Commentary: In his Orchestra Hall recital, Chicago favorite Evgeny Kissin, famous for his encores, was told to make it one and done.

By Lawrence B. Johnson

Pianist Yevgeny Kissin offered two encores after his typically astonishing recital program May 17 at Orchestra Hall. We’ll get to the first one in due course. The second, which can still be heard and seen, was unprecedented for this beloved pianist and very possibly unexampled anywhere ever: a video apology that Kissin posted to explain to his “dear listeners, dear friends” why he had played just one encore when he’s famous for lavishing them by the double handful.

In the wake of Kissin’s eloquent, brilliant and ultimately prodigious performance, he hardly owed that packed house something more. After a sparkling turn through Beethoven’s Sonata in D, Op. 10, No. 3; a diverse and searching group of Chopin mazurkas; Schumann’s borderline surreal suite “Kreisleriana,” and Liszt’s dazzling Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, another pianist might have called it a day. But not Kissin, and certainly not his rapturous audience. Within the confines of Orchestra Hall, the 54-year-old Kissin is effectively an honorary Chicagoan, a favorite son. The affection cuts both ways.

Which leads us almost back to the video. His printed program fulfilled, and amid thunderous applause, Kissin once again took his seat at the piano and plunged into the heady virtuosic display of Joaquín Larregla’s “Viva Navarra.” The house noise level only ramped up. Kissin returned to the stage, took his further bows and left. Not to be seen again. Despite the whoops and cheers and general tumult of a crowd that knows this pianist very well, knows he never plays just one encore. Until now. Kissin did not reappear. Exeunt omnes.

One scarcely knew whether to be more amazed by the fireworks just witnessed or by the encore’s almost unimaginable singularity. Emotion among the departing auditors must have ranged somewhere between wow and…what? It turns out Kissin was right there with them, utterly nonplussed. So much so that he immediately created and posted a video backstage to explain how and why his routinely numerous encores had been foreshortened.

The video — available here — shows a pointedly calm artist sharing his regret at being informed that, because of another event coming to the stage immediately after his recital, he would have time for only one encore. Kissin’s speech doesn’t evince anger, but rather incredulity in the face of something he says he’d never encountered before in his career. His tone is neither wry nor bitter. He’s apologetic and wants his listeners, his “dear friends,” to know it was not his intention to shortchange them. He says he looks forward to coming back to Orchestra Hall.

That’s obviously the heartfelt wish, as well, of the execs and programmers at Symphony Center, who issued this response to Kissin’s video:

“We deeply regret that during Evgeny Kissin’s recent performance at Symphony Center, he was told he could not play additional encores. This was an isolated and unfortunate error in communication and does not reflect organizational policy.

“We are deeply grateful for Evgeny Kissin’s decades of partnership and extraordinary performances at Symphony Center. We recognize how disappointing this was for Evgeny and understand that his performances mean a great deal to his fans and our audiences. We look forward to welcoming him back in the 2026/27 season.”

In the video, Kissin says he always prepares three encores and expects to play them. That’s a bare minimum, to judge from my own experience hearing him many times. He loves to play on, and his listeners stay the course until he’s quite finished. Years ago at Carnegie Hall in New York, I watched Kissin play encores for nearly an hour. He was a bit younger then. But no one told him to stop.

Kissin indeed returns to Orchestra Hall next season, not once but twice. In Symphony Center’s year-long observance of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in 1827, the pianist will join violinist Maxim Vengerov and cellist Gautier Capucon for an evening of trios, including Op. 70, No. 1 (“Ghost”) and Op. 97 (“Archduke”).

Also in the Beethoven vein, Kissin will play a solo recital of two sonatas and the monumental “Diabelli” Variations on April 25, 2027. My guess is he will be allowed to play encores till the cows come home. He may do just that.