concert

Igor Levit — Tonhalle Zurich, 2014-10-21

Igor Levit was born 1987 in Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky); in 1995 his family moved to Germany; he grew up with the piano (his mother is a pianist whose teacher had once studied with Heinrich Neuhaus), did his musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and finished with the best notes ever given by that institution. Aged 17, he was the youngest participant at the International Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, in 2005; he won the second prize, plus several special awards, such as the special prize for chamber music, and the audience award…

Yulianna Avdeeva — Piano Recital, Baden/CH, 2014-03-08

(…) Yulianna’s playing was excellent! She is very virtuosic and very expressive! Where the tempo permits, she is nearly as clear in the articulation as Steven Hough — but she is way more expressive; unlike Volodos, she follows the score; she is not overpowering the music like Volodos, but has more agility than her Russian colleague (and avoids his unnecessary additions, I should say), she is often almost as fast and eruptive as Cziffra in the virtuosic octave passages, but in general keeps her articulation under control…

CD / Studio vs. Live Recordings / Concerts

A lot could be said about the pros and cons of concerts or live recordings vs. listening to CDs / studio recordings. I remember endless discussions many years ago with friends, around the quality of audio reproduction, stereo equipment, etc. — and I remember one friend who would typically kill any such discussion with the argument “You know, for me, nothing beats a live concert experience!”, at which point it made no sense to carry the discussion any further. However,…

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff — Zurich Opera, 2013-12-22

Personal report on the Philharmonic Concert at Zurich Opera, 2013-12-22: Lise de la Salle and Fabio Luisi / Philharmonia Zurich — Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, op.18; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in B minor, op.74, “Pathétique”

Han-Na Chang & Finghin Collins — Wigmore Hall London, 2012-04-28

(…) stunned by Han-Na Chang’s performance of the Haydn C major concerto (…). That performance dates back some 7 years (2005) — but she had recorded both Haydn concertos already back in 1998, when she was 16; in that YouTube performance, it was amazing to see not only her enormous technical skills, but also her freedom of expression, and how much she has detached herself from technicalities, how much she is totally relaxed and appears to enjoy her own playing while visually communicating with the orchestra…

Yulianna Avdeeva — Piano Recital, Zurich, 2011-09-26

(…) I’m not a professional concert reviewer — but unfortunately, this event went largely unnoticed by the media, and at least in the two newspapers I checked (the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and our local newspaper) the concert was not reviewed at all, so let me try giving at least some rudimentary, subjective comments on how I experienced the evening…

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