Denis Matsuev

Around Kreisler, the hallucinated Kapellmeister born from the fertile pen of the writer E.T.A. Hoffmann and transformed by Robert Schumann in a kind of musical self-portrait dedicated to his friend Fryderyk Chopin, unfolds a rich program of intense Slavic soul: from Les Saisons, twelve compositions created by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky while working on the famous ballet Swan Lake, intending to evoke the different months of the year, to the fiery Study in D sharp minor by Alexander Scriabin, a test for the great virtuosos of the keyboard, to the adventures of the puppet Petrushka protagonist of the masterpiece of Igor Stravinsky.

Program

Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij
The Seasons (Времена года), op. 37a

Interval

Aleksandr Nikolaevič Skrjabin
Etude cis-moll, op. 2, n. 1
Etude dis-moll, op. 8, n. 12

Robert Schumann
Kreisleriana, op. 16

Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij
Méditation (Размышление), op. 42, n. 1

Igor' Fëdorovič Stravinskij
Trois mouvements de Petrouchka

DENIS MATSUEV

Denis Leonidovič Matsuev was born in Irkutsk, Russian Siberia in 1975. The son of pianists, he showed precocious musical talent when at three, he reproduced by ear on the piano a melody he had heard on television. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory and in 1998, after winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition, he began his international career.  Frequently performing under illustrious batons including Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano and Valery Gergiev he regularly plays with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. Artistic Director of the Annecy Classic Festival, he carried the Olympic torch at the 2014 Winter Olympics of Soči where he also performed during the opening and closing ceremonies.