The Keyboard Charitable Trust Prizewinner’s Concert at Wigmore Hall on Thursday, 16th April (7.30pm) will feature the astonishingly talented and thrilling pianist, Vitaly Pisarenko.
‘An immensely gifted pianist, with prodigious technique, myriad shadings and scrupulous accuracy.’ - New York Times
‘One of the most precocious and original young talents of the keyboard … with a prodigious musicality supported by astounding technical accomplishment. Certain to be one of the foremost pianists of his generation.’ – Leslie Howard
‘Here is a young pianist who is full of temperament, fire, intelligence, imagination and sensitivity. He is already on the path to greatness.’ – Janina Fialkowska
Probably the two best reasons to go to hear a piano recital are to be entertained with interesting and thought-provoking repertoire, and to hear a great artist in full flight. This concert promises to be an occasion that fulfils both criteria to the utmost.
In the twenty-four years of its existence, the Keyboard Charitable Trust has assisted exceptionally talented young musicians to find and to sustain a platform in an increasingly difficult environment. The Keyboard Trust has never had a more worthy artist to champion than Vitaly Pisarenko, a pianist well-known in his native Russia, and in recent times a popular figure in many European cities. Pisarenko’s greatest success as a young competition player is undoubtedly the First Prize he took at the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht in 2008, and it was on the back of this achievement that the Keyboard Trust, in collaboration with the Liszt Society, gave him his first chance to play in London. He has since performed around the world with a broad and compelling series of recital programmes and concertos, to great critical acclaim. The present Wigmore Hall recital is offered by the Keyboard Trust in recognition of Pisarenko’s superior artistry.
Vitaly Pisarenko’s programme on 16th April 2015 presents a splendid array of music by Beethoven, Ravel, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev that is very close to his heart. He has described his choices in these words:
This Wigmore Hall recital programme was chosen for its juxtaposition of different styles, characters and emotions which encompass much that is important in the development of the Romantic and post-Romantic piano repertoire. Beethoven’s famous Grande Sonate pathétique is a relatively early composition (Op 13, 1798) which adumbrates the direction that will be taken by his symphonies and some of the late piano sonatas. This arresting beginning is balanced by a polar opposite: Ravel’s piano cycle Miroirs, rarely heard in its entirety, with its rich impressionistic palette of unusual and mystical harmonies, and transparent and illusory sounds. Midway in sound and style lie Rachmaninov’s ‘Elegy’ and ‘Melody’ – Nos 1 and 3 of the Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op 3. These pieces are amongst the most delightful miniatures in the essential piano repertoire: romantic creations of extremely beautiful melody and harmony. It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast with the final work in the recital: Prokofiev’s Sonata No 6, the first of his triad of War Sonatas. This dramatic, tragic, defiant, and even sometimes grotesque composition of 1940 is imbued by the foreboding of the impending arrival of the Second World War upon Russian soil.
This will be a concert about which, in years to come, the lucky people who were in attendance will be able to say: ‘I was there when the great Pisarenko gave his first Wigmore recital!’
Pisarenko has been studying with Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music since 2012. He completed his Master’s degree at the RCM (with distinction) in 2014; and is currently studying at the RCM for an Artist Diploma. He is also studying at the Piano Academy in Imola, Italy with Boris Petrushansky.