Michail Lifits (chamber music)

I got held up at the restaurant and arrived late to the concert hall, so I had to catch Lifits' performance of the Schumann quintet in the viewing room at Maddox Muse. It seems like the sound quality down there is truer to life for broadcasts of chamber music than when it's the piano by itself.

Lifits played Schumann in the prelims, so we know that he's on friendly terms with the composer. No surprise that he came through with a forceful, assured, idiomatic performance that improved upon Tsujii's rendition of the same piece from this afternoon. He blended in seamlessly with the Takacs players and seemed comfortable with the give-and-take of chamber music like nobody else we've heard so far. A fresh, full-bodied performance with no weaknesses I could discern from my vantage point across the street.