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 2010 SALZBURG FESTIVAL

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© Wolfgang Lienbacher       (Click on Thumbnails to Enlarge)  Source   

Evgeny Kissin - 2nd August 2010

Programme:

ROBERT SCHUMANN • Fantasiestücke op. 12
ROBERT SCHUMANN • Novelette op. 21/8
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN • Four Ballades
Encore :  Chopin Scherzo No.2 Op.31

MP3 Download of Kissin's Complete Concert Performance : Click Here




(ENCORE: Sound quality good - visual quality poor but grateful thanks
to Piero Bolanzo for uploading to You Tube for us all to share and enjoy!)

2010 Verbier Festival -  16th July to 1st August
 Click Here

Both of Evgeny Kissin's performances are now avaialable to view on the VOD option on the Verbier Festival's website:

  21st July performance  Click Here  and 24th July  Click Here

If you have an iphone you can download the free app and watch there too  Click Here

MP3 downloads
 
 Click Here and  Click Here 

ENJOY!!!

In praise of Verbier Festival – classical music’s Davos
By Michael Church  Thursday, 22 July 2010

"Yevgeny Kissin couldn’t be classed as a Verbier discovery, but he attends faithfully every year, and this week gave a concert in which he was at the absolute top of his form. I have never heard so subtly-shaded a performance of Schumann’s Fantasiestucke Opus 12, nor one imbued with such noble tempestuousness. Chopin’s four Ballades emerged with magisterial grandeur: if some sections of the second were so fast that their shape was slightly blurred, the fourth had transcendental beauty. First encore, an artless Chopin waltz; second encore, a full scherzo. Yuja Wang may be a stupendously clever pianist, but Kissin is a great one, and – nota bene, Yuja – the journey between the two things is long and hard."

To read the full article: 
Click Here

Evgeny Kissin New CD
 Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 27

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Release date 12th July 2010
To buy
Click Here   

To Read Reviews and see video : Click Here
 

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Chopin 2010, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Review

The Polish composer gets the bicentennial celebration he deserves back in his homeland.

By John Allison
Published: 3:16PM GM
T 05 Mar 2010

There was certainly nothing chauvinistic about the parade of pianists – both Polish and international – that passed through the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall last weekend. Indeed, the soloists in the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra’s big concert on Saturday were both Russians, and they offered contrasting views of the composer.

In the Concerto in E minor, Nikolai Demidenko gave an expansive performance that livened up in a crisp finale and under its chief, Antoni Wit, this richly cultivated orchestra caught the music’s hard-to-define melancholy spirit.

Playing with greater depth than I have heard from him before, Evgeny Kissin followed this with a brilliant account of the Concerto in F minor. His music-making was fresh and even innocent, with sparkling poise and attack well suited to the work. Kissin found all the yearning of the slow movement and framed it with barnstorming outer movements that sounded old-fashioned in the best sense, matching the drama coming from Wit and his orchestra.


To read the full Article -
Click Here


To download and watch Kissin's live performance - Click Here

If you have any issues with opening the file, or playback extensions, you may need to install K-Lite video codec package : 
CLICK HERE  (Plays well on Quick Time apparently).  Aso try the "Open As" option and choose your player as opposed to the "Open" one.
 

The Enigmatic Evgeny Kissin

Slideshow of 200th Chopin Anniversary Concert

Warsaw, Poland on 27th February 2010




 

The popularity of Evgeny Kissin could not be more obvious than as seen from this rapturous welcome he received from the Koreans in April 2009.  It is wonderful indeed to witness him being acknowledged in this way.  He is revered as a genius - certainly no more than he deserves! 


This night he played 3 pieces from Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, Prokofiev Sonata No.8, Chopin Polonaise-Fantasy, Mazurkas and Etudes. He received more than 30 curtain calls and played 10 encores.  The recital began at 20:00 and ended at 23:44!   His first Seoul recital was held in 2006 when he also played 10 encores.

Read Press Review  : Click Here

 

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Evgeny Kissin:
The Best of the Best!


Mr. Kissin's musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have placed him at the forefront of the world's new generation of young pianists. He is in demand the world over, and has appeared with many great conductors, including Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Dohnányi, Giulini, Levine, Maazel, Muti, Ozawa, Svetlanov and Temirkanov, as well as all the world's major orchestras. He makes regular recital tours to the U.S., Japan, and throughout Europe. 
Source

For this young maestro, music is a subject of unconditional passion and mystery. "It is a tribute to the composers, and it is about sharing something I like with the audience. I feel thankful if the listener thinks it is a gift to them," he said. He is, however, unwilling to give a reason for his favourites. "I hope to never be able to answer that, and I wish all of humanity would never be able to either, because the reasons for love should remain a thing of mystery," . . . EVGENY KISSIN

Not of this world

Evgeny Kissin recited the Declaration of Independence with raw Zionist pathos and then swept the audience away by playing Chopin

By Ariel Hirschfeld

Published 18:34 17.06.10

Last week, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem awarded an honorary doctoral degree to the famed Russian-Jewish pianist Evgeny Kissin. Kissin was one of 10 scholars who were similarly honored this year by the university.

I will not, at the moment, relate to the question of honor - either in general or in particular. I prefer to write about Kissin's presence at an event in the festive Mexico Building on Mount Scopus, before the actual degree-conferral ceremony (traditionally held in the campus amphitheater ).

The first event consisted of a string of speeches and short lectures delivered by the award recipients. Most of the remarks consisted, naturally, of flowery words of gratitude befitting such an occasion. The exceptions were the riveting comments by writer Ronit Matalon (though this is not the place to discuss them ) and the remarks by Evgeny Kissin.

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Evgeny Kissin at Hebrew University
Photo by: Tomer Appelbaum

Following several well-known, brilliant, sharp-tongued scholars whose words were laced with skeptical irony, it was Kissin's turn to speak. A youngish man with a boyish face and thick mane of hair, he did not read from a prepared text, but - like a boy who has learned his lines for some sort of dramatic pageant - delivered in English with a thick Russian accent an emotional speech of love for Israel and for Jerusalem.

At peak moments he switched to Hebrew: These included recitation of a lengthy passage from Israel's Declaration of Independence and Psalm 137 ("If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. / If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy" ). He uttered the words with great pathos and in the same thick Russian accent, sounding exactly like the emotional speech-makers of Zionism during its heroic times, particularly in the years after World War II and around when the state was being established.

The resemblance to the voices of those speakers, especially to that of Ben-Gurion, was deep, precise and harrowing. Anyone who did not notice this (because of his young age or lack of familiarity with the memories of this place ) thought the speaker was an eccentric. I also saw people stifling a sudden guffaw.

But anyone who noticed the similarity felt an astonishment that was not without fright, in the face of something whole, salient, abounding in emotion and sincerity, belonging to a different world that existed more than two generations ago (but was actually played out in the 19th century ) - suddenly uttered by a young man, very much alive, drawing on his life, the Bible, Zionist history and the press. Ancient Zionism. Naive. Emotional and totally personal. There was nothing "right wing" about this. It was pure Zionism and, at the same time, totally apolitical.

Upon concluding his amazing remarks, Kissin sat down at the piano which had been opened for him (a big Steinway, usually reserved for accompanying university ceremonies ), and without a pause or transition stretched out his hands to the keyboard and played Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor.

Even the most extremely thrilling words dissipate like empty shells in the face of this. It was fiery playing, a spectacular and extraordinarily interesting rendition of the scherzo; mature, very tasteful and bold. The person who emerged from this work was something between a lion and a young girl. The range of powerfulness and of the tones produced by this pianist was extreme. He moved from the stoniest textures to the thinnest and airiest, with complete naturalness, utterly convincing. Or, even better: He illustrated by his playing that it is possible.

If only we could have heard what this piano whispered to itself during those minutes. A mute presence at the back of the stage during most of the year, it was suddenly called upon to produce a tidal wave of sound, was stretched to the limits of its ability. Never did it bear witness to such gentleness. A spirit of sublimity passed through the hall. The playing shattered the ceremony. When it was over, the whole audience stood up, overwrought.

I am not glorifying this performance at the expense of the achievements of the scholars who were there. But in those moments they were far from their moments of enlightenment, and like the entire audience were caught up in a ceremony, which like every festive event is stultified by politeness and rules of decorum that have absolutely nothing in common with the heavenly tempestuousness of feeling that is innate in art. Those minutes were a rare lesson in the surprising, destructive, mocking, cutting power of art when it is suddenly revealed in all its fullness, in the way it slashes vertically through life's being.

When the applause ended, Kissin returned to his seat. A youngish man, odd, with a boy's face and a thick mane of hair. The program was then resumed.

What are we to make of this spectacle? The strange speech, which seemed to come from other times, and the playing, which above all was daring. And even if the music dates back almost two centuries - nothing in it is old or not up-to-date. It was totally contemporary playing of Chopin. Kissin does not return to familiar modes of interpretation, nor is he eccentric in the least; a clear personal note sounds in his playing. If he can be compared to any of his great predecessors, then he recalls precisely the young Rubinstein of the 1930s. Not Rachmaninoff, not Horowitz, not Michelangeli. But Kissin has a clear note, a force and even a forcefulness which could transform his playing into crude extroversion, were it not interwoven with extraordinary nobility - a nobility that is stronger than forcefulness.

Furthermore, Kissin's speech did not belong to the ordinary world of ideas, rather to the special realm that deserves to be called the world of ideas of the musicians, as distinct from the world of ideas of writers, poets and also philosophers. It seems to me that we can discern the clear influence of music on their consciousness; theirs is a true, idealistic way of being. Theirs is an innocence which is manifested in gestures in which there is no place for irony, the naive as defined by Friedrich Schiller: a completeness, like Achilles or Hector in "The Iliad." The musicians, who every day live the scores of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, bring to the world of words something that exists only between the chords: total sincerity.

Without the playing, the words (including the political views ) of Toscanini, Walter, Lehmann, Casals, Barenboim or Kissin would resemble those of Dostoevsky's idiot: ideals divorced from any contact with the ordeals of existence, politics, passion, folly and wickedness. In tandem with the music, however, one suddenly understands not only why they speak in this way, but also that the music lends their words a conceptual anchor - or, really, a kind of basis within which such verbalizing is perceived to be possible.

Without the playing, Kissin's words would have been embarrassing; alongside it, they were daring.

Source

Evgeny's Speech and Performance of Chopin's Scherzo No.2 in B-flat minor



 

7th June, 2010

Hebrew University honorary doctorate recipients Dorit Beinisch, Dr. Marcos Aguinis, Evgeny Kissin .  .  .  .  .

Conferment of the honorary doctorates in the Rothberg Amphitheatre on Mount Scopus
Conferment of the honorary doctorates in the Rothberg Amphitheatre on Mount Scopus

Citation:

"Musician Evgeny Kissin:  A world-renowned musician, he has captivated audiences with his extraordinary musical gift from a young age, combining genuine musical virtuosity with rare professional dedication. Moscow-born Kissin debuted with the Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra at age 10 and, at age 12, drew much international attention with his interpretations of Chopin’s Piano Concertos 1 and 2. The first pianist to give a recital at the BBC Proms and the first concerto soloist to perform at a Proms opening concert, he is universally respected as a leader of the new generation of young pianists. He is the only classical musician to have won two Grammy awards and is the recipient of the Musician of the Year Award from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Sienna, of Musical America’s Youngest Instrumentalist of the Year, and of Russia’s prestigious Triumph and Shostakovich awards. Kissin is a staunch advocate of Israel who recently diversified his extensive catalogue of recordings by adding recitals of Russian and Yiddish poetry, while his frequent visits to Israel have enabled local audiences to enjoy his unique interpretations."


To read in full please  Click Here

(Evgeny appears around 0.28:42 on video)


 

Evgeny Kissin's Yiddish Poetry CD 2010

On The Keys of Yiddish Poetry
Poems by Yiddish Poets Read by Evgeny Kissin
 To purchase please
Click Here

אויף די קלאַווישן פֿון ייִדישער פּאָעזיע 

"In addition to music, Kissin has given recitals of Yiddish and Russian poetry. A CD compilation of Kissin's recitals from the contemporary Yiddish poetry has just been issued by the Forward Association in 2010.  In 2007 he became Honorary Patron of a professional chamber opera company, City Opera of Vancouver, led by conductor Charles Barber."

Thanks to Mr Kissin's help quite a few now have English translations available:  Click Here




 


 
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