Blog #74. London-Munich-Moscow

October 4 2016

It is less, than three day Crescendo gala concert closed its season for 2015 and I start my European tour already. It promises to be eventful, bright, diverse, pleasant and long awaited - all at the same time. I open a new season in London, in famous Royal Festival Hall with celebrated London orchestra Philharmonia and my dear maestro Yuri Temirkanov today. I always say, that London concerts has a special place in my life: as London is one of the most famous cultural capitals of Europe, as I love and adore London audience, as I maintain warm and close relations with London orchestras. It is a great pleasure to open my new season with my dear friend maestro Temirkanov and wonderful Philharmonia orchestra, which proved to be a truly universal team. I am looking forward to this concert today.

After that I am going to Munich, where I perform concerts with my dear friend maestro Mariss Jansons, absolutely phenomenal conductor. And if the last time we performed the concert with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (we had world tour together and maestro Jansons was its chief conductor), now we are going to perform with Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. I met with its team in 2004, when we recorded Fifth concerto by R. Shchedrin. It is an absolutely phenomenal orchestra, one of the best in Europe and in the world according to “Gramophone” magazine. It has phenomenal romantic sound, well-balanced and emotional at the same time. And the quality is unprecedented!

We perform rhapsodies that evening: Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Lutoslawski. The last one is a truly unique work by Polish composer, variations on variations of famous Caprice No 24 one might say. And it is of great success wherever I perform it.

After Munich I fly to Amsterdam for my recital in Concertgebouw within famous “Master Pianist” Series, organized by legendary Marco Riaskoff, who invited the most famous pianists of the world to take part in it. I’ve told you about this series a lot of times already. It has a several decades long history. And every time it is a great pleasure to me to perform here. Thanks to aura of the hall, audience and unique management of the series. Every time I catch myself thinking, that it is like time-travelling back to the middle of the 20th century, like meeting Solomon Hurok, for example. These people put their heart and soul into organizing this series and it has a definite impact on the result. I am glad that Medici team is going to broadcast this concert and release DVD/BlueRay disc with new technical possibilities for a viewer. Medici is famous for its talent to turn a concert of classical music into bright dynamic almost theatrical in nature performance. And it is exciting!

This concert will take place on 11th of October and on 12th of October I return to Moscow for a festive concert dedicated to the anniversary of Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Maestro Spivakov and I plan a special program for this concert. Moscow Philharmonic Society is a place where I work for more than 20 years. We with Alexei Alexeevich Shalashov work out a special format for this concert. It was decided that laureates of Tchaikovsky Competition of different years will participate in it in different concerts and variations. We also see Vladimir Spivakov as a conductor of “Virtuosos of Moscow” and as a violinist as well this evening. And I am going to perform Mozart’s Triple concert with my young colleagues Alexander Malofeev and Varvara Kutuzova. There also will be a special surprise, but I won’t tell you about it.

It bids fair to be an eventful and exciting week. Crescendo-style life continues! See you soon!

Video youtube.com

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