But looks can be deceiving, and the apparent irony becomes all the more obvious the minute Maksim Mrvica’s long, nimble fingers hover effortlessly over the gleaming keys of a Steinway grand.
In an instant, the concert hall reverberates with echo upon echo of dense chordal clusters, blazing melodies, contrapuntal left-hand ostinatos and a cascade of ringing arpeggios as the 28-year-old Croatian virtuoso tests the limits of his instrument while spinning yarns of knuckle-busting classical flurries. Awe turns into disbelief as the members of the audience – with their mouths agape – hang on to each note with bated breath.
It’s a recurring scene straight out of each Maksim performance, including a recent Manila tour late last year that left his audience "Maksim-ized." It was a breath of fresh air for classical music fans, and a valid excuse for eager parents to send off their kids to weekly piano lessons.
With two albums to his name (Gestures and the recently-released The Piano Player, under the EMI Classics label), and a slew of concert tours across Europe and Asia, Maksim Mrvica (pronounced Maravitsa with a rolled ‘r’) could readily be called the new "crown prince of classical piano" and a likely contender to the title "ambassador of classical music."
While his rock star looks and hybrid classical/techno style may be frowned upon by classical purists, they definitely get the nod of younger MTV-weaned fans eager for new sounds.
"We call it classical crossover," Maksim disclosed in a 10-minute phone interview facilitated by EMI Music Philippines. "It’s all over my (The Piano Player) album, that combination of classical music with techno elements, especially on The Flight of the Bumblebee. It’s quite aggressive but we made sure not to use too much of the modern sounds lest we lose the classical spirit."
That jaw-dropping, action-packed minute of keyboard virtuosity never fails to impress any audience. But even then, the Paris-based virtuoso finds it more challenging to move audiences with the slower, more melancholic pieces.
"When I perform, I try to include pieces from Bach to Mozart, and also romantic pieces from Chopin, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff – even the avant-garde composers," he says.
The diligent pianist has indeed come a long way since his boyhood years in Sibenik, a town situated on the Adriatic coast. Unlike most youngsters prodded on by music-loving parents, Maksim started off on his own.
"I was around six to seven when I first saw a piano at my best friend’s place," he recounts. "A neighbor would come by and play, but the very first piece that inspired me was Beethoven’s Fur Elise, which was a challenge for me when I was nine (laughs). But I nailed it when I was 11, in second grade."
Not surprisingly, Croatia was heavily influenced by England’s progressive music scene back then. "There was a lot of pop, like Madonna and Prince," Maksim recalls, "but I was never really inspired by any of that pop stuff – not even jazz."
The child prodigy soon subjected himself to even more rigorous training under Professor Vladimir Krapan at the Music Academy in Zagreb. He spent a year at the Ferenc Liszt Conservatoire in Budapest and soon won first prize in the Nicolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1999. In 2000, he moved to Paris to study with Igor Lazko, and in 2001 again bagged first prize in the Pontoise Piano Competition.
Given a chance to travel back in time and meet any of his idols, Maksim picked, "(Franz) Liszt and (Vladimir) Horowitz. Liszt because of his technique and style and his virtuoso pieces and Horowitz who had a similar style and impeccable technique."
Although the ardent yoga practitioner doesn’t do much jamming in a band setting, he loves to experiment with techno and electronic music. "I’ve done some concerts with DJs where we work on some interesting drum patterns," he shares. "It would be nice to do a remix of sorts."
Local fans got to hear that same brazen classical crossover approach when Maksim returned to Manila for a concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last April 20. Billed as Maksim Asian Tour 2004 Live in Manila, the one-night performance was the third leg of a seven-nation Asian tour.
Asked to elaborate on his role as a modern-day emissary of classical music, Maksim ponders, "Well, it’s a challenge to present this music with a slightly different twist for the younger generation. Obviously, I’m not that much of a traditionalist. You can change the environment, you can change the clothes and the venue, but in the end it’s still the same classical spirit, and I think that’s the most important thing."