Evgeny Kissin

»He remains one of the most respected pianists of our time in terms of the intensity and sensitivity of his interpretations.« The New York Times Pianist Evgeny Kissin is one of the outstanding musicians of his generation. He is admired by audiences and critics worldwide for his virtuosic and expressive playing and his interpretations. At a recital for the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in June 2021, Kissin was awarded the Festival Prize for 2020. On this occasion, German critic Wolfram Goertz wrote a laudatory speech praising the "spectacular seriousness" of Kissin's work and attesting to the pianist, despite his incredibly meticulous preparation for performances: "The fascinating thing about his art is that it has retained its immediacy." Fitting praise for an artist constantly in demand by major international orchestras and conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, and Sir Antonio Pappano. Evgeny Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971. Gifted with extraordinary musicality, he began playing and improvising on the piano by ear shortly after his second birthday, having been enthusiastic about the instrument even before that. At the age of six, he entered the Moscow Gnessin School, an elite institute for young musicians. There he received instruction from Anna Pavlovna Kantor, who remained his only teacher. Kissin progressed so rapidly that at the age of ten he performed a major work with orchestra for the first time: Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466. The following year he gave his first recital in Moscow, and his international breakthrough came in March 1984, when he played Chopin's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Dmitri Kitayenko. Live recordings of Kissin's interpretations of the Chopin concertos, released by Melodia, confirmed the musical maturity of the 12-year-old pianist and made him known outside the Soviet Union. He first performed in Eastern Europe in 1985, undertook a tour of Japan the following year, and made his first appearance in Western Europe in 1987 as part of the Berlin Festival. In the summer of 1988, he played for Herbert von Karajan, who promptly invited him to perform as the soloist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 at the upcoming New Year's Eve concert of the Berlin Philharmonic. The recording of the performance, released by Deutsche Grammophon in 1989 just weeks after Karajan's death, was immediately recognized as a milestone in the work's recording history. Evgeny Kissin was first heard at the BBC Proms in July 1990 and soon after performed the two Chopin concertos with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta in his North American debut. In September 1990, he opened Carnegie Hall's centennial season with a sensational debut recital, the recording of which was exceptionally well-received by critics and audiences. His discography includes a Grammy-winning album of solo works by Scriabin, Medtner, and Stravinsky; all Beethoven piano concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis; Prokofiev's Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy, also a Grammy winner; as well as albums of solo works by Brahms, Chopin, and Schumann. In addition, there are a number of significant early recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, including critically acclaimed performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, and Claudio Abbado. In June 2017, Kissin signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. To mark the renewed partnership, DG released a double album in August 2017 featuring live recordings of five Beethoven sonatas and the 32 Variations in C minor, WoO 80. His next album, The New York Concert, recorded at Carnegie Hall, was released in April 2019 and documents the last of eight concerts Kissin gave with the Emerson String Quartet in early 2018; it presents works by Mozart, Fauré, and Dvořák. The pianist's latest album is The Salzburg Recital, which features a highly unusual program with works by Berg, Chopin, Gershwin, and Khrennikov, as well as encores by Chopin, Debussy, Mendelssohn, and Kissin himself. This nearly two-hour recording from the 2021 Salzburg Festival will be released in August 2022. The album is dedicated to the memory of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, who passed away on July 27, 2021, at the age of 98. Following his outstanding success at the Salzburg Festival last summer, Kissin began his 2021/22 season with recitals in Athens and Jerusalem, before presenting the same program of works by Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin in Japan and South Korea. His world tour took him through Europe with appearances in Madrid, Barcelona, Toulouse, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Düsseldorf, followed by concerts in North America in the spring. In the USA, he was also part of the star-studded cast for the Concert for Ukraine at Carnegie Hall. Back in Europe, he gave three more recitals before turning his attention to this year's festival season: two special highlights in Salzburg are a solo recital (August 5, 2022) and a duo recital with Sir András Schiff (August 9). Evgeny Kissin has received numerous prestigious awards and honors. In 1991, he was awarded the International Prize of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and in 1995, he became Musical America's youngest "Instrumentalist of the Year." Two years later, Kissin received the Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russian culture, one of the highest cultural honors of the Russian Federation, and was the first pianist to give a solo recital at the BBC Proms since the festival's founding in 1895. Other honors include the Shostakovich Prize (2003), honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London (2005), the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize (2005), the Premio Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (2007), and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr Prize (2020). He has also received honorary doctorates from the Manhattan School of Music (2001), the University of Hong Kong (2009), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2010), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2014), and the National Academy of Music in Bulgaria (2021). His collection of autobiographical writings, Memoirs and Reflections, was published in 2017. His compositions, such as the Four Piano Pieces Op. 1 or Thanatopsis Op. 4 for female voice and piano, have been published by Henle in recent years. 7/2022