Dancing Shoes Are Optional

Encores at recitals tend to display an artist’s virtuosity and range; it is rare that they can stand as symbols of the concerts they cap. But when the pianist Kirill Gerstein played a dazzling, slippery étude arrangement (by Earl Wild) of the Gershwins’ “I Got Rhythm” at the end of his exhilarating solo debut at the 92nd Street Y on Saturday, it neatly encapsulated what he had been doing so excellently all evening.

Throughout a program that revolved around the theme of dance, Mr. Gerstein was never just entertaining. Dance, in his telling, is not about smooth grace or merely keeping time but about uncertainty and destabilization, a seductive uneasiness. The beat was never quite regular in his eclectic, time-traveling mix of gavottes, waltzes, boleros and gigues. Mr. Gerstein was always ready with a slight acceleration, a hairsbreadth rubato or a sudden, subtle shift of tone to keep you on your toes.

New York Times, April 23, 2012

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Kirill Gerstein Balances Classical Music and Jazz

“Listen to this,” the pianist Kirill Gerstein said, clicking “play” on his iPhone. The recording, a synthesizer track that approximated the sounds of a piano and a vibraphone, was a rough demo for “The Visitors,” a work the jazz pianist Chick Corea had written for Mr. Gerstein and his former mentor the vibraphonist Gary Burton.

On this chilly afternoon in mid-February Mr. Gerstein had not yet seen the finished score, though rehearsals with Mr. Burton for a performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston at the end of March were scheduled to begin the following week in Florida. But Mr. Gerstein knew how the rest of the program would play out. It would include the premiere of a half-hour set of variations written for him by another jazz star, Brad Mehldau; a few jazz-tinged Ligeti études; another duet with Mr. Burton on Oscar Levant’s “Blame It on My Youth”; several of Earl Wild’s Gershwin transcriptions; and the original 1924 band version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

New York Times, April 13, 2012

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The final showdown: Kirill vs. “Rach 2″

The third and final week of “RachFest” is filling me with excitement for the upcoming performances of Rachmaninoff’s second concerto. I’m also feeling a hint of nostalgia as this project comes to a close. It has been wonderful and challenging to be immersed uninterruptedly in Rachmaninoff’s concertos. Performing all of them with the musicians of the Houston Symphony, becoming familiar with many of the audience members, feeling the continuity of the series and staying in Houston for three weeks has been a memorable and touching experience.

- Houston Symphony Blog, January 18, 2012

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One down, three to go! On deck: Rach 1 & 4

Our “RachFest” continues this week with a pairing of Rachmaninoff’s 1st and 4th piano concertos. These two wonderful pieces are sometimes undeservedly overshadowed by their more famous cousins. I am glad to have the chance to present them to the Houston audience, and playing them together in one program makes a lot of sense.

- Houston Symphony Blog, January 11, 2012

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A fearless hand ballet: Gerstein attacks a naughty RachFest with a perfectionist’s cool for Symphony

If Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto could talk, it would say take me, love me, hug me, hold me, adore me.

And that’s just the PG version. I suspect what’s lurking between the lines would be more sultry, even naughty, not verbiage I’d be willing to put down on a critique of such a classic. But if you could picture a passionate romantic romp that was set in motion with a shot of vodka, a piece of rye and a spoon full of caviar, this soundtrack would not be in the background, it would be paramount to the escapade.

- CultureMap Houston, January 6, 2012

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Houston Symphony promotes its version of a prizefight

The people at the Houston Symphony have come up with a pretty clever campaign for its upcoming RachFest: The advertising deliberately resembles a promotion for a boxing match.

For three weeks in January, Jones Hall will play host to “the biggest, baddest showdown of the century”: composer Sergei Rachmaninoff “vs.” pianist Kirill Gerstein.

The analogy sort of makes sense. The famous Russian composer wrote four big-fisted piano concertos that are each daunting for any pianist. The 32-year-old Gerstein is bravely stepping into the ring to play all four of them.

- Houston Chronicle, January 3, 2012

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