert experience. People everywhere, standing outside enjoying the balmy evening, waiting for friends, smoking. Inside, growing numbers of people standing outside the doors to their seats...for upwards of an hour without explanation.

We never did find out (perhaps it was announced in Armenian) why the delay, but we suspected that IMPORTANT PERSONS had not yet arrived. This particular concert was sponsored in part by the Office of the President of Armenia, so there were likely many VIPs present. In any event I was glad I took my own bottle of water because it got downright hot in the hallway and I was close to cranky by the time we got to sit down.

But it was all worth the wait for many reasons. First, it continues to amaze us that the demographics of the classical music audience here are so different from at home. Literally all ages in all manner of dress flock to these events. Last night was the largest audience I have seen in the hall--all three levels were full and people were standing during the first half (Haydn and Beethoven). Some cell phones went off, yes--and were especially noticeable since we were listening to solo piano. The Steinway was set center stage and had extra seats all around it on the stage.

Sitting in the aisle!

After intermission, many more people seemed to come out of nowhere and sat in the stepped aisles of our first balcony. It took me back to the day Denise and I saw Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in "The Long, Long Trailer," in a Saturday matinee at the Wyandotte Show in 1953. Kids were sitting in the aisles!

Here the ushers were only interested in trying to get people to stop taking pictures and movies of the concert. They could have cared less about the fire hazard in the aisles (I had to work hard to get over it). We think perhaps at intermission the ticket-takers go home and others were then free to come into the concert. This created a rock concert ambiance for the second half.

After the intermission, Kissin played four Schubert Impromptus and then a Liszt piece to end the recital proper. Denise said, "The Schubert alone was worth the price of admission." This performer has the lightest touch on the keyboard--his hands fairly danced through the Impromptus. To our delight and that of our fellow concert-goers, he played two encores and took many bows and bouquets of flowers, including one from a 9-10 year old boy we had seen earlier with his flowers. Perhaps an aspiring prodigy and fan?