The Montreal Recital
"Keep it simple. The saying, in Pollack Hall, could be a formula for boredom or, in the case of Schubert as performed by the 33-year-old Croatian pianist Dejan Lazic, refreshment. The posthumous Sonata in B Flat Major is often poetically heavy-laden, but on Sunday it seemed clear, firm and nimble. Rarely has the first-movement repeat of the longish first movement seemed so natural and necessary. The tempo was brisk, the tone warm.
Rhythmic stresses were deft and contrapuntal implications of figures in the left hand - even in the brilliant Scherzo - were explored with no strain or distortion. This was a young man's Schubert. And why not? The composer was 31 when he wrote the piece, even if he died two months after its completion.
A slim fellow in a plain black shirt perched on the edge of the bench, Lazic brought a similarly fresh approach to the miniatures of Schumann's Waldszenen set. Metre disappeared entirely from The Prophet Bird, an evocation of nature. There were fiery outbursts, easy ambles and mournful contemplations, all very Schumannesque.
Doubtless the followers of the Ladies' Morning Musical Club are already looking forward to a third visit. Lazic is a keeper."
La Presse Montreal (Français)
Fono Forum (Deutsch)
Piano News (Deutsch)
Rachmaninov 2 with Seattle Symphony / Robert Spano
"Soloist Dejan Lazic then offered a revisionist reading, lithe and crisply nuanced, of Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto. Faced with the composer's seemingly perverse determination to give almost all the big melodic effects to the orchestra, the young Croatian-born pianist and composer intelligently refrained from challenging them in sheer sonority, preferring instead to emphasize the brilliance and delicacy of the piano's decorative work. The result was less rich plum pudding than usual, and much more filigree. So in a stimulating way, the Rachmaninoff emerged sounding almost more modern than the committedly romantic Adams piece."
"Judging by the empty seats after intermission, it was Dejan Lazic's performance of the Second Piano Concerto people came to hear. Lazic didn't disappoint. The performance was notable for Lazic's poetic approach to the piece. Lazic's virtuoso talents were used to further the piece's appealing melodic attributes and not to merely show-off. The orchestra and Spano allowed Lazic plenty of room to spin gold from Rachmaninov's tunes, and added their own silken, balanced playing."