Zsolt Bognar was at once extraordinary and authentic in his performance Wednesday night of Tchaikovsky's 2nd Piano Concerto at Kulas Hall, on the Cleveland Institute of Music campus. Bognar, a student of Sergei Babayan, was passionate in his interpretation of the rarely heard concerto in G Major. His keyboard fingering provided an awesome display of his growing physical and mental virtuosity.
Playing to a packed hall, Bognar showed why he was winner of the 2005 CIM Concerto Competition and has been entertaining and stimulating audiences in Boston, New York, Austria, Holland. A second-year student in the Artist Diploma Program, Bognar brought to the hall the energy of classical music and a reminder, when none is needed, why Cleveland is a great music city, for all audiences. The program, that included Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Ravel) and Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus, was free.