KIRILL GERSTEIN Piano Recital / Review

 

KIRILL GERSTEIN Piano Recital 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Thursday (27 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 June 2024 with the title "Pianist Kirill Gerstein performs with imagination and musicality".

Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein is well-known for crafting his recitals on interesting themes using a creative mix of standard and unusual repertoire. His recital at the 2019 Singapore International Piano Festival had the overarching subject of “heroes and mortality”, but the theme of his largely Romantic programme this time around was not so clear cut. 

Frederic Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat major (Op.61) opened the recital, one of the Pole’s more complex and discursive late works. Its elaborate introduction was well-delineated, the playing crisp and clear-headed, and soon the characteristic polonaise rhythm was first sensed. This was not always apparent amid the fussy filigree, but its heroic strains would eventually prevail, shining like a beacon at its end. 

American jazz pianist Brad Mehldau’s short and moody Apres Faure No.13 (Nocturne) seemed a strange choice until heard as a prelude to Gabriel Faure’s Nocturne No.13 in B minor (Op.119), a late and seemingly forbidding work. The chromatic language uniting both pieces became key, the music turning restless and turbulent before closing darkly and quietly as how the Mehldau began. 

In complete contrast were Francis Poulenc’s rarely-heard Three Intermezzi, melodies and dances coloured with the frivolity and insouciance of Gay Paree. The first half concluded with Franz Liszt’s Polonaise No.2 in E major where unlike the earlier Chopin, its martial rhythm was worn proudly like a battle standard. The unabashed outward virtuosity was a case of Liszt out-Chopining Chopin, with a neat symmetry of programming now becoming more apparent. 

The second half almost replicated the first by beginning with Chopin, this time his Fantasy in F minor (Op.49), another extended work but dominated by a syncopated march rhythm. Gerstein’s technique was unimpeachable, delivering its grand climaxes with the force of personality the music deserved. 

Now the focus shifted to the Austro-Hungarian capital with Robert Schumann’s Faschingsschwank Aus Wien (Carnival Jest From Vienna), comprising five movements of irresistible song and dance. The chord-heavy opening movement was given buoyancy and lift, and humour in the form of cheeky quotes from La Marseillaise (the French national anthem, an echo of Paris again) and Beethoven was nicely rendered. 

This was by far the longest work, but Gerstein’s imagination and musicality made it a pleasure to behold. The Viennese waltz had to figure somewhere, and that was Sergei Rachmaninov’s delicious transcription of Fritz Kreisler’s violin classic Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow), with freewheeling improvisatory flourishes sounding anything but mournful. 

Still in three-quarter time, Chopin’s ebullient Waltz in A flat major (Op.42) closed the recital proper on a spirited high. So what was the evening’s theme? Likely, an invitation to the dance. There was, however, nothing terpsichorean about Gerstein’s two equally impressive encores. 

A more moving performance of Rachmaninov’s Melodie (Op.3 No.3), in its original and unadorned edition, would be hard to find. And the swiftly running notes of the Bach-Busoni chorale prelude Nun freut euch, Lieben Christen g’mein (Rejoice, Beloved Christians) joyously swept the board.

Photos by Ung Ruey Loon

Kirill Gerstein was 

presented by Altenburg Arts.

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: KIRILL GERSTEIN on 27 June 2024

Here is another piano recital not to be missed!

Russian-American pianist KIRILL GERSTEIN returns to Singapore for another riveting piano recital on 27 June 2024 at Victoria Concert Hall, presented by Altenburg Arts. His unique artistry and unusually creative recital programmes have been universally praised, as was his excellent piano recital at the 2019 Singapore International Piano Festival, reviewed in these pages.

pianomania: KIRILL GERSTEIN PIANO RECITAL / 26th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review (pianofortephilia.blogspot.com)

His programme:

CHOPIN Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op.61

MEHLDAU Apres Faure No.3

FAURE Nocturne No.13

POULENC Three Intermezzi

LISZT Polonaise No.2 in E major

CHOPIN Fantasy in F minor, Op.49

SCHUMANN Faschingsschwank aus Wien

KREISLER-RACHMANINOV Liebesleid

CHOPIN Waltz in A flat major, Op.42

Watch this video of KIRILL GERSTEIN at the 2019 Singapore International Piano Festival:

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday 27 June 2024 @ 8.15 pm

Victoria Concert Hall

Book your tickets here:

Piano Recital by Kirill Gerstein (sistic.com.sg)

KIRILL GERSTEIN PIANO RECITAL / 26th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

KIRILL GERSTEIN Piano Recital

26^th Singapore International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (1 June 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 June 2019 with the title "Diverse piano showcase of heroism and mortality".

It is often interesting to attempt and discern thought processes that go into a pianist’s art of crafting a recital programme. For Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein’s debut at the Singapore International Piano Festival, he chose works of six composers from lands as diverse as Germany, France and Hungary (the usual suspects) to England, Bohemia and Armenia (unexepected sources).

In one of the most intelligently-conceived programmes to be had in a long while, Gerstein’s unifying theme was heroism and mortality, and the death of heroes. Opening with Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No.7, known as Eroica, he displayed a fire-breathing but highly-nuanced brand of virtuosity that was to occupy the entire evening.

Cast in E flat major, its ending went straight into the opening chords of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations, so named as it was based on a dance (from The Creatures Of Prometheus) that ended up in the finale of his Eroica Symphony. Much humour and resourcefulness were applied to this longer-than-usual set which also included a tricky fugue to bat.

Even more impressive were the sonorities generated in Bohemian composer Leos Janacek’s Sonata, with a title that carries the 1.X.1905 “From The Street”. That was the date when a worker was stabbed to death during a student demonstration in Brno. Its two movements were harrowingly built-up to an angst-ridden climax of tolling bells. A final funeral march was discarded, leaving the work incomplete, enigmatically so.

However the funeral march that took its place was Liszt’s Funerailles, opening the recital’s second half. Bass notes were sounded with a left hand’s closed fist and karate chops, and the procession of stampeding left hand octaves was supposedly a tribute to the recently deceased Chopin. Liszt being Liszt, he had to make this more difficult than the corresponding episode in Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise. 

Its companion piece was Thomas Ades’ Berceuse from The Exterminating Angel, written for and premiered by Gerstein as recently as last January. Soft bell sounds in treble registers belied the menace of yet another impending demise, registered by a violent close.

Four very short pieces followed. Debussy’s Elegie and his final piano work Les soirs illumines par l’ardeur du charbon (Evenings Illuminated By Glowing Coals), composed when he was dying of cancer, were brief but atmospheric. Ethnically flavoured were two dances by Armenian nationalist Komitas, representing a way of life extinguished by the Armenian genocide on 1915.

To conclude the evening was Ravel’s Le Tombeau De Couperin, a suite of six antique dances, each dedicated to a friend slain during the Great War. By now, Gerstein’s fluid technique and utter clarity were a given as he breezed through the Prelude and Fugue, followed by a Forlane, Rigaudon and Minuet, each with their own rhythmic interest.

Only in the final Toccata did Gerstein’s near infallibility almost came unstuck, but its thunderous ending and two fast and furious encores (the Bach-Busoni Chorale Prelude: Nun freut euch, lieben Christen [Rejoice, Beloved Christians] and Chopin’s Waltz Op.42, nothing to do with death whatsoever) provided an emphatic and heroic close. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2015)

TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.2

KIRILL GERSTEIN, Piano

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

James Gaffigan, Conductor

Myrios Classics 016 / ****1/2

This may come as a shock to some: the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 we know and love was never approved by the composer. This new recording revives the 1879 version of the warhorse, which Tchaikovsky conducted till his death in 1893, and has since been posthumously replaced by Alexander Siloti's popular edited version. This was also the version performed by Lazar Berman and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the 1994 Singapore Arts Festival.

What are the major differences? The cascades of opening chords in the 1^st movement are arpeggiated (spread out as if being played by a harp), and there is a major restoration of excised material in the development of the finale which is whimsically elaborative, almost altering its complexion. Furthermore, the final run of double octaves near the end is now maginally less brilliant than the Siloti version.

Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein gives an excellent account of these original thoughts, while the unchanged balance of the work has to yield to more explosive performances by Horowitz, Argerich and Freire. Its generous coupling is Prokofiev's monumental Piano Concerto No.2, a masterly and well-judged performance, in its revised version. The original was irretrievably lost during the Russian Revolution, but hope springs eternal for its eventual resurrection and recovery.    

KARAJAN AND HIS SOLOISTS I

Warner Classics 825646336258 (8 CDs) / *****

The recording legacy of Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) will forever be associated with the Deutsche Grammophon label but he had a very fruitful relationship with the British EMI label, cutting highly successful records from 1946 to 1984. This is the first volume of concerto recordings for EMI, dating from 1948 to 1958, with great soloists all of whom he outlived. The tragically short-lived Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti's takes on Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 and Schumann's Piano Concerto will be cherished for their surprising drive and lack of timidity.

The Schumann also features, despite an unfortunately incomplete 1^st movement, with the German Walter Gieseking, who also recorded Mozart (Piano Concertos Nos.23 & 24), Beethoven (Piano Concertos Nos.4 and 5), Grieg and Franck (Variations Symphoniques) with Karajan. True to his authoritarian reputation, Karajan's collaborations were noted for their pristine sense of order and total lack of histrionics.

However there is warmth to the Mozart concerto recordings with The Philharmonic Orchestra, partnering Dennis Brain (another soloist who died young) in the four horn concertos, and a British wind quartet in the Symphonia Concertante K.297b. The absolute rarities are Kurt Leimer's Piano Concerto in C minor and Left Hand Piano Concerto, with the composer as soloist, virtuoso works of neo-Romantic slant with influences of jazz and film music. Finally, Hans Richter-Haaser registers one of the most underrated readings of Brahms's Piano Concerto No.2. Essential listening, not just for Karajanophiles.