Kirill Gerstein’s spring concerts in NY, Chicago, & at Gilmore
After kicking off the spring season with his jazz-infused return to the Berklee College of Music in March, pianist Kirill Gerstein continues a slate of U.S. appearances, showcasing his wide-ranging musical interests and masterful technique. The Russian-born pianist is celebrated for his insightful interpretations of classical repertoire, as well as for exploring intersections of the classical and jazz worlds. His major recitals at the 92nd Street Y (April 21) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Center Presents series (May 13) will feature dance-inspired works. Also in Chicago, and in his return to the Gilmore Festival, Gerstein will perform new works by Chick Corea and Brad Mehldau, commissioned by the pianist with funds from his 2010 Gilmore Artist Award. The Gilmore artist is the anchor of this year’s festival, with a recital (April 29); an evening with composer/pianist Brad Mehldau (May 9); and as a concerto soloist with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra (May 12).
In a recent interview for DownBeat magazine, Gerstein discussed jazz affinities with classical music:
“My whole point or feeling is that the greatest musicians in the history of classical music were very close to the jazz spirit. … The idea of expressing dissonance, which is what a blue note is, has been there since the Gregorian chants. This idea of expressive dissonance would be understandable to Bach or to Coltrane.”
During his return to Berklee on March 30 as a celebrated alumnus (at 14, he was the youngest student ever admitted to the school), Gerstein presented the world premieres of the two new works he commissioned with prize money from his Gilmore Artist Award: Chick Corea’s The Visitors for piano and vibraphone (which Gerstein performed with his first mentor in the U.S., Gary Burton), and Brad Mehldau’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme for solo piano.
Reviewing the Berklee evening, Steve Elman of Arts Fuse wrote:
“Like other great artists – Martha Argerich and Steve Lacy come to mind right away – Gerstein approaches every note with a sense of how important that note is in relation to every one that has come before and every one that is to come after. … He took every note that Corea presented to him as seriously as he might have taken something given to him by Beethoven, and that approach gave the performance a weight and gravity that was deeply satisfying.”
For his recital at the 92nd Street Y’s Masters of the Keyboard series in New York City on April 21, Gerstein has assembled an inventive array of dance-inspired works from the Baroque era to the present day. The program consists of Bach’s English Suite No. 6; three sections of Busoni’s Mozart study An die Jugend; Invitation to the Dance, Weber’s concert waltz/wedding present for his wife; Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s Valse caprice No. 6 from Soirées de Vienne; and Schumann’s Carnaval. Gerstein will also play Oliver Knussen’s Ophelia’s Last Dance, which he premiered as a Gilmore commission at the Gilmore Festival in May 2010.
The pianist revisits his dance-inspired program on May 13 in his solo recital debut on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Center Presents series (May 13). Filling in for the ailing Maurizio Pollini, Gerstein will reprise the works by Bach, Busoni, Weber, Schubert (arr. Liszt), and Schumann, and present the Chicago premiere of Mehldau’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme. Reviewing Gerstein’s 2010 debut with the Chicago Symphony under Charles Dutoit, John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune praised the pianist’s “wonderfully impassioned performance” of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2:
“One could tell just from the finely graded series of chords with which the work begins why the young Russian virtuoso won the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award for 2010. Gerstein handled them like a master, and they launched a reading of rhapsodic intensity and big-hearted Russian lyricism. He wowed the audience not by indulging in cheap tricks or self-regarding sensationalism but by treating this music seriously, like the splendid romantic masterpiece it is.”
Preceding his May 13 Chicago recital, Gerstein returns to the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, MI – part of the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, which also oversees the Gilmore Artist Award, the quadrennial prize given to an extraordinarily gifted and creative pianist. The committee selected Gerstein as its 2010 recipient; that tremendous recognition has allowed him to grow both as a performer and as a member of the musical community. In April 15’s New York Times Arts & Leisure feature, Gerstein spoke of how his $300,000 Gilmore Artist Award is enabling him to build a legacy:
“I decided fairly quickly that I wanted to use a good portion of the money for commissioning composers. It keeps the money in the artistic community. It produces, obviously, special items for my programs and allows me to work with composers. But also it’s something that will remain afterwards, for other people to play.”
Gerstein’s work with composer/pianist Brad Mehldau takes center stage at the Gilmore Festival. On his April 29 recital Gerstein will give the second performance of Brad Mehldau’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme, the solo piano work commissioned by Gerstein and premiered during his Berklee evening in March. The pianist will also reprise his dance-inspired program of works by Bach, Busoni, Weber, Schubert (arr. Liszt), and Schumann. Delving further into the Mehldau/Gerstein musical dialogue, the Gilmore Festival presents “An Evening with Gerstein and Mehldau” on May 9, pairing the gifted musicians in a mixed program that includes a repeat performance of Mehldau’s Variations. In an interview in DownBeat, Gerstein had this to say about the work:
“It’s a very, very significant piece – one that navigates between the jazz language and the classical language in clever and imperceptible ways. It’s all synthesized into this Mehldau sound, and a great challenge, but a fun one. And because the piece is written down and not improvised on the spot, it allows for extra complexity and counterpoint and really worked-out, instrumental challenges. I think it’s going to be an addition to the American piano repertoire.”
Finally, on May 12 Gerstein will perform a pair of piano concertos for the Festival Finale with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra under conductor Raymond Harvey: Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. In addition, Gerstein’s former Berklee mentor, Gary Burton, will join him for the Gilmore Festival premiere of his second new Gilmore commission: Chick Corea’s The Visitors for piano and vibraphone.
The jazz and classical sides of Kirill Gerstein can be heard in an hour-long Drive Time Live program of conversation and performance on Boston’s WGBH that aired in March. Listen here: www.wgbh.org/includes/playerPop.cfm?featureid=37386.
Kirill Gerstein: Upcoming U.S. Appearances
Saturday, April 21, 7:30pm
92nd Street Y, New York, NY
Bach: English Suite No. 6 in D minor, BWV 811
Busoni: Giga, bolero e variazione: Studie nach Mozart from An die Jugend
Knussen: Ophelia’s Last Dance, Op. 32
Weber: Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65
Schubert (arr. Liszt): Valse caprice No. 6 from Soirées de Vienne, S. 427
Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
Sunday, April 29, 2:00pm
Gilmore Festival, Kalamazoo, MI
Bach: English Suite No. 6 in D minor, BWV 811
Busoni: Giga, bolero e variazione: Studie nach Mozart from An die Jugend
Weber: Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65
Schubert (arr. Liszt): Valse caprice No. 6 from Soirées de Vienne, S. 427
Mehldau: Variations on a Melancholy Theme
Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
Wednesday, May 9, 8:00pm
Gilmore Festival, Kalamazoo, MI
An Evening with Gerstein and Mehldau
Pianists Kirill Gerstein & Brad Mehldau
Saturday, May 12, 8:00pm
Gilmore Festival, Kalamazoo, MI
Festival Finale – Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra with Kirill Gerstein
Beethoven: Overture to Fidelio, Op. 72b
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, “Emperor”
Corea: The Visitors
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102
Sunday, May 13, 3:00pm
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Symphony Center Presents, Chicago, IL
Bach: English Suite No. 6 in D minor, BWV 811
Busoni: Giga, bolero e variazione: Studie nach Mozart from An die Jugend
Weber: Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65
Schubert (arr. Liszt): Valse caprice No. 6 from Soirées de Vienne, S. 427
Mehldau: Variations on a Melancholy Theme
Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
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