Evgeny Kissin

In August 2021, as the Salzburg Festival made a meticulously planned return to full capacity, Evgeny Kissin drew a sell-out crowd to the city’s Grosses Festspielhaus. He treated his audience to a strikingly original programme of works by Berg, Chopin, Gershwin and, to the surprise of some, Khrennikov. A generous selection of encores featured Mendelssohn and Debussy, as well as more Chopin and one of Kissin’s own compositions.

Evgeny Kissin appeared in Salzburg in 2021 with compositions of the late Romantic and classical modern periods in the Großes Festspielhaus. Since his debut in 1987, the pianist has been a welcome guest at this festival, impressing with the maturity and brilliance of his playing. Kissin loves the dialogue with the audience and the direct power of the concert moment.

Kissin's generous lyricism and lovely rubato in Rachmaninov's Lilacs make a distinguished prelude to this recital; but they are only a hint of the revelations to come. The big E flat minor Etude tableau drenches the listener in an extraordinary welter of sound, at once free and controlled, sensitive to harmonic nuance and yet to broader undercurrents as well. And it is followed by a phenomenally articulate C minor, swirling and crackling like a force of nature (with just a couple of accidents on the last page as a brief reminder of human frailty)

This selection received a Grammy nomination for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)." The comparative simplicity of Chopin's Op. 28 Preludes (when placed against his Etudes, for example) and their status as "miniatures" often hide the fact that they are, in fact, extremely demanding pieces, especially in interpretation. These works, probably written in homage to Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Well-Tempered Clavier,' have been the eminent domain of such great pianists as Artur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Claudio Arrau. The Preludes now belong to young Evgeny Kissin.

The young Kissin was able to work wonders in Prokofiev–above all the Sixth Sonata (Kissin in Tokyo - Yevgeny Kissin). Regrettably, the mature Kissin recently delivered highly disappointing live performances of the Second and Third Concertos (Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3), indeed, regardless of the predictable rave in the British press. This 1994 recording of the First and Third Concertos is unquestionably very good, especially the youthful First, although competition is very strong–from Graffman/Szell (Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3) and Argerich/Dutoit (Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3 / Bartok: Piano Concerto No. 3) in this coupling, and from the complete sets by Berman/Gutierrez/Järvi, Toradze/Gergiev and Krainev/Kitaenko.

This CD is possibly my favorite of all which I own. Kissin's technical prowess rivals that of pianists twice his age, yet it is neither age nor technique that sets him apart from his peers, but his unmatched sensitivity and insight. This is musicianship of the very highest caliber. Kissin has a special affinity for Chopin. His very natural touch and "declamation" sound like what one must imagine Chopin, himself, must have played.

In 2011 the Berliner Philharmoniker and their musical director Sir Simon Rattle welcomed in the New Year with a gala concert programmed with ‘Dances & Dreams’. Spinetingling and inspiring performances of music by Dvořák, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky and Brahms are complemented by the extraordinary talent of the multi-awarded Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin. Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have placed him at the forefront of today’s pianists, and his passionate performance of the renowned Piano Concerto in A minor by Edvard Grieg is mesmerizing.

Evgeny Kissin has made brave choices in selecting this program. Schumann's Sonata No. 1 is a huge, sprawling piece, difficult to play and to hold together and therefore not very popular. Carnaval is one of Schumann's acknowledged masterpieces and has been recorded by a wide variety of pianists, providing plenty of competition. In the Sonata, Kissin's performance is a complete success. He has the largeness of spirit, powers of organization, and huge technique to make the music convincing and hold the listener's interest for more than half an hour.

Evgeny Kissin appears to be an unwilling visitor to recording studios these days and offers for this double album live performances of Beethoven taped at six different venues over the decade from 2006 to 2016. Expect the varying acoustic properties of the halls to be a factor in your listening, plus balances of piano sound produced – as the booklet says – ‘under various technical conditions’. Less easy to tolerate is the amount of audience noise, intruding at the beginning of several tracks and at its worst in the Appassionata.