Alexander Kolesnikov

For its very first disc with harmonia mundi, the duo formed by Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy offers us three closely related works: Schubert’s celebrated Fantasy, his Divertissement à la hongroise, full of contrasts between bursts of energy and enigmatic mists, and Leonid Desyatnikov’s Trompe-l’œil, written specifically ‘to echo’ the Fantasy. An intriguing hall of mirrors.

For its very first disc with harmonia mundi, the duo formed by Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy offers us three closely related works: Schubert’s celebrated Fantasy, his Divertissement à la hongroise, full of contrasts between bursts of energy and enigmatic mists, and Leonid Desyatnikov’s Trompe-l’œil, written specifically ‘to echo’ the Fantasy. An intriguing hall of mirrors.

For its very first disc with harmonia mundi, the duo formed by Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy offers us three closely related works: Schubert’s celebrated Fantasy, his Divertissement à la hongroise, full of contrasts between bursts of energy and enigmatic mists, and Leonid Desyatnikov’s Trompe-l’œil, written specifically ‘to echo’ the Fantasy. An intriguing hall of mirrors.

The nuanced titles - miniature works of art in themselves - merely hint at the delights to come in Pavel Kolesnikovs sensitive realization of Hahns rened sound-world.

“His performance brought a veritable roar of approval from the audience,” wrote the Irish Times, after Pavel Nersessian received the 1st Prize in the GPA Dublin International Piano Competition in 1991. Being one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation in Russia, he is known for his ability to play equally convincingly in the whole palette of the piano repertoire. He won prizes in the Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 1985, the Paloma O’Shea Competition in Santander, and the Tokyo Competition.