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Mikhail Pletnev is recognised as one of the finest artists of our time. He won the Gold Medal and First Prize in the 1978 International Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 21, which brought him early recognition throughout the world. In 1990 he founded the Russian National Orchestra, joined by the best artists, and later founded the Mikhail Pletnev Fund, which supports major national cultural projects. A member of the Russian Cultural Council, in 2007 he received the President’s Award for his contribution to the country’s artistic life. The cumulative roles of pianist, conductor and composer are all important aspects of his life as an artist. However, he has the humility to always consider himself as a simple musician.
Having collaborated with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Sir András Schiff now focuses primarily on solo recitals, play-directing and conducting. Since 2004 he has performed the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas in over 20 cities, including Zurich where the cycle was recorded live for ECM. In recent years, his Bach has become an annual highlight of the BBC Proms. Schiff founded the chamber orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca in 1999, and enjoys a close relationship with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Orchestra of the Age Enlightenment—becoming an Associate Artist of the latter in 2018. He regularly performs at the Verbier Festival.
Stephen Kovacevich is one of the most searching interpreters, never afraid to take both technical and musical risks in order to achieve maximum expressive impact. As a pianist he has won unsurpassed admiration for his playing, non-more than from Leopold Stokowski who wrote: “You do with your feet what I try to do with my Philadelphia Orchestra”.
Born in Los Angeles, Stephen Kovacevich laid the foundation for his career as concert pianist at the age of eleven. After moving to England to study with Dame Myra Hess, Stephen made his European debut at Wigmore Hall in 1961. Since then he has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors including Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle and Georg Solti. In addition, he has forged many longstanding professional relationships, most notably with Colin Davis with whom he made numerous outstanding recordings, including the legendary Bartok Piano Concerto No.2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Recent and upcoming recital highlights include an extensive tour of the Far East, recitals in Paris, Berlin, Boston, Zagreb, Dublin and Cardiff, alongside two live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts from St George’s Hall, Bristol and Wigmore Hall. His recent concerto highlights include a triumphant return to Montreal Symphony Orchestra (under David Zinman), Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra (with Sylvain Cambreling), Malaysian Philharmonic (Jacek Kaspszyk), Orchestre de chambre de Paris (John Nelson) and Sydney Symphony Orchestra (Vladimir Ashkenazy). Stephen recently performed to a sell-out audience for his recital at the International Piano Series at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London. In addition, Stephen is a regular soloist at the Verbier and Lugano festivals.
Stephen is a committed chamber musician who has collaborated with Jacqueline du Pré ( with whom he recorded their celebrated recording of Beethoven’s Sonatas No. 3 and 5), Martha Agerich, Steven Isserlis, Nicola Benedetti, Nigel Kennedy, Lynn Harrell, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Kyung-wha Chung, Truls Mørk, Emmanuel Pahud, Anna Larsson, Alina Ibragimova, Philippe Graffin, Joseph Suk and the Amadeus, Belcea and-Cleveland Quartets.
Stephen Kovacevich has enjoyed an illustrious long-term relationship with recording companies Philips and EMI. To celebrate his 75th birthday, Decca has released a Limited Edition 25 CD Box Set of his entire recorded legacy for Philips. In 2008 Stephen Kovacevich recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations exactly 40 years after his first recording of the work. This Onyx recording won him the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award and the ‘Top Choice’ by Gramophone Magazine in September 2015, to quote: “his seasoned yet fearless mastery reveals something new with each hearing”.
In 2019, aged 22, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition, where he also won the Grand Prix, which has only been awarded three times before in the competition’s history. Hailed by critics as the ‘young tsar of the piano’ (Classica) and ‘Liszt reincarnated’ (Fanfare), he has received numerous other awards and has been invited to perform worldwide at the highest level.
Even before the competition, Kantorow had already been attracting attention. He began performing professionally at an early age, making his debut at La Folle Journée festival in Nantes at just 16. Since then he has played with many of the world’s major orchestras, including regular appearances with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. Highlights in this coming season include concerts with the Orchestre de Paris, Staatskappelle Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, as well as tours with the Orchestre National de Toulouse, Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.
He has performed solo recitals at major concert halls across Europe, such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, in their Master Pianists series, the Konzerthaus Berlin, Philharmonie de Paris, BOZAR in Brussels and Stockholm Konserthus. He has also appeared at some of the most prestigious festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Verbier Festival and Klavierfest Ruhr. Chamber music is another of his great pleasures and he regularly performs with Victor Julien-Laferrière, Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovick and Matthias Goerne.
Kantorow records exclusively with BIS, to great critical acclaim. His most recent recording (solo works by Brahms) received the 2022 Diapason d’Or. His two previous recordings (Saint-Saëns concerti 3-5 and solo works by Brahms, Bartok and Liszt) each received both the Diapason d’Or and Choc Classica of the Year in 2019 and 2020 respectively. The solo disc was Gramophone magazine’s Editor’s Choice, his performance described as ‘a further remarkable example of his virtuosity and artistry, showing both skill and sensitivity throughout’. His earlier ‘à la Russe’ recital recordings also won numerous awards and distinctions, including the 2017 Choc de l’Année (Classica), Diapason découverte (Diapason), Supersonic (Pizzicata) and CD des Doppelmonats (PianoNews).
Kantorow is a laureate of the Safran Foundation and Banque Populaire, and in 2019 was named ‘Musical Revelation of the Year’ by the Professional Critics Association. In 2020 he won the Victoires de la Musique Classique in two categories : Recording of the Year and Instrumental Soloist of the Year.
Born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and of Franco-British heritage, he has studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley and Rena Shereshevskaya.
Young Polish pianist Michał Biel’s collaborations have already taken him to the world’s most celebrated concert halls, including London’s Wigmore Hall, and Carnegie Hall and the Alice Tully Hall in New York. He has also appeared in recital on such eminent international stages as at the Oper Frankfurt, Opéra de Lille and the Polish National Opera. Countertenor Jakub Józef Orlínski is a regular chamber collaborator. Meanwhile it was with American bass Alexander Rosen that he won Second Prize at the 2018 Hugo Wolf International Art Song Competition in Stuttgart, and together they are laureates of the Academy Orsay-Royaumont. Further accolades include Best Young Accompanist at the 2015 Grand Prix de l’Opéra contest in Bucharest. Biel holds residencies as a collaborative pianist at the Juilliard School Vocal Arts Department and the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt.
Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike.
Following summer festival appearances in Verbier and Salzburg and on tour with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena, the 2022/2023 season begins with the opening week of the Chicago Symphony followed by return visits to New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, Houston, Philadelphia, New World, Pacific, Madison, New Jersey, Toronto and Montreal symphonies. In Europe he will tour with Rotterdam Philharmonic and can also be heard with Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich), Bamberg, Dresden Staatskapelle, Maggio Fiorentino and Zurich Opera orchestras.
Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, where he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, under Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, in 2010 he was further honored as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University and in 2015 with an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.
From an early age, Anna demonstrated an innate musical maturity and astounding technical abilities. Her live recording of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto has more than 30 million views on YouTube and is highly acclaimed by critics and world-renowned musicians. She regularly performs at the world’s most prestigious concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Tonhalle Zürich, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, and many others.
As a soloist, Anna has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Yomiuri Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic, and more. Called the ‘house pianist’ (Telegraaf) of the Concertgebouw, Anna has performed there more than 30 times as well as in numerous online and television broadcasts. Anna is currently artist-in-residence at the Haarlem Philharmonie in the Netherlands. She is a regular guest at leading music festivals such as the The Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, Stift Music Festival in the Netherlands, Festival de Sintra in Portugal, Ravinia Festival in the USA, and at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in France.
In 2018, Anna signed with Channel Classics Records for a series of recordings. By the end of 2022, she will have released three solo piano albums, four chamber music albums, and all of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos with the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen. “Her technique is fluent but never facile (…) demonstrating Fedorova’s fire and theatrical qualities”, BBC Music Magazine’s 5+5 star-review of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Preludes, and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Anna graduated from the Lysenko School of Music in Kyiv with Borys Fedorov and the Accademia Pianistica in Imola, Italy, with Leonid Margarius. She received her Master’s degree and Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music, London, under the guidance of Norma Fisher. Her mentors include Alfred Brendel, Menahem Pressler, Steven Isserlis, and András Schiff.
Nelson Freire has long been seen as a connoisseur’s pianist, but a series of superb recordings have raised his profile to the extent that he is now thought of as one of today’s universally recognised great musicians. Whether playing the great warhorses of the repertoire or the gentlest miniatures, he brings to his performances a level of quiet thoughtfulness that puts him in a class of his own.
Born in Boa Esperança, Brazil, he began piano lessons at the age of three with Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, who had worked with a pupil of Liszt. He made his first public appearance at the age of five playing Mozart’s Sonata K. 331. In 1957, after winning a grant at the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition with Beethoven’s Emperor concerto, he went to Vienna to study with Bruno Seidlhofer, teacher of Friedrich Gulda. Seven years later he won the Dinu Lipatti Medal in London and first prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon.
Since his international career began in 1959, Freire has appeared at virtually every important musical centre, in recital and working with countless distinguished conductors and orchestras. A great musical collaborator, he has toured extensively with Martha Argerich, with whom he shares a long-time musical collaboration and friendship. They have recorded several discs together, including a live recital from the Salzburg Festival.
He has an extensive discography and was included by Philips in its historic series Great Pianists of the 20th Century, released in 1999. He has been an exclusive Decca artist since 2001, his releases including major works by Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy, Liszt, as well as the two Brahms Concertos with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly. The Chopin bicentenary year of 2010 saw two new releases by Freire: his recording of the complete Nocturnes and a recital album. In the Liszt bicentenary year of 2011 Decca released his recital album Harmonies du Soir. An album of his compatriot Villa-Lobos, Brasileiro, was released in summer 2012.
In October 2014 he celebrated his 70th birthday with the first release in a Beethoven concerto cycle with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, coupling the Emperor concerto with the Sonata Op 111. It was followed by a recording of the Chopin F minor concerto with the Gurzenich Orchestra Köln under Lionel Bringuier, prompting BBC Music Magazine to say: “. . . it would be a rare connoisseur not to recognise a major master in the lyrical, rhythmically buoyant, spiritually abundant playing here”. Radio Days, a two-CD collection of concerto radio broadcasts from 1968 to 1979, included repertoire Freire had never recorded commercially, as well as his legendary Paris debut in Tchaikovsky’s first concerto with Masur in 1969. In March 2016 comes his first recorded recital of the music of Bach, featuring four great keyboard works and a collection of shorter pieces and arrangements.
Freire will be including Bach in recitals during spring 2016 in Lyon, Paris, Berlin, Perugia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Vancouver. His diary also has two recitals in his native Brazil and dates in Finland, Luxembourg, France and Germany, with Beethoven and Brahms concertos featuring prominently.
In March 2007, Nelson Freire was appointed a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and in January 2011 he was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion de’Honneur, the French government’s highest award to a foreigner.
“Few pianists alive convey the sheer joy and exhilaration of being masters of their craft more vividly and uncomplicatedly than Nelson Freire.” – The Guardian
source: https://www.deccaclassics.com/fr/artist/freire/biography
Born in 1986 in Fribourg, Florian Favre has now completed his Masters degree in Compositition & Theory with DJANGO BATES and DIETER AMMAN at the High School of Arts in Bern (HKB).
After a brief experience in the classical world of piano, he began to study jazz at the Conservatory of Fribourg with Richard Pizzorno. He received his Certificate in 2007, with a special commendation from the jury. He entered the Swiss Jazz School the same year and had the opportunity to study with Andy Scherrer, Bert Joris, Frank Sikora, Patrice Moret, William Evans, Dejan Terzic, Colin Vallon, Andreas Scherrer, and Thierry Lang. In 2010 he was selected to be part of the DKSJ All Star project with Pierre Audétat. That same year he received his Bachelor of Arts and the Friedelwald grant.
Born in Beijing, pianist Yuja Wang made her international breakthrough in 2007 when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, critical superlatives have continuously followed her dazzling career, her numerous awards and accolades including being Musical America’s 2017 Artist of the Year, and a 2019 Gramophone Award for The Berlin Recital on Deutsche Grammophon, with whom she has been an exclusive artist since 2009. Recent highlights include an Opus Klassik Award for her world-premiere recording of John Adams’ Must the Devil Have all the Good Tunes? with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, performing at Carnegie Hall’s 2021/22 season Opening Night Gala with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and tours with her regular chamber partners, violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Gautier Capuçon.