All just my personal opinion
… while for the past two decades the artist is mostly pictured with an earnest, maybe “Beehovenian” / titanic, somewhat closed facial expression, in the concert (which he presented with a mostly relaxed, yet controlled body language) his face hinted at a wealth of emotions — and his playing struck me as a prime example of the “big Russian Piano School” …
Chopin: Piano Concerto in E minor, op.11 — comparing recordings with the following artists: Argerich/Abbado (1967), Askenase/Otterloo (1960), Avdeeva/Wit (2010), Avdeeva/Brüggen (2012), Rubinstein/Barbirolli (1937), Rubinstein/Wallenstein (1953), Rubinstein/Skrowaczewski (1961)
Chopin: Piano Concerto F minor, op.21 — comparing recordings with the following artists: Askenase/Ludwig (1963), Avdeeva/Brüggen (2012), Haskil/Markevich (1960), Rubinstein/Barbirolli (1931), Rubinstein/Steinberg (1946), Rubinstein/Wallenstein (1958), Rubinstein/Ormandy (1968)
On 2014-05-30, the final concert from the season 2013/2014 in the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall was broadcast online. The concert featured Yulianna Avdeeva, the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under the direction of Jacek Kasprzyk, and the tenor Thomas Warmijak. The program for the concert included…
(…) Yulianna’s playing was excellent! She is very virtuosic and very expressive! Where the tempo permits, she is nearly as clear in the articulation as Steven Hough — but she is way more expressive; unlike Volodos, she follows the score; she is not overpowering the music like Volodos, but has more agility than her Russian colleague (and avoids his unnecessary additions, I should say), she is often almost as fast and eruptive as Cziffra in the virtuosic octave passages, but in general keeps her articulation under control…
(…) concert performance reminded me of observations I made earlier on when watching Yulianna play the piano — particularly, I think, with music of the romantic period. It has to do with what Yulianna does with her arm & her body while playing — but to explain this properly, let me first go back to one of my early “piano heroes”, the late Friedrich Gulda…