Maestro Grigory Sokolov (Piano)
“ At heart he’s a colorist, an intimist, melancholic, with astonishing tonal
nuances and an endless, much-trafficked variety of touches… the Preludes were
the true revelation: profoundly original, magisterial, heartfelt. The audience
sat through them in complete, rapt silence. Long lines breathed to an elastic
rhythm. Preludes like the one in B flat minor galloped and raced. Those in F
sharp and D flat produced moments of faraway, unearthly beauty. I can’t at the
moment recall anything like them. Here was a great artist.” -Berlin, April
2008 New York Times
“A recital by Grigory Sokolov is like a vision of a lost age of Russian
pianism.” -London, June 2007 The Guardian
“Piano cosmique”. Car tout comme Glenn Gould, mais dans des esthйtiques
opposes, on peut dire: “Il y a Sokolov, et il y a les pianistes”. —Paris,
November 2007 Le Figaro
At the moment I do not see any other pianist in this class — Peter
Lemken Berlin
“Sokolov is for many the greatest pianist alive today. … Sokolov is a
pianistic Dostoyevsky, his music-making vast in scope, visionary and revelatory,
squeezing out every last drop of meaning.” —International Piano, Sept.
2006
The unique, unrepeatable nature of music made in the present moment is central
to understanding the expressive beauty and compelling honesty of Grigory
Sokolov’s art. The Russian pianist’s poetic interpretations, which come to life
with mystical intensity in performance, arise from profound knowledge of the
works in his vast repertoire.
His recital programmes span everything from
transcriptions of medieval sacred polyphony and keyboard works by Byrd,
Couperin, Rameau, Froberger to the music of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann,
Chopin, Brahms and landmark twentieth-century compositions by Prokofiev, Ravel,
Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. He is widely recognized among
pianophiles as one of today’s greatest pianists, an artist universally admired
for his visionary insight, spellbinding spontaneity and uncompromising devotion
to music.
Grigory Sokolov was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) on 18
April 1950. He started to play piano at the age of five and, two years later,
began studies with Liya Zelikhman at the Central Special School of the Leningrad
Conservatory. He went on to receive lessons from Moisey Khalfin at the Leningrad
Conservatory, and gave his debut recital in Leningrad in 1962. Sokolov’s
prodigious talent was recognized in 1966 when at 16, he became the youngest
musician ever to receive the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano
Competition in Moscow. Emil Gilels, chairman of the Tchaikovsky Competition
jury, subsequently championed Sokolov’s work.
While Grigory Sokolov
undertook major concert tours to the United States and Japan in the 1970s, his
artistry evolved and matured away from the international spotlight. His live
recordings from Soviet times acquired near-mythical status in the West, evidence
of an artist at once entirely individual, like no other, yet nourished by the
rich soil of the Russian tradition of piano playing. Following the collapse of
the Soviet Union, Sokolov began to appear at Europe’s leading concert halls and
festivals. He performed extensively as concerto soloist with orchestras of the
highest calibre, working with among others the New York Philharmonic, the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Philharmonia London, the
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Munich Philharmonic, before
deciding to focus exclusively on giving solo recitals. Sokolov performs around
70 concerts each season, immersing himself fully in a single programme and
touring extensively throughout Europe.
Unlike many pianists, Sokolov
takes the closest interest in the mechanism and set-up of the instruments he
plays. He spends hours exploring their physical characteristics, consulting and
collaborating with piano technicians to achieve his ideal requirements. “You
need hours to understand the piano, because each one has its own personality and
we play together,” he explains. The partnership between artist and instrument is
critically important to the flow of Sokolov’s musical ideas. Sparing in his use
of the sustaining pedal, he conjures everything from the subtlest tonal and
textural gradations to the boldest contrasts of sound through the sheer
brilliance of his finger-work. Critics regularly draw attention to his uncanny
ability to articulate individual voices within a complex polyphonic texture and
project seamless melodic lines.
Grigory Sokolov’s charismatic artistry
holds the power to cultivate the concentration necessary for audiences to
contemplate even the most familiar compositions from fresh perspectives. In
recital he draws listeners into a close relationship with the music,
transcending matters of surface display and showmanship to reveal deeper
spiritual meaning. Sokolov’s art rests on the rock-solid foundations of his
unique personality and individual vision.
In 2014 Sokolov signed an
exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and a first album was released in
January 2015, a sensational recital recorded live at the 2008 Salzburg Festival.
The double-disc set’s contents reflect the breadth and depth of his repertoire,
comprising two sonatas by Mozart, Chopin’s 24 Préludes Op.28 and encore pieces
by J.S. Bach, Chopin, Rameau and Scriabin. Sokolov’s Salzburg Recital album was
followed in January 2016 by the release of a second two-disc set, Sokolov
Schubert/ Beethoven. The latter includes Schubert’s Four Impromptus D 899 and
Three Piano Pieces D 946, recorded live at the Warsaw Philharmonie in 2013, and
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 “Hammerklavier”, recorded in performance at the
2013 Salzburg Festival, together with encores by Rameau and Brahms.
Maestro Grigory Sokolov plays Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto # 3. Part 1 of 5. |
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About This Video 09:55 Grand Philharmonic Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia. |
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