Kirill Gerstein: Zukunftshoffnung

Kirill Gerstein and András Schiff teamed up this week for a extraordinary, and uprecedented, two concert presentation of the works of Ferruccio Busoni at the Salzburger Festspiele.

The performances, which took place in the famed Mozarteum, included works such as the Fantasia Contrappuntistica for two pianos, described by the Salzburger Nachrichten of 11. Aug 2008 as "a piano work of such powerful dimension that the composer prepared an architectural sketch to demonstrate the monumental nature of the movements as a whole".

The Salzburger Nachrichten continued that both Mr Schiff and Mr Gerstein "enlightened the difficult-to-grasp and thus seldom performed work with precision, and with loving detail". Read the complete review of the first concert here.

The Vienna "Die Presse" also from 11. Aug 2008 commented that the pairing Schiff/Gerstein in the Fantasia Contrappuntistica "were able to expose the internal architecture of the Fantasie with great virtuosity and in perfect collaboration".

For the complete review, see here.

In the second concert, Gerstein was in top form in three solo works including Busoni's Sonatina seconda per pianoforte, Schoenberg's Drei Klavierstuecke op 11 and the Schoenberg Klavierstueck op 11 in the Busoni arrangement. Again, the Salzburger Nachrichten praised Gerstein for his "enlightened" performance, continuing that "Der junge russische Pianist gilt als Zukunftshoffnung" - Gerstein is hope for the future. Read the complete review here.

Congratulations on a spicy Salzburg collaboration and here is to many more to come!

14 August, 2008

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