01/2019 – DIAPASON D’OR – “Geniušas seems to know how to do everything better than anyone…”
News: Lukas Geniušas
LUKAS GENIUSAS
PROKOFIEV SONATAS No. 2 and 5, 10 Pieces op.12
‘Geniušas seems to know how to do everything better than anyone…’
The Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniušas unexpectedly raises the 2nd sonata to the same level as the more complex and rich (sonatas) of the series, the 6th and 8th. Geniušas, who takes risk after risk, draws from his keyboard a palette of which the variety, the truth and the beauty are bewitching….
And what creative power in the final Vivace! The intensity of the lines, the jumps to the high register, the cascades of arpeggios in both hands give a Lisztienne dimension.
Geniušas seems to know how to do everything better than anyone, just as the young Prokofiev seems to be ten composers in one.
In the 5th Sonata, Geniušas captivates us with his playing, at the same time electric yet limpid. His impressive physical engagement is channeled into exquisite phrasing. Each of the three movements and not only the spectacular final, combine toccata and scherzo, married together in hands of fire and ice.
May Geniušas, after this first masterly stroke, go on to record the complete nine sonatas.