On Sunday, February 10, 2019, Vyachslav Gryaznov is presenting an all-Rachmaninoff program of music. His background – as a notable composer/transcriptionist, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and an instructor at that institution – certainly gives him credentials for this program.
However, we thought his deep understanding of this music might be reflected in other ways also. So we asked Natasha Cherny of Cherny Concert & Artist Management Ltd. to address this.
Steinway Society: What makes Vyacheslav Gryaznov a great exponent of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s music?
Cherny: That which makes one feel that any musician is great is almost always profoundly 
difficult to quantify or even to describe. It is often a visceral knowing, not a cognitive or intellectual one. It is art we speak of here, which is innately subjective, ephemeral, of a spiritual realm, emotional, and personal.
Gryaznov brings a unique voice to Rachmaninoff’s works
It is Gryaznov’s unique voice in the works of Rachmaninoff, his extreme sensitivity to the beauty of this composer’s music that sets him apart. It is not only because he is Russian––many Russian pianists play Rachmaninoff, and many acquit themselves most respectably––but Gryaznov lives and breathes through this music like a spirit that occupies and animates a corpus; he translates its form, substance, and meaning to audiences in a way that answers questions they didn’t know they had.
Gryaznov and the art of interpretation
It is the art of interpretation––translation of the language of music––that differentiates one artist from another; and it is Gryaznov’s interpretations of Rachmaninoff that are utterly his own. We Americans have been known to complain that Rachmaninoff’s music is percussive and even aggressive. When Vyacheslav Gryaznov plays that music, it is transformed into the broad sweep of exquisitely lyrical sound and impressions that we finally understand, as we listen, the composer intended. This instinct that Gryaznov has for the music’s essence was not taught to him; it is deeply Russian, and innate in him.
Speaking very personally, I can tell you that I enjoyed a lifetime of exposure to performances of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 2. I always appreciated its beauty and power in bits and pieces, but never comprehended its overall shape and architectural aesthetic from one end to the other until I heard Vyacheslav Gryaznov perform it. The effect was overwhelming awe that there was so much in that piece I had never before heard. That is the art of translation, interpretation that he brings to Rachmaninoff as no one else.
Why one pianist’s interpretation differs from others
Is it because Gryaznov is, himself, a composer? Does he occupy Rachmaninoff’s composing mind as he plays? These are unanswerable questions. I only know that when I hear him perform this composer, the composer I have lived with my entire life is entirely new to me, more powerful and more beautiful than I could ever have imagined possible.
Guest blogger Natasha Cherny is founder and President of Cherny Concert & Artist Management Ltd.
