New York Times Interview with Hugh Morris

Busoni Piano Concerto & SWR Symphony Orchestra / John Storgårds

Gramophone Podcast

MUSIC IN TIME OF WAR - Available now!

MUSIC IN TIME OF WAR – Release Date April 12, 2024

Spotlight Artist at LSO

“My heart is like ruined homes, Broken beams and shaken pillars….”

Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik - Quarterly Critic’s Choice

Dazzling Gershwin

Rachmaninoff No.1 in Berlin & Frankfurt

Ventures

Ventures

Radu Lupu

Radu Lupu has given us some of the most memorable and moving musical experiences. Writing about music and magic is a mission equally tempting and fey. Radu’s anniversary seemed a good cue to pay homage to this great artist, recall the sensations of hearing him in concert and to consider the reasons behind his abstinence from studio recordings in the recent decades.

Backstage after a concert at the Lucerne Festival

For the past two decades, the Romanian pianist Radu Lupu has chosen not to record any music. He does not allow radio broadcasts of his playing, he does not give press interviews, and he has almost no social media presence. This had made his performances all the more prized. Lupu, who turns seventy on November 30, is far more than a great pianist; listening to him, my attention slips away from the beauty and mastery of his piano playing, deeply impressive though it is, with a rich palette of sound and resonance, control over chordal voicing fueled by an exceptionally refined harmonic sense, and a muscular apparatus that accurately plots into reality his imagination of the shape and timing of musical events. Soon, I find I am taken deep below and far above the surface.

...

Click here to read my full article on the website of The New York Review of Books.

Radu Lupu playing the double-manual Bechstein-Moor piano

Radu Lupu has given us some of the most memorable and moving musical experiences. Writing about music and magic is a mission equally tempting and fey. Radu’s anniversary seemed a good cue to pay homage to this great artist, recall the sensations of hearing him in concert and to consider the reasons behind his abstinence from studio recordings in the recent decades.

Backstage after a concert at the Lucerne Festival

For the past two decades, the Romanian pianist Radu Lupu has chosen not to record any music. He does not allow radio broadcasts of his playing, he does not give press interviews, and he has almost no social media presence. This had made his performances all the more prized. Lupu, who turns seventy on November 30, is far more than a great pianist; listening to him, my attention slips away from the beauty and mastery of his piano playing, deeply impressive though it is, with a rich palette of sound and resonance, control over chordal voicing fueled by an exceptionally refined harmonic sense, and a muscular apparatus that accurately plots into reality his imagination of the shape and timing of musical events. Soon, I find I am taken deep below and far above the surface.

...

Click here to read my full article on the website of The New York Review of Books.

Radu Lupu playing the double-manual Bechstein-Moor piano

NEWS

"The Wartime Music of Debussy and Komitas, Still Resonating Today"

“But the greatest performance of this impressive evening was undoubtedly achieved by pianist Kirill Gerstein, who pulled off the murderous piano part with phenomenal ease and superior strength. Rarely has the core and goal of all romantic piano virtuosity been perceived so vividly: as a process of transcendence in which the physical turns into the spiritual. By the way, Kirill Gerstein stood up at the end as cheerful and relaxed as if he could play the colossal piece again.”
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

You can watch the concert recording HERE.

Listen to Kirill in conversation with Gramophone magazine Chief Editor James Jolly about "Music in Time of War"

Digital Release

"I have always believed that our understanding of a piece of music cannot be divorced from the historical and cultural setting in which it was created and received. That is perhaps especially true of the works in this album."

Music in Time of War, the new double-album from pianist Kirill Gerstein, places the music of Komitas, pioneer of ethnomusicology and founder of the Armenian national school of music, alongside that of Claude Debussy, a seminal composer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who held a deep admiration of Komitas’s music. Both composers were profoundly affected by the implosion of their worlds – Komitas by the Armenian Genocide, Debussy by the First World War – and their music reflects a close emotional alignment. Music in Time of War grew from Gerstein’s fascination with music’s power to reflect a narrative. The project will be released as a double CD album and will be accompanied by a hardcover book containing a series of illustrations and detailed essays in three languages commissioned by the pianist.

Gerstein pairs Debussy’s 12 Études from 1915 and Komitas’s Armenian Dances for piano, composed the following year, and includes a selection of Debussy’s late piano pieces composed to raise funds for the war. The artists featured on the album include Armenian soprano Ruzan Mantashyan, and pianists Thomas Adès and Katia Skanavi – they join Gerstein in a selection of works for voice and piano, piano four hands as well as for two pianos. Accompanying the recording are four in-depth essays from historians Annette Becker and Khatchig Mouradian, musicologist Artur Avanesov and composer Heinz Holliger, that explore the impact of war and genocide on society, and the reaction of artists to such events. These essays give socio-historical context to the music of Debussy and Komitas, and their response to creating in times of catastrophe.

Music in Time of War epitomizes both Kirill Gerstein‘s creative curiosity and his insightful approach to curating projects.

Recorded during 2021 at the Konzerthaus Wien, Siemens Villa Berlin and at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York.

Pianist Kirill Gerstein joins the London Symphony Orchestra throughout the 2023/24 season as Spotlight Artist, playing four concertos that showcase different dimensions of his artistry.

‘I am deeply honoured to have been chosen as a Spotlight Artist for the LSO’s 2023/24 season. From my initial experience with the Orchestra at the Paris Philharmonie to our concert performances in London and filming during the pandemic, have always been moved by the artistry and passion of the musicians. Collaborating with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano, and Susanna Mälkki in music by Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Ades and Gershwin is inspiring and, together, the opportunity to share the thrill of these compositions with our listeners in London and on tour is a joyful gift.’

On Komitas' birthday, in solidarity with the Armenian people:

These words from Komitas’s “Antuni” capture the loss, displacement and trauma that haunts Armenians today as ethnic cleansing in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh has forced more than 100,000 out of their ancestral lands. We share this recording in solidarity with the Armenian nation.

With Ruzan Mantashyan, soprano

Antuni / Homeless

My heart looks like shattered homes,
Broken are pillars and timbers asunder.
Wild birds will nest in those ruins…
To reach the river, jump in it I wish,
And to become food for the fry of fish.
Ah, your home is destroyed!
I’ve seen Black sea with the white around,
The waves were beating, yet unable to mix them together,
Who has ever seen an ironic sea?
A homeless’ heart is In bewildered state,
Oh, don’t be my heart darkened so much, Ah, your home is destroyed!

The recording project to pair the late music of Debussy with Komitas’ compositions stemming from the horrors of World War 1 and the Armenian Genocide started two years ago. We did not want to imagine that it would poignantly become even more relevant due to the tragic events unfolding in September 2023.

"It may be hard to believe with a work as often played as the second Rachmaninoff concerto, but there really is something new to discover here: This recording is audibly different from the many new concert recordings that were released for the “Rachmaninoff Year” in 2023 are. "

The Rachmaninoff 150 album has just been awarded by the German “Quarterly Critic’s Choice” in the category “Orchestral Music & Concertos”, with the following praising words: “It may be hard to believe with a work as widely played as the second Rachmaninoff concerto, but there really is something new to discover here: This recording is audibly different from the many new concert recordings that were released for the “Rachmaninoff Year” in 2023 are. Elegant and almost light, powerful without being ostentatious and ostentatious, astonishingly bright in its timbres and highly intelligent in the interaction between soloist and orchestra.
The two Kirills – Gerstein and Petrenko – confidently refute all prejudices against the composer and his work, which unfortunately still exist.”

"Kirill Gerstein was soloist in a phenomenal performance of the Piano Concerto. Gerstein, known for his nonchalant virtuosity and vivid intellect in Liszt or Tchaikovsky, is also a skilled jazzer."

Kirill Gerstein’s performance of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra was praised by many critics, read a few here:
Financial Times
The Telegraph
The Guardian
inews.uk

Berlin & Frankfurt

Kirill Gerstein’s next encounter with Robin Ticciati and the DSO Berlin is coming up, with two concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie and one concert at Alte Oper Frankfurt.