At the La Roque-d'Anthéron Festival, Dmitri Masleev's unashamed piano playing

There are cruel evenings in a festival where, night after night, the finest piano triggers follow one another, where chance juxtapositions impose a reasoned comparison. Having heard the Korean Saehyun Kim the day before in a sovereign Mozart, with its chiseled and choreographic curves, certainly did not serve the Russian Dmitri Masleev, who performed on Thursday, July 24 on the stage of the Parc de Florans, in La Roque-d'Anthéron (Bouches-du-Rhône). Sonata No. 8 K. 310 appeared very flat and linear, to be honest a little earthy, even down to earth.

The Fazioli piano does not help, whose brilliance flattens the sound planes, like those light ramps that dazzle, preventing one from perceiving reliefs and colors. The centerpiece of the three Mozartian movements is none other than the Andante cantabile con espressione that Masleev deploys without any real concern for the double injunction of singing and expressiveness. Long tunnels pass by, an impression that the Presto , whose dotted rhythm already sounds Beethovenian, will not be able to erase.

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