Yet it’s not that Trpčeski is a ham-fisted banger in fact, his physical verve is complemented by his complete control of tonal effects. Every lull was followed by a hammer blow, with very little middle ground in evidence. There were moments during the aforementioned 16 German Dances when it felt like Schubert anticipated grunge’s loud/soft paradigm by more than 150 years. Much of that was due to the sheer impact of Trpčeski’s forceful hands. Heads snapped to attention all over the Chan, and for the most part our focus stayed riveted on the stage for the duration of of the evening, which encompassed two long sets and three short encores. The first chord of Franz Schubert’s 16 German Dances shot out of the Vancouver Recital Society’s Steinway with the heft of a heavyweight’s fist. That Trpčeski, a 32-year-old native of Macedonia, is not an especially delicate pianist was immediately apparent in his Thursday-night recital at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. But when it comes to the meaty exuberance of Middle Europe’s Romantic era, few other pianists can take listeners on such a thrilling ride. Nor would one necessarily want to hear him tackle Morton Feldman’s Piano, which demands a kind of Zen patience on the part of the performer.
It’s hard to imagine Simon Trpčeski floating through the perfumed delicacy of Claude Debussy’s Préludes. At the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday, April 18