Press
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12.09.2025
Beauty, Intellect, and Stage Mastery of Polina Osetinskaya
Polina Osetinskaya's Cleveland debut at Severance Music Center yesterday astonished and captivated even those who rarely attend classical music concerts. Her demanding program-built entirely on works originally written for other instruments, choir, or orchestra and transcribed for solo piano-was striking for its thoughtful design, luminous power, and flawless balance. The very conception of the program, its dramaturgy, its spiritual and intellectual subtext, its harmonic and tonal coherence, and the artist's unerring command of audience attention formed a self-contained work of art.
I must confess: when Polina announced that she would perform all five transcriptions of Johann Sebastian Bach as a single continuous whole, I was cautious, if not skeptical. Holding an audience's focus for fifty uninterrupted minutes of Bach is no small feat. Yet when those fifty minutes of Bachian harmony, divine beauty, struggle, and transcendence were over, I wished they had lasted longer. A feeling of purification, of belonging, and of luminous melancholy filled the hall, accompanied by tears that many listeners made no attempt to hide.
Polina is among the most fascinating Bach interpreters on today's concert stage. Stylistically precise, her Bach sounds as if the composer were our contemporary-experiencing the same disappointments, pain, and joy as we do, though perhaps with a stronger faith in divine grace. Osetinskaya led us on a complex and wondrous journey: from the serene, delicate Symphony from the Christmas Oratorio (transcribed by pianist-composer Asiya Korepanova especially for Polina) to the exultant Chorus from the same Oratorio. In moving contrast came the gentle, piercingly poignant Aria from Cantata No. 127, in Harold Bauer's transcription, which offered the audience peace and hope, as though the soul itself had rested in God's hands.
From the Aria's quiet bliss Polina transported us to Italy with the Concerto in A minor. Bach had preserved the splendor and melodic spirit of Antonio Vivaldi's original string concerto when he reworked it for four harpsichords, oboe, and strings-practically changing the key from B minor to the more keyboard-friendly A minor. In the 21st century the young Belgian pianist and composer Florian Noack created a transcription of Bach's version for solo piano, which Polina refined and deepened, conjuring a sensual, playful, and radiant world of Vivaldi-Bach, mesmerizing the audience with the subtlest nuances and perfectly calibrated dynamics. The Italian thread of the first half culminated in the magnificent Chaconne, as reimagined for piano by Ferruccio Busoni-at once virtuosic, explosive, tragic, and luminous-closing the Bach cycle and forming a bridge to the romantic world of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky that awaited in the concert's second half.
That second half held another surprise: Osetinskaya performed the full Nutcracker Suite and the Scherzo from the Sixth (Pathétique) Symphony as a single dramatic arc. This alone would be a pianistic tour de force. Mikhail Pletnev's masterful, dazzling Nutcracker transcription and Samuil Feinberg's almost impossibly demanding arrangement of the Scherzo are landmarks of the piano virtuoso's repertoire-reserved for the Olympians of the stage. Yet what captivated the audience was not merely technical brilliance and power, but the sheer beauty of Tchaikovsky's music itself. Both The Nutcracker and the Pathétique were the composer's final works, his testament. Scholars still debate whether they speak more of tragedy or of hope. Polina Osetinskaya chose hope-overcoming and renewal.
We thank our contemporary, the beautiful and courageous Polina Osetinskaya, for penetrating the soul and essence of this music and opening its wonder to her listeners. And we are grateful for her generous and exquisite encores. Cleveland awaits her next appearance with eager anticipation.
Review by Svetlana Stolyarova for Clevelandpeople.com
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I must confess: when Polina announced that she would perform all five transcriptions of Johann Sebastian Bach as a single continuous whole, I was cautious, if not skeptical. Holding an audience's focus for fifty uninterrupted minutes of Bach is no small feat. Yet when those fifty minutes of Bachian harmony, divine beauty, struggle, and transcendence were over, I wished they had lasted longer. A feeling of purification, of belonging, and of luminous melancholy filled the hall, accompanied by tears that many listeners made no attempt to hide.
Polina is among the most fascinating Bach interpreters on today's concert stage. Stylistically precise, her Bach sounds as if the composer were our contemporary-experiencing the same disappointments, pain, and joy as we do, though perhaps with a stronger faith in divine grace. Osetinskaya led us on a complex and wondrous journey: from the serene, delicate Symphony from the Christmas Oratorio (transcribed by pianist-composer Asiya Korepanova especially for Polina) to the exultant Chorus from the same Oratorio. In moving contrast came the gentle, piercingly poignant Aria from Cantata No. 127, in Harold Bauer's transcription, which offered the audience peace and hope, as though the soul itself had rested in God's hands.
From the Aria's quiet bliss Polina transported us to Italy with the Concerto in A minor. Bach had preserved the splendor and melodic spirit of Antonio Vivaldi's original string concerto when he reworked it for four harpsichords, oboe, and strings-practically changing the key from B minor to the more keyboard-friendly A minor. In the 21st century the young Belgian pianist and composer Florian Noack created a transcription of Bach's version for solo piano, which Polina refined and deepened, conjuring a sensual, playful, and radiant world of Vivaldi-Bach, mesmerizing the audience with the subtlest nuances and perfectly calibrated dynamics. The Italian thread of the first half culminated in the magnificent Chaconne, as reimagined for piano by Ferruccio Busoni-at once virtuosic, explosive, tragic, and luminous-closing the Bach cycle and forming a bridge to the romantic world of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky that awaited in the concert's second half.
That second half held another surprise: Osetinskaya performed the full Nutcracker Suite and the Scherzo from the Sixth (Pathétique) Symphony as a single dramatic arc. This alone would be a pianistic tour de force. Mikhail Pletnev's masterful, dazzling Nutcracker transcription and Samuil Feinberg's almost impossibly demanding arrangement of the Scherzo are landmarks of the piano virtuoso's repertoire-reserved for the Olympians of the stage. Yet what captivated the audience was not merely technical brilliance and power, but the sheer beauty of Tchaikovsky's music itself. Both The Nutcracker and the Pathétique were the composer's final works, his testament. Scholars still debate whether they speak more of tragedy or of hope. Polina Osetinskaya chose hope-overcoming and renewal.
We thank our contemporary, the beautiful and courageous Polina Osetinskaya, for penetrating the soul and essence of this music and opening its wonder to her listeners. And we are grateful for her generous and exquisite encores. Cleveland awaits her next appearance with eager anticipation.
Review by Svetlana Stolyarova for Clevelandpeople.com
All materials of the “Press” section →