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Articles tagged with: Kirill Gerstein

In Rachmaninoff concerto, Denis Kozhukhin embodies glittering wave of Russian pianists

Dec 19, 2017 – 4:41 pm
FEature 2

Review: Pianist Denis Kozhukhin’s imposing and poetic turn through Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jaap van Zweden on Dec. 16, drove home a striking reality about today’s pianistic landscape: It is dominated by a clutch of Russians in their forties or younger.

Muti leads CSO, pianist Gerstein in eloquent Brahms and chamber-scaled rarity by Strauss

Nov 19, 2017 – 12:22 pm
11/16/17 10:44:13 PM

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, Conductor 
Kirill Gerstei, piano


Puccini Preludio sinfonico
R. Strauss Suite from Le bourgeois gentilhomme
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1

©Todd Rosenberg Photography

Review: Any deeply satisfying concerto performance bespeaks a close collaboration between soloist and conductor, yet even by that measure the majestic and probing Brahms First Piano Concerto delivered by Kirill Gerstein with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Nov. 17 was a rare, one might say time-stopping, experience.

Pianist Gerstein measures himself against pair of Olympians, and displays solid gold mettle

Jun 12, 2017 – 9:52 pm
Kirill Gerstein
Photo: Marco Borggreve

Review: As prodigious as it was unusual, pianist Kirill Gerstein’s recital June 11 at Orchestra Hall bundled the double rarity of Brahms’ ambitious early Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp minor and the full dozen of Liszt’s spectacular “Transcendental” Etudes. To the teenage Brahms’ brash grand sonata Gerstein, now age 37, brought a young man’s bravura spirit, and in Liszt’s monumental Etudes he showed a leonine profile of strength, agility and grace.

Pianist Kirill Gerstein lavishes virtuosity and wit on a glittering Prokofiev concerto with the CSO

Oct 25, 2013 – 2:59 pm
Kirill Gerstein feature image (Marco Borggreve)

Review: This weekend’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra program is a curiously mixed affair. At intermission, I was exhilarated at having witnessed Kirill Gerstein’s virtuosic and sly performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. On the other hand, by the time conductor Semyon Bychkov had made it to the end of a solidly fashioned performance of William Walton’s sturdily made Symphony No. 1, I was wondering why, some 80 years along, are American orchestras still dusting this off?

2013 Summer Season: Grant Park Fest spins Chinese and Incan threads, jazz and modern

Feb 14, 2013 – 5:40 pm
Grant Park Music Festival announces 2013 concerts credit Norman Timonera

Report: Under the stars at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park, the Grant Park Music Festival kicks off its 79th free-concert summer season on June 12. Here’s what looks new and promising week by week.

The New Season: With Logan Center opening and fresh vision, UC Presents spreads wings

Oct 4, 2012 – 3:59 pm
Turtle Island Quartet credit Bill Reitzel

16th in a series of season previews: It’s shaping up as a banner season for the University of Chicago Presents, with many of its 2012-13 concerts slated for the new Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and the Chicago premiere of Andre Previn’s Piano Trio No. 2 coming up in a series strewn with ensemble debuts.