Daniil Trifonov Returns to U.S. This Spring, with Boston Solo Recital (March 13) and Subscription Concert Debuts in Cleveland (March 19-22) and Dallas (March 26-29)

“It is not merely the power and dexterity of Trifonov’s playing … [He] can harness his digital strength to a highly developed sense of the music’s expressive substance.” — The Guardian

Piano virtuoso Daniil Trifonov has proven his riveting star quality from New York to London, Vienna, Tokyo and beyond. This spring, the young Russian – recently honored with an ECHO Klassik Award and a Grammy Award nomination for Trifonov: The Carnegie Hall Recital, a Deutsche Grammophon recording that captured the young artist’s 2013 sold-out debut at the historic venue – returns to the U.S. for a series of high-profile concerts. On March 13, Trifonov will perform a solo recital of Bach, Beethoven and Liszt in the Celebrity Series of Boston at Jordan Hall, replicating a program from December at Carnegie Hall that was streamed live via medici.tv and broadcast live on WQXR. Trifonov makes his subscription series debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall (March 19-22), performing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The pianist then makes his Dallas Symphony Orchestra debut (March 26-29), playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The Washington Post has described Trifonov’s Rachmaninoff as “breathtaking,” and the Dallas engagement is the first in a string of Rachmaninoff events this spring that also includes return engagements as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC (April 2-4) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra (April 16-21).

Trifonov and Rachmaninoff

During the first week of March, and prior to his upcoming Dallas, DC and Chicago Rachmaninoff engagements, Trifonov recorded the composer’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Philadelphia Orchestra under its music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin for future release by DG. This intense engagement with Rachmaninoff points ahead to Trifonov’s collaboration next season with the New York Philharmonic in Rachmaninoff: A Philharmonic Festival (Nov 11-28). He will perform three Rachmaninoff concertos and the Rhapsody with the orchestra, each program with a different conductor (Cristian Macelaru, Neeme Järvi, Ludovic Morlot). As a foretaste of the festival, earlier this year Trifonov performed Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto with the Philharmonic. The New York Times praised the young pianist’s “focus, flexibility and calm lucidity. … In the finale, he gave his tone silky diaphanousness, keeping a quality of roundedness even in Rachmaninoff’s most pounding runs.” In the Philharmonic’s Rachmaninoff festival next fall, the pianist also will perform chamber music co-presented by the 92^nd Street Y, and in a vocal program co-presented by New York Festival of Song.

Solo Recitals

Trifonov’s program for his recitals in Boston (March 13), La Jolla (April 10) and Aliso Viejo (April 12) combines masterpieces by three giants of the keyboard. Liszt’s transcription of Bach’s Fantasy and Fugue for Organ in G minor, BWV 542 is a testament to the genius of both composers, contrasting free-form expression with highly structured musical thought. Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 – the composer’s final sonata – pushes the capabilities of the piano, the compositional boundaries of the time and the interpretive abilities of the performer. Finally, each of Liszt’s Transcendental Études is a notoriously challenging miniature tone poem, showcasing the composer’s dramatic and poetic side as well as demanding virtuosic technique. Trifonov featured the Études at his Royal Festival Hall debut in London, prompting the Financial Times to conclude: “Trifonov’s technical prowess, though astonishing, was simply a means to an end. The main point of wonder was his emotional agility. … He looked and sounded like a person possessed.”

Back in Europe

Earlier this year, Trifonov completed a nine-city North American duo recital tour with Grammy Award-winning violinist Gidon Kremer, performing a richly varied program of Mozart, Schubert, Weinberg and Philip Glass. As on a Mieczyslaw Weinberg recording for ECM released in 2014, the pair played the composer’s Third Violin Sonata. BBC Music magazine’s five-star review of the album praised the duo’s “incisive, committed performance” of the work. Trifonov returns to Europe later this spring to reunite with Kremer for more duo recitals, in Brussels (April 28) and Paris (May 5). They also team for orchestral concerts with the violinist’s Kremerata Baltica, pairing Weinberg with Chopin in Brussels (April 29).

Later this spring, Trifonov plays his Bach, Beethoven and Liszt program in Italy (May 13) before returning to Rachmaninoff and the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy at London’s Southbank Centre (May 15-17).

Daniil Trifonov: upcoming engagements

March 13
Boston, MA
Jordan Hall
Celebrity Series of Boston
BACH-LISZT: Fantasy and Fugue for Organ in G minor, BWV 542
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111
LISZT: Transcendental Études, S. 139

March 19–22
Cleveland, OH
Severance Hall (subscription concert debut)
Cleveland Orchestra / Jahja Ling
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 1

March 26-29
Dallas, TX
Meyerson Symphony Center
Dallas Symphony Orchestra (debut) / Jaap van Zweden
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 1

April 2–4
Washington, DC
Kennedy Center
National Symphony Orchestra / Krzysztof Urbanski
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3

April 10
La Jolla, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art
BACH-LISZT: Fantasy and Fugue for Organ in G minor, BWV 542
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111
LISZT: Transcendental Études, S. 139

April 12
Aliso Viejo, CA
Soka Performing Arts Center
BACH-LISZT: Fantasy and Fugue for Organ in G minor, BWV 542
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111
LISZT: Transcendental Études, S. 139

April 16–21
Chicago, IL
Symphony Hall
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Semyon Bychkov
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 1

April 26
London, England
Southbank Centre
Philharmonia Orchestra / Yuri Temirkanov
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 1

April 28
Brussels, Belgium
Palais des Beaux-Arts
Duo recital with Gidon Kremer
MOZART: Violin Sonata in E-flat, K. 481
GLASS: Violin Sonata
WEINBERG: Violin Sonata No. 3
SCHUBERT: Fantasy in C, D. 934

April 29
Brussels, Belgium
Palais des Beaux-Arts
Kremerata Baltica
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 1
WEINBERG: Piano Quintet

May 5
Paris, France
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Duo recital with Gidon Kremer
MOZART: Violin Sonata in E-flat, K. 481
GLASS: Violin Sonata
WEINBERG: Violin Sonata No. 3
SCHUBERT: Fantasy in C, D. 934

May 13
Mestre, Italy
Teatro Toniolo
BACH-LISZT: Fantasy and Fugue for Organ in G minor, BWV 542
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111
LISZT: Transcendental Études, S. 139

May 15–17
London, England
Southbank Centre
Philharmonia Orchestra / Vladimir Ashkenazy
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3

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Daniil Trifonov Returns to U.S. This Spring, with Boston Solo Recital (March 13) and Subscription Concert Debuts in Cleveland (March 19-22) and Dallas (March 26-29)