Denis Matsuev

CD release Denis Matsuev Rachmaninoff / Gershwin at the Sergei Rachmaninoff Gala in Moscow (1-2 April 2013)

Internationally acclaimed for his performances of numerous works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, pianist Denis Matsuev presents his new recording of the Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic (dir. Alan Gilbert) during a Rachmaninoff Anniversary Gala in Moscow, celebrating the composer’s 140th birthday.

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Watch live broadcast of the concert at 7:00 PM (Moscow time) on the official site of Denis Matsuev www.matsuev.ru on 1st and 2nd of April

1 April 2013 world music community is celebrating the 140 anniversary of the birth of the great Russian composer Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff. The Moscow Philharmonic society celebrates that date by concerts on 1st and 2nd of April. Two nights at the stage of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall famous works of the composer will be played : Symphony #2, the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, «Vocalise» - the favorite work of the composer, Piano concertos # 2 and 3 in the brilliant performance of Denis Matsuev and the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia with Leonard Slatkin.

Watch live broadcast of the concert on the official site of Denis Matsuev www.matsuev.ru at 7:00 PM (Moscow time).

Jubilee concerts at the year of the 140th anniversary of Rachmaninov.

The central event of the season. Rachmaninov Gala. Denis Matsuev and Leonard Slatkin. State Academic Symphony Orchestra.

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Review: Rachmaninov and Nielsen with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

Once Langeland had finished playing, the concert proper began. On the programme was Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto and Nielsen’s fourth symphony. The soloist for the Rachmaninov concerto was the Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. This performance also marked his debut with the orchestra. His account of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 3 was truly ravishing. His playing was crystal clear, even during Rachmaninov’s most virtuosic writing, his phrasing natural, and he never slid into the kind of sentimental, overly romantic interpretation that can easily almost ruin a piece like this concerto. Matsuev also played the longer, more difficult, original first-movement cadenza. His use of pedal, however, was a tad too liberal and often managed to blur out some of the virtuosic passages. 

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Review Pittsbough Post Gazette: PSO's perfection

At Heinz Hall recently, we saw the PSO's "A Night on Bald Mountain," Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Stunning. Explosive. Brilliant. Never heard the PSO play better or as one instrument. It was as if I was listening to "A Night On Bald Mountain" for the first time.

Russian pianist Denis Matsuev was grandly lyrical with unbelievable chops in the Rach 2 Piano Concerto. And when Mr. Matsuev encored with an Oscar Peterson-like brilliance on the Juan Tizol jazz standard, "Caravan," the packed house roared and the sitting orchestra members, stunned, responded in kind.

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OSM review: Virtuoso duet from Denis Matsuev, Mikhail Pletnev

MONTREAL - My Moscow relatives were jealous when I told them I would hear Denis Matsuev play Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto at the Maison symphonique Thursday, and these are not easy people to impress. I had one cousin train an elephant to walk a tightrope between two balconies at a party — a three-ton beast, bejazzled in every way, who loped across with a triumphant teenager on top — and nobody noticed.

Turns out they were right to be jealous, but first there was the matter of The Seasons, the ballet by Glazunov — the same Glazunov who allegedly ruined the première of Rachmaninoff’s first symphony by conducting it drunk. Not a Russian tradition, in this case — it’s just what I think of whenever these two share a concert program.

Glazunov was a wunderkind, like Rachmaninoff, but from St. Petersburg instead of Moscow. He even managed to ride out the revolution, which comes to mind because there is something shrewd about his music, even with Mikhail Pletnev leading the OSM. It was a vivid performance and its more brilliant parts, like the Autumn Bacchanal, made me glad there weren’t dancers trying to keep up with Pletnev. He conducts like a man launching a yacht in a tuxedo, careful-don’t-get-mud-on-it movements bursting into Christ-I’ll-do-it-myself. But most of the suite just ran prettily past. No matter how finely the material is worked, it’s still not gold.

Expectations were high when Matsuev arrived. At 38, he looks like a big, rosy-cheeked Siberian boy, but he moves like a gallant; he could have entered in a litter. Pletnev and he passed for two men ignoring each other while performing a virtuoso duet; the opening theme’s octaves glided into the orchestral line as if they were played by one hand, and the first cadenza (the piano solo) was volcanic, a freakish release that cast Matsuev’s elegant composure into self-conscious relief. The finale was sublime, but the best was their wondrous Intermezzo, as balanced as a watch spring and as full of discoveries as the ocean in the dead of night.

This much beauty was almost a knockout after Glazunov’s pretty slapping, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the massive audience from giving the champion six trips to the door before he realized an encore was necessary. So he played two.

Lev Bratishenko

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Famous American Pianist Van Cliburn Died

He personified a whole epoch of piano art, winning the Tchaikovsky competition in 1958. The victory was a truly landmark event – an American pianist won the first contest of P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Soviet Moscow. It really was a breakthrough in all respects, including politics, but politics in this case were relegated to second place because his playing was just so brilliant.

It is important that Van Cliburn was a follower of the Russian piano school. He graduated from the famous Julliard teacher Rosina Lhévinne, herself a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. He subsequently was awarded the diploma of the Moscow Conservatory and it’s certainly a sign of recognition, because Russian pianist school is felt in his playing: the art of singing at the piano and an absolutely amazing romantic style of execution that captivated audiences in the Soviet Union. All were in love, and the love was mutual. He adored the Soviet Union, Russia, the Russian audience. He was absolutely out of politics, has always been at the forefront of his art.

Very hard to speak in the past tense about such person. I remember my personal impressions from meeting him, we compared the purely visual aspects of winning the Tchaikovsky competition. This was an infinitely touching, sensitive, kind and helpful person who dedicated his entire life to the service of art and proved by his example that talent has no nationality, that there are artists all around the world. Such a bereavement. A true legend. Legends such as he, you can count them on one hand. Eternal memory …

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Concert in Carnegie Hall, November, 17, 2007

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Pianist Denis Matsuev discusses the February 15 & 17, 2013 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert

Original version at PSO site: http://vimeo.com/59710401

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Symphony superb in performances of classics

Pittsburgh Symphony music director Manfred Honeck returned Friday night to a packed house at Heinz Hall, where he conducted a blockbuster program of great and popular music. 

Honeck, who has been busy making his debuts with the New York and Berlin Philharmonics in 2013, began with an interpretation of Modest Mussorgsky's “Night on Bald Mountain” that would test any orchestra.

The performance played to extremes of all kinds, including a tempo for the main section of the piece that was so fast it was reminiscent of Soviet conductor Yevgeny Mravsinky in other repertoire. 

Although the tempo was anything but out of place for frenzied debauchery, only a great orchestra could make it work. 

No doubt Honeck pushed the limit, but the orchestra rose to the occasion in many ways — and not with only stunning articulation, dynamic contrasts and impressively concentrated brass sonorities. 

The end of the piece, ushered in by morning's bell, was quite slow and featured beautiful wind solos by Michael Rusinek and Lorna McGhee. Her flute tone was instantly captivating in a special way and her phrasing included nice individuality. 

Russian pianist Denis Matsuev followed with an astonishing performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2. This is music written for a pianist with big sound and stunning virtuosity, and has been played by countless great pianists. Even so, Matsuev's power and velocity were jaw dropping. 

Matsuev enjoys being the soloist, and if he sometimes overplayed and covered melodies he's actually accompanying, it must be admitted at other time he brought out inner ornamentation against the orchestra that is usually overlooked and provided freshness. 

After intermission Honeck brought back Ludwig van Beeethoven's Symphony No. 7, a piece for which he has a particularly superb interpretation. 

Honeck conducted this piece at his New York Philharmonic debut in early January. The interpretation he led Friday night was in most respects very similar to the one he led here in 2009. The energy and rhythmic focus carries all before it. His tempo relationships are excellent.

Yet there were new elements, most significantly more sustained and warmer string playing at the start of the second movement — which only served to deepen the expression without in any way losing the dignity of the feeling. 

By Mark Kanny

Published: Saturday, February 16, 2013, 12:01 a.m.

Updated 10 hours ago

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