Evgeny Kissin is acclaimed as one of the best modern pianists. Yet one critic notes an alarming trend in his playing: “At the louder and more extroverted end of the dynamic spectrum, though, Kissin’s taste for thunderous banging is growing ever more pronounced. Without gradations or subtlety, he will suddenly begin to pound away – sometimes in midphrase, sometimes at sectional transitions that are then marked all too starkly. The result is a maddening duality, a kind of sonic whiplash that keeps listeners shuttling uncomfortably back and forth between dynamic extremes.” – San Francisco Chronicle