Evgeny Kissin

NyVoice on GetClassical

October 10, 2011. The pianist Evgeny Kissin needs no introduction. He has firmly established himself as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. Born in Moscow in 1971, he began playing piano by ear at the age of two. At the age of six he entered the Gnesssin School of Music where he became a student of Anna Kantor. Ms. Kantor remained his only teacher, a highly unusual case in the music world. At the age of ten Evgeny made his concert debut playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20 and just one year later he gave his first piano recital. At the age of 12 he played his first concert at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, at 14 started touring Eastern Europe, two years later – the West, and in 1988 he famously played Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1991 Kissin debuted in the US, playing Chopin piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. Kissin moved to the West in 1991, living in New York and London. These days he resides in Paris. Kissin’s discography is large and well known. Here’s just one sample of his amazing virtuosity and musicianship, a live performance of Liszt’s La Campanella (courtesy of Youtube). Since Mr. Kissin is a very private man, we hope that Ilona Oltuski’s account of his tour of Australia will be of interest to our listeners.

Evgeny Kissin conquers down under

After an invigorating summer, filled with concerts at the Verbier Music Festival, some preparations for his London apartment’s renovation, and of course some intense practicing in his flat in Paris and on his stopover in Los Angeles, Kissin expands his musical reach to Australia.

Rather distraught by constant schedule changes due to hurricane Irene and extracurricular distractions, he was getting antsy to return to the piano and prepare for this undertaking. Only once was he willing to converse light heartedly with me about his upcoming trip, and only after he had practiced a good, uninterrupted seven hours at the Los Angeles Disney Hall, located in immediate proximity to his hotel.

Kissin was looking forward to this trip, but not everything was advancing as planned. And nothing is left to chance with this artist. A lot of considerations, like the weather conditions – Kissin does not like extreme heat – practice possibilities, distance to travel without breaks, etc., enter the planning stages of a concert tour around two years before the actual tour begins. A lot of things can change between the planning and the outcome, and his former manager at IMG Artists, Edna Landau, who still keeps in touch with Kissin, always understood the importance of his particularities. She expressed her excitement about the news of his Australia tour to me: “I am quite fascinated to know that Zhenya is going to Australia. When I worked with him he refused to even contemplate such a tour… I wonder what the deciding factor was.”

Whatever the reasons for his initial hesitations, they seem all but forgotten. Most of all, this speaks of a more open and easy going disposition, a change within Kissin himself. It’s a sure sign of his developing some elasticity, an eagerness to stretch and expand the cocoon that has so tightly enveloped this performer, since his early prodigal years.