Under the title “Resilience,” the pianist gathered works by composers who wrote music under unimaginable conditions, and for whom music gave the strength to continue living. One example is Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish composer and pianist who was persecuted during the Nazi era, survived the Warsaw Ghetto, and became internationally famous through his diaries, which director Roman Polanski adapted into the film “The Pianist” in 2002. Szpilman wrote his suite “The life of the machines” in 1933, and the notes were lost in the chaos of war. The complete score was only rediscovered decades later—a jazzy and creative piece that breathes the spirit of industrialization and allows Avdeeva to showcase her dizzying virtuosity and precision.

Yulianna Avdeeva demonstrates both her warm tone and the bright, harsh, and powerful facets in Sergei Prokofiev’s Eighth Piano Sonata. And, of course, with Chopin, whose melodies she allows to sing and whose dance-like, elegant music she feels connected to: “It’s as if he is a companion who is always there. Chopin is at the center for me—I always return to him.”