Yuri Bashmet
Evgeny Kissin

Performers

• Evgeny Kissin, Piano
• Yuri Bashmet, Viola

Program

• SCHUBERT Sonata in A Minor, D. 821, "Arpeggione"
• BRAHMS Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2
• SHOSTAKOVICH Viola Sonata

Bios

• Evgeny Kissin
  
  Mr. Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971 and began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at the age of 2. At age 6, he entered a special school for gifted children, the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow, where he was a student of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, who has remained his only teacher. At the age of 10, he made his concerto debut, playing Mozart’s D-Minor Concerto, K. 466, and gave his first solo recital in Moscow one year later. He came to international attention in March 1984 when, at the age of 12, he performed Chopin’s Piano Concertos nos. 1 and 2 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow Philharmonic under Dmitri Kitaenko.
  
  Mr. Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia took place in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan. In 1988, he performed with Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker in a New Year’s concert that was broadcast internationally. In 1990, Mr. Kissin made his first appearance at the BBC Proms in London; that same year, he made his North American debut, performing both Chopin concertos with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta. The following week, he opened Carnegie Hall’s centennial season with a spectacular debut recital, recorded live by BMG Classics.
  
  Musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Mr. Kissin. He received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year in 1986 (which was his first performance in Japan). He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997, he became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic.
  
  Mr. Kissin’s recordings have also received numerous awards and accolades, including the Edison Klassiek in the Netherlands, Grammy Awards, Diapason d’Or, and the Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque in France.
  
  Mr. Kissin’s 2010–2011 season features engagements in major cities across Europe, including London, Milan, Paris, Salzburg, and Vienna. He will then embark on an extensive North American tour that includes recitals, orchestral appearances, and chamber-music concerts with Yuri Bashmet.

  More Info
  
  
• Yuri Bashmet
  
  Born in 1953 in Rostov-on-Don in Russia, Yuri Bashmet spent his childhood in Lviv, Ukraine, before studying at the Moscow Conservatory. His international career was launched in 1976 when he won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Since then, Mr. Bashmet has appeared with the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker; Vienna and London philharmonic orchestras; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Boston, Chicago, and London symphony orchestras; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; and New York Philharmonic. The London Symphony Orchestra presented its own four-concert festival in his honor.
  
  Many noted composers have written for Mr. Bashmet, including Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Poul Ruders, Alexander Tchaikovsky, and Alexander Raskatov. Styx by Giya Kancheli, The Myrrh-Bearer by John Tavener, and On Opened Ground by Mark-Anthony Turnage were also written for him.
  
  In December 2002, Mr. Bashmet became Principal Conductor of the newly formed State Symphony Orchestra “New Russia,” which he has performed with in Moscow and throughout Europe. He has also appeared as conductor and soloist with the Dresdner Philharmoniker, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Camerata Salzburg, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Brussels Philharmonic. Mr. Bashmet is also the Artistic Director of the December Evenings Festival in Moscow, and is the Founder and Director of Moscow Soloists, a chamber orchestra he has performed with and directed since 1992.
  
  Chamber music collaborators have included Sviatoslav Richter, Gidon Kremer, Mstislav Rostropovich, Maxim Vengerov, Natalia Gutman, Viktoria Mullova, and the Borodin Quartet. Mr. Bashmet formed a highly successful trio with mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Other recent projects include Beethoven trios with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lynn Harrell. He is a frequent visitor to summer festivals, including Elbe Festival, Verbier Festival, and Beppu Argerich Music Festival in Japan.
  
  Mr. Bashmet’s Deutsche Grammophon recording of the Gubaidulina Concerto and Kancheli Styx won a Diapason d’Or and earned a Grammy nomination. Other notable Deutsche Grammophon discs include a recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with Anne-Sophie Mutter; Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 with Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, and Mischa Maisky; and the Bartók Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Pierre Boulez. For Onyx Classics, he and Moscow Soloists have recorded chamber symphonies by Shostakovich, Sviridov, and Vainberg; music by Stravinsky and Prokofiev, which received a Grammy Award; and a disc of music by composers from the Far East.

  More Info