Even with his astonishing technique, the Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov looked as if he needed all his youthful energy to get through his formidable recital program at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday. During the fiendishly difficult final work, Stravinsky’s Three Movements From “Petrouchka,” there were fleeting moments when the slender, boyish Mr. Trifonov, 25, threw his arms so forcefully into pummeling fortissimo chords that his body lifted maybe six inches off the piano bench.

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But there is another kind of stamina involved in a touring career, especially when you are, like Mr. Trifonov, one of the most in-demand pianists of the new generation: the stamina of physical endurance and mental focus.

I observed some of his arduous preparation for this recital on Monday afternoon, when he tried out pianos at Carnegie Hall (eventually picking a German-made Steinway) and practiced for a couple of hours. He had just arrived from California, where, on Sunday afternoon, he played the last of four performances of Rachmaninoff’s daunting Third Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. On Sunday night, he took a red-eye flight to New York, arriving on Monday morning at the Battery Park City apartment he shares with his fiancée, who works in publishing.

He had Carnegie to himself for two hours in the afternoon. After going through his program — works by Schumann and Shostakovich, in addition to the Stravinsky — he sat for an interview with me a block away at Petrossian Cafe, where he ordered a salad (no dressing) and ate only half. Then he took the subway to his apartment to get in more practice before meeting Sergei Babayan, his former teacher, at the Juilliard School for an evening coaching session.