Teatro alla Scala
April 23, 2008
Fans of Kirill Gerstein can watch a live stream feed of his concert with Semyon Bychkov at the famed Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy on 28. April 2008 featuring the 2nd piano concerto of Dmitri Schostakovitch by visiting http://www.artemisinformatica.com/scala/index.html
Alternatively, visit http://www.filarmonica.it/ and click on the icon on the righthand side entitled “Fiilharmonica on Air”. Enjoy!
Dudamel and Gerstein debut with San Francisco Symphony
March 27, 2008
Like old friends…
Dudamel and Gerstein debut with San Francisco
It’s a musical match made in heaven.
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel and pianist Kirill Gerstein both made their San Francisco Symphony debut performances last weekend and the result was nothing less than explosive.
The Mercury News of March 22 2008 built upon the “explosive” metaphor describing Dudamel’s instigations as “cannon shots” and Gerstein’s retorts as “volleys across the keyboard” and continued lauding the collaboration in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto Nr 1 as
“…an out-of-this-world swoon from the orchestra, which Dudamel coaxed and tugged, with liquid fingertips, from the strings. And then: fabulous drizzled figurations from Gerstein, whose cadenza was a ball of fire, holding and gradually building its energy. The slow, quiet second movement - first composed, with the rest of the concerto, in 1891, though it hints at Gershwin, Bill Evans, even Adam Guettel of today’s Broadway - is largely given over to the soloist. Gerstein’s performance, here and straight through the thunderclap finale, was prodigious - a word which, applied to Gerstein, means abnormally good. ”
The San Francisco Chronicle of March 22 2008 had equal praise for the collaboration, describing Kirill Gerstein’s interpretation “romping nimbly through the piece’s passagework and collaborating with Dudamel in a briskly rhythmic account of the two outer movements.”
The second half of the programme in San Francisco was comprised simply of the full score of Stravinsky’s 1910 Firebird. The Chronicle described Dudamel’s interpretation as “marked by brilliant instrumental color, narrative clarity and rhythmic exuberance” and noted his “knack for locating and shining a spotlight on piquant details. ”
Papers as far and wide as the London Financial Times of 27 March 2008 pointed out Dudamel’s “skills as a colourist and his palpable delight in orchestral textures” in commenting his Firebird and suggests Gerstein as a pianist “with prodigious technical resources and undeniable flair” for his unforgettable Rachmaninoff.
Both Kirill and Gustavo will meet again in a few weeks in Caracas for concerts with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela - from the sounds of things, it’s a collaboration not to be missed!
Congratulations to both artists!
“Dazzling” (Manchester Evening News) - February 14, 2008
February 16, 2008
“Dazzling” Kirill Gerstein made his dazzling debut this week with the Halle Orchestra at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in 5 performances of the Ravel concerto in G, a work which the Manchester Evening News described as “such a fearsome work to play that even Ravel himself couldn’t master it.” The review continued that “Gerstein, cool and competent, despatched it in style. He also volunteered an encore neatly appropriate to the French theme – Busoni’s Sonatina on the tunes from Bizet’s Carmen.” Read the complete review