In concerto at Radio France, pianist Kirill Gerstein, it’s epic, it’s a milestone – Libération

The Russian-American pianist, who recorded an anthology version of Busoni’s concerto, will return this rare and colossal masterpiece to the Radio France Auditorium for the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Exceptional records are revealed from the first seconds. We again had proof of this, in 2019, with the Concerto pour piano by Busoni, recorded by Kirill Gerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Sakari Oramo. A rarely performed work, due to its epic proportions, requiring a chorus, but which was nevertheless recorded by John Ogdon, Marc-André Hamelin, and Garrick Ohlsson with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi. If this last version was a reference for a long time, we must recognize that, from the assured conduct of the speech to the splendor of the timbres of the Boston orchestra, that of Gerstein, captured in concert, stood out for its sureness of line, his breath, his way of highlighting the structure of the work without sacrificing lyricism, to which add the astonishing rhythmic verve of the pianist, evoking Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Monstre post-listian

The orchestras having not, however, started to program this concerto with all their might, Gerstein took the 100th anniversary of Busoni’s birth as an excuse to perform it again during a mini-European tour. It will begin in Paris, where the composer worked and where the National de France will have the chance to be directed by Oramo. It will continue in Berlin, Busoni’s adopted city from 1894, where he performed as a pianist and conductor, and created this concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, and will end in London and Lisbon which counted almost