Vadym Kholodenko: Standing ovation at London’s Southbank Centre

Vadym Kholodenko presented Rzewski’s ‘The People United Will Never Be Defeated!’ at London’s Southbank Centre on 14 April, a breath-taking performance Knight Classical also filmed. The performance can be watched in full on the vide below.

This legendary 55-minute work requires untold courage on the part of the pianist, hitting the audience with the combined force of the many battles that the radically political Rzewski was fighting when he wrote it in 1975.  Thematically based on the popular resistance anthem of the anti-fascists in Pinochet’s Chile, it also incorporates an anti-Hitler anthem from the 1930s. In the context of current geopolitical events, it was a powerfully poignant piece of programming from the Ukrainian Kholodenko.

Where The People United Will Never Be Defeated! often stands alone as a complete recital (not least because of the pure physical stamina required to perform it), Vadym also played an hour-long first half: Mozart’s Requiem, transcribed for solo piano.  As you can see at the end of this video, the hall erupted in an instant and unanimous standing ovation.