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Dimitri Malignan Plays Bach · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler, and welcome to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  I recently met the young pianist, Dimitri Malignan, when he was giving some concerts
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  in the New York area.
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  He was born in Paris in 1998 to parents of Romanian origin.
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  I first heard him play during the 2021 Montreal International Music Competition, where he
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  wound up winning third prize, as well as the audience prize and a special Bach prize.
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  So I wasn't all that surprised, all puns intended, that his most recent solo piano release from
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  Eddition Hortus was completely devoted to works of J.S.
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  Bach.
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  The engineering is not the most robust one could wish for, but you do notice the distinct
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  registral differentiation that characterizes the piano he uses, which is a Steinway grand
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  designed in 2015 that has straight strings rather than strings crossing over one another,
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  as in the case of most grand pianos.
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  It's almost like a forte piano in a concert grand's body.
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  Daniel Barenboim recorded several CDs using this straight strung piano, and so does Dimitri
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  Malignan.
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  I love this pianist's intimate and lyrical approach to Bach's capriccio in B flat major,
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  the capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother.
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  Each movement has a beautiful singing quality and lovely ebb and flow to it.
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  The same, I think, holds true for Dimitri Malignan's performances of the 15 symphonies
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  or the three-part inventions.
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  He has good independence of lines and a really impressive mastery of finger legato.
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  If I can be permitted just one little quibble, it's just that every once in a while the retards
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  or the tenutos that this pianist makes at cadence points seem ever so slightly studied
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  or self-aware.
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  They're not mannered, mind you, but you can sort of tell that he pre-planned them.
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  But there's so much terrific playing here.
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  The E major symphony I really like, it's brisk yet has an infectious lilt to it.
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  And here the expressive devices really enhance the music's inherent drama and harmonic invention.
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  That really introspective F minor symphony is often treated like an endless dirge, but
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  Dimitri's measured tempo never, never drags.
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  But by contrast, he does not make a monument out of the Bach prelude fugue in Allegro in
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  E flat.
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  You'll notice that he brings an uncommonly brisk and forthright pace to the prelude.
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  And he really leans into the bass notes for emphasis.
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  It's a very refreshing interpretation to my ears.
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  Also, I like the exuberance that he brings to the fantasia and fugue and C minor and
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  how he very, very slightly elongates certain trills, which again generates inner tension.
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  In short, you can hear from each and every selection on this disc just why Dimitri Malignan
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  won that special Bach prize at the 2021 Montreal competition.
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  Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that this CD has a title.
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  It's called Peregrinations.
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  A peregrination is defined as a long journey or a period of wandering, which is kind of
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  ironic because I think that Dimitri Malignan's journey through Bach's music does not meander
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  at all.
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  It's very well planned out and focused and it's most enjoyable.
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  Links to this release can be found in the body of this episode's description.
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  This is Jed Dissler and thank you so much for tuning into the Piano Maven and for all
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  of your support.
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  Please tell your fellow piano lovers about this podcast.
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  Take care and I'll see you next time.