Lundi 26 mars 2018, jour d’abstinence. Je veux dire que je me privai de musique la journée entière pour avoir le soir les oreilles fraîches et la fringale aiguisée. J’arrivai de bonne heure au Théâtre des Champs Elysées : une des plus belles salles de Paris avec son style Art-Déco, son plafond de Maurice Denis et la netteté particulière de son acoustique. Les plus âgés avaient réservé à l’orchestre et les plus jeunes aux balcons. ...

The superb Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) has had an annual residency at Lucerne’s Easter Festival since 2004. Two years prior to that, Mariss Jansons had taken over the reins from Lorin Maazel as Chief Conductor, and he stands as a true measure of the festival’s standard of excellence, the venue being the stunning Jean Nouvel-designed hall on the shores of Lake Lucerne. ...

Having performed in venues across the world, including the Royal Festival Hall, Concertgebouw, and Carnegie Hall, Russian pianist Denis Matsuev arrives in Hong Kong this month to perform a cycle of the Rachmaninov piano concerti. Denis’ journey to the great stages of the world began as a child, where he was immersed in a musical household. ...

From the opening, fanfare-like Vivace, Matsuev was in complete control, and used his instrument’s full range in the extensive cadenza (a recollection of the movement’s themes), which made the nocturne-like Andante cantabile second movement all the more effective as he demonstrated wonderfully reflective playing. ...

Wie Denis Matsuev (1975) het Tweede Pianoconcert van Sergei Prokofjev hoort spelen weet het zeker: dit is een meesterwerk. Het gaat misschien wat ver om te beweren dat Prokofjev dit werk speciaal voor Matsuev heeft geschreven – hij schreef de eerste drie van zijn vijf concerten in eerste instantie voor eigen gebruik. Maar voor elke uitvoering van het tweede concert deed de pianist Prokofjev toch wel even een schietgebedje. ...

Se dovessi fare una classifica dei compositori classici, questi due sarebbe senz’altro fra i primi cinque. Mi affascinano per il loro modo unico di usare la melodia, per la profondità e la peculiarità del loro linguaggio musicale. Credo che entrambi siano autori romantici. Sebbene Beethoven sia un compositore appartenente all’epoca classica, la sua Sonata op. 31 n.2, che eseguirò, è musica puramente romantica. Čajkovskij è un grande compositore romantico, sottile, malinconico, contemplativo. I due vivono in periodi storici diversi, ma hanno una nota romantica in comune. ...

L’unica cosa in comune tra Andrea Lucchesini e Denis Matsuev, due artisti diversi sotto ogni aspetto, è la passione per il calcio. ...

Scelgo la musica con cui mi sento in relazione in quel momento. Ho bisogno di provare affetto, connessione mentale ed emotiva con la musica che suono. Chimica unica. Se non provo questi sentimenti per una musica, non la suonerò sul palco. Al contrario, se i desideri del pubblico e i miei sentimenti interiori verso una certa musica coincidono, allora la aggiungerò volentieri al mio repertorio. Mi piace anche suonare opere che non sono molto famose ma allo stesso tempo assolutamente fenomenali, come il Secondo e il Terzo concerto di Čajkovskij, o il Concerto n. 4 di Rachmaninov. Molta musica classica geniale non è ancora abbastanza conosciuta, così cerco di modificare la situazione. ...

Denis Matsuev’s partnership with Valery Gergiev’s Mariinsky Orchestra on the orchestra’s own label has produced one of the must-have series of Russian piano concertos in recent years. This seventh offering finds the collaboration at its height with the pairing of the Second Piano Concertos by Rachmaninov (the First and Third already available) and Prokofiev (the Third previously released). ...

The magic continued through the entire night. For the next piece, a tall and strong man, with curly rich hair and a willful face, came to the stage. It was Denis Matsuev, called by some Siberian Bear, a man who knows how to get from his favorite instrument, the piano, really soft as well as really sharp and strong sounds. It seemed like the only parts of his body that he didn't use to press piano keys were his knees; the rest of his body, though, was on top of it. ...

As a tremendous bonus, Denis Matsuev, the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition winner (1998), was along for the ride and torched the hall with an absolutely stunning Prokofiev Piano Concerto no. 2 in G Minor, but more on that later. Gergiev’s conducting and Matsuev’s playing comprised the main story Friday night. But it was Matsuev who, for a time, stole the show right out from under Gergiev. ...

Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto sneaks up on an audience. Matsuev made it dance gracefully over the opening music-box phrases, perfectly setting up the ferociously complex, dissonant and rhythmically obsessive gestures that later pepper the score. He managed to get a robust tone out of the Steinway, stopping short of clanging on these hammering phrases. The result carried the audience along, anticipating the next climax instead of dreading it. Both conductor and pianist relished Prokofiev’s prankster-like wit, quite different from Shostakovich’s barely concealed snarl. ...

The Second Piano Concerto, which on Sunday benefited from the iron-man keyboard prowess of pianist Denis Matsuev, comes tearing out of the gate as if on steroids and doesn’t take a breath until its three movements are complete. It covers a lot of ground, too — stentorian twelve-tone writing in the first movement, a sudden burst of bebop piano that crops up (uninvited but hardly unwelcome) in the finale, and in between, more ferocious passagework than most composers would pack into three concertos and an encore. ...

Prokoviev’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 2 was a place for more biting heroism. Matsuev produced the tone of a powerful gong, and the beautiful opening tune rang like a great summons. It was a summons for a spectacular bruising as he later dominated the piano with astonishing force. For his encore, Liadov’s “The Music Box,” Matsuev released yet another Russian secret weapon, the ability to electrify upper registers of the piano with mere finger power. ...

Though born a generation apart, conductor Valery Gergiev and pianist Denis Matsuev are longtime collaborators. The general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Gergiev returns with the Mariinsky Orchestra for an SCP Orchestra Series concert Nov. 8, featuring Matsuev as soloist in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Also on the program are Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 and Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. ...

When watching world-class performances the mind tends to do one of two things. It either observes avidly in awe and wonder at the virtuosity on display or, at the optimum level, the consciousness switches off altogether and leaves the imagination to animate the musical pictures. This concert by the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev prompted both reactions. ...

Manchmal genügt eine einzige Geste: Denis Matsuev, Capell-Virtuos 2017/18 bei der Sächsischen Staatskapelle, nimmt die wenigen Meter zwischen Vorhang und Flügel derart entschlossen, dass man sich in den ersten Minuten in der Semperoper bei einem bilateralen Unterzeichnungsakt – Völkerfreundschaft, Atomausstieg oder ähnliches – wähnt, anstelle in einem Klavierkonzert. Doch das ist verflogen, als der 42-jährige die Tasten berührt und aus dem Steinway den wunderbaren „Jahreszeiten“-Zyklus von Peter Tschaikowsky strömen läßt. ...

Holder of People’s Artist of Russia title in TASS special project Top Officials ...