Russian Pianist Daniil Trifonov Releases Liszt Album on DG Tomorrow, Debuts with Berlin Phil and Melbourne & Sydney Symphonies, Plays Recitals on Four Continents in 2016-17

Spectacular Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov – winner of the 2016 Gramophone Artist of the Year Award and “without question the most astounding young pianist of our age” (The Times of London) – releases a new double album on DG tomorrow, October 7, comprising the complete concert etudes of Franz Liszt, titled Transcendental. Trifonov’s action-packed season is already well underway. In mid-October he plays Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto in the gala finale of the Chicago Symphony’s 125th anniversary celebration. He plays four Mozart concertos this season, the first of which (Concerto No. 21) he performed at the BBC Proms in early September with the Staatskapelle Dresden. He will reprise it with that orchestra later in the season at the Salzburg Easter Festival. The same composer is featured in Trifonov’s reengagements with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. He launches a Schumann, Shostakovich and Stravinsky recital program in October with performances in Germany and Austria that include a debut in the Berliner Philharmoniker Piano Series, revisiting the program throughout the season at destinations across Europe, Australia, and the U.S. He performs Rachmaninov concertos for debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies; as well as return engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Mariinsky Orchestra. He also headlines the Munich Philharmonic’s “Rachmaninov Cycle” tour. In the midst of these engagements, he finds time to play the Schumann concerto with the Houston Symphony and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic; Ravel’s concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden at home and on tour; both Chopin concertos on tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; and his own concerto with the Kansas City Symphony.

The release of Transcendental marks Trifonov’s third title as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, and the first time that the label has ever recorded Liszt’s complete concert etudes. Both of the pianist’s previous albums were nominated for Grammy Awards, and his inaugural release, Trifonov: The Carnegie Recital, won an ECHO Klassik Award. That album too featured music of Liszt: the famously ahead-of-its-time Sonata in B minor. As the Washington Post declared, under the headline “At Kennedy Center, Daniil Trifonov proves himself an heir to Liszt,” after a performance of that piece in 2013:

“Hearing Trifonov is like having a deep-tissue massage: You keep wanting to pull away from the sheer intensity of it, and you come out feeling as if your reality had been slightly altered. His recital Saturday afternoon at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater…was a knockout.”

Likewise, when Trifonov played Liszt’s First Piano Concerto last season with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette marveled that the pianist had “outsize power and agility while still maintaining the clarity and, when necessary, delicacy of his phrases. … His technique is as distinctive as it is peerless, and he has the interpretive and sonic chops to match.” A trailer for Transcendental is available here.

Trifonov’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto with the Chicago Symphony will be led by Riccardo Muti, and is a re-creation of the very first concert of the orchestra’s history, performed on October 16 and 17, 1891. Trifonov played the same piece in a season-opening concert last year, with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic at La Scala, but this fall that place of honor went to Mozart instead, when the pianist opened his season at the BBC Proms playing Mozart’s Concerto No. 21with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann. He reprises the piece with the same forces later in the season during their yearly residency at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Trifonov also plays three other Mozart concertos this season: Jurowski leads him as soloist with the New York Philharmonic in Concerto No. 25; he performs Concerto No. 23 with the Cleveland Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden; and he plays Concerto No. 9 in three concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The Financial Times has recognized the “ecstatic quality” of Trifonov’s solo recitals, and this year he tours around the world with a solo program that includes music of Schumann, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. Following fall performances in Germany and Austria, he reprises the program in Carnegie Hall in December, before playing it in the new year in Florence, Barcelona, Madrid, London, Oslo, Cologne, Dortmund and Dresden. He goes to Australia for performances in both Sydney and Melbourne in March, before returning to the States for recitals in venues that include Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Chicago Symphony Center, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, and a debut in the Shriver Hall Concert Series in Baltimore. His final recital of the season is in Moscow on June 2. The program features three works by Schumann: the tender Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood); the dazzlingly virtuosic Op. 7 Toccata; and the dramatic tour-de-force Kreisleriana, named after an eccentric conductor character invented by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The rest of the program moves to the twentieth century, first with selections from Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, a set inspired by Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier and Chopin’s Preludes. Stravinsky’s piano setting Three Movements from Pétrouchka, composed for, and dedicated to, his friend Arthur Rubinstein, closes the program.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, besides hosting him for a Mozart concerto this season, were also Trifonov’s partners on his Rachmaninov Variations CD, for which he received his second Grammy nomination. Soon after that release he headlined the New York Philharmonic’s sold-out 2015 Rachmaninov festival, in which the New York Times found him “dazzling … a brilliant, uncommonly poetic soloist.” The Russian composer looms large again in Trifonov’s upcoming season. Rachmaninov’s notoriously challenging Concerto No. 3 is the vehicle for his Berlin Philharmonic debut, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and Trifonov plays the same piece for a return to Disney Hall with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He performs Concerto No. 1 for debuts with both the Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies, and Concerto No. 4 with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. In the late spring he plays a complete cycle of Rachmaninov concertos in Munich, first performing the “Paganini Variations” and all the concertos except No. 2 with the Mariinsky Orchestra, led by longtime collaborator Valery Gergiev. Swapping out orchestras but not conductors, he and Gergiev then perform Concerto No. 2 with the Munich Philharmonic in Munich and Luxembourg, and Concerto No. 3 in Cologne, Frankfurt and Paris.

Trifonov also plays two duo recitals this season with his teacher and mentor, the prominent Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan, with whom he performed last season at London’s Wigmore Hall. In Princeton in the fall and then Sarasota, Florida in the spring, the student and teacher come together to perform a program of 19th-century piano duos.

Rounding out Trifonov’s remarkably full season are performances of Schumann’s passionate and lyrical Piano Concerto, first with the Houston Symphony and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and then with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in January, after his debut with that organization last year anchoring the prestigious Nobel Prize Concert. The two Chopin concertos, the second of which he has played in past seasons with both the London and San Francisco Symphonies, are on the bill for a three-stop tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev in Germany and Italy. He reunites with the Staatskapelle Dresden in May to play Ravel’s Concerto in G, in Dresden and on a European tour to Madrid, Paris and Vienna, and plays the same piece just prior to the Dresden dates with the Finnish Radio Symphony in Helsinki. Even Beethoven makes an appearance in the pianist’s schedule this year, when he plays the towering Romantic composer’s First Concerto with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra under Kent Nagano. Trifonov also takes his own concerto, which he has performed with both the Cleveland Orchestra (in the piece’s 2014 premiere) and the Pittsburgh Symphony, to a performance with the Kansas City Symphony. After the piece’s Cleveland premiere, the Plain Dealer stated simply: “Even having seen it, one cannot quite believe it. Such is the artistry of pianist-composer Daniil Trifonov.”

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Daniil Trifonov: 2016-17 engagements

Oct 7
Transcendental Album Release on DG
Complete Liszt concert etudes

Oct 7
Frankfurt, Germany
Alte Oper Frankfurt
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Oct 9
Munich, Germany
Herkulessaal
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Oct 11
Vienna, Austria
Vienna Konzerthaus – Grosser Saal
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Oct 15
Chicago, IL
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Riccardo Muti
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1

Oct 26
Washington, DC
Washington Performing Arts House Concert

Oct 27
Princeton, NJ
Princeton University Concerts
Performance with Sergei Babayan
SCHUMANN: Andante and Variations in B-flat, Op. 46
SCHUBERT: Fantasie in F minor for Piano Four Hands, D. 940
BRAHMS: Hungarian Dances WoO 1
RACHMANINOV: Two Suites for Two Pianos

Nov 3, 5, 6
Houston, TX
Houston Symphony / Andrés Orozco-Estrada
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor

Nov 9, 10, 11, 12
New York, NY
David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic / Vladimir Jurowski
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 25

Nov 18, 19, 20
Kansas City, MO
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts – Helzberg Hall
Kansas City Symphony / Michael Stern
TRIFONOV: Piano Concerto

Nov 25, 26, 27

Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Orchestra / Jaap van Zweden
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488

Dec 1, 2, 3, 4
Los Angeles, CA
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles Philharmonic / Gustavo Dudamel
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3

Dec 7
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Dec 29, 30, 31
Berlin, Germany
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle (Debut)
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3

Jan 7, 8
Zurich, Switzerland
Tonhalle Orchester Zurich / Kent Nagano
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1

Jan 11
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic / Andrew Manze
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor

Jan 14
Florence, Italy
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Jan 16
Barcelona, Spain
L’Auditori Concert Hall
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Jan 19
Madrid, Spain
Spanish National Orchestra
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Jan 21
London, UK
Barbican Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Jan 29

Oslo, Norway
Norwegian Opera and Ballet
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Feb 1
Birmingham, UK
Symphony Hall
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic / Vasily Petrenko
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 4

Feb 2, 3
Liverpool, UK
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic / Vasily Petrenko
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 4

Feb 4
Cologne, Germany
Kölner Philharmonie
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Feb 6
Dortmund, Germany
Konzerthaus Dortmund
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Feb 8
Dresden, Germany
Semperoper
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

Feb 10
Munich, Germany
Mariinsky Orchestra / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 1
RACHMANINOV: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Feb 11
Munich, Germany
Mariinsky Orchestra / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 4

Feb 12
Munich, Germany
Mariinsky Orchestra / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3

Feb 14, 15, 16
Munich, Germany
Munich Philharmonic / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 2

Feb 17
Luxembourg
Philharmonie Luxembourg
Munich Philharmonic / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 2

Feb 19
Cologne, Germany
Kölner Philharmonie
Munich Philharmonic / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3

Feb 20
Frankfurt, Germany
Alte Oper Frankfurt
Munich Philharmonic / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3

Feb 21
Paris, France
Cité de la Musique
Munich Philharmonic / Valery Gergiev
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3

March 1, 3, 4
Sydney, Australia
Sydney Symphony Orchestra / Gustavo Gimeno (Debut)
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 1

March 6
Sydney, Australia
City Recital Hall Angel Place
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

March 14
Melbourne, Australia
Recital (Debut)
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

March 17, 18, 20
Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne Symphony / Sir Andrew Davis (Debut)
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 1

March 24
Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (debut)
Perelman Theater – Kimmel Center
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

March 26
Chicago, IL
Chicago Symphony Center
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

March 28
Toronto, ON, Canada
The Royal Conservatory of Music
Koerner Recital Hall
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

March 30
Sarasota, FL
Sarasota Concert Association (Debut)
Performance with Sergei Babayan
SCHUMANN: Andante and Variations in B-flat, Op. 46
SCHUBERT: Fantasie in F minor for Piano Four Hands, D. 940
BRAHMS: Hungarian Dances WoO 1
RACHMANINOV: Two Suites for Two Pianos

March 31
Durham, NC
Duke Performances (Debut)
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

April 2
Baltimore, MD
Shriver Hall Concert Series (Recital Debut)
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

April 4
Washington, DC
Washington Performing Arts
Kennedy Center
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

April 7, 8, 9
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin
MOZART: Concerto No. 9

April 11
Salzburg, Austria
Grosses Festspielhaus
Osterfestspiele Salzburg
Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
MOZART: Concerto No. 21 in C, K. 467

April 13
Salzburg, Austria
Grosses Festspielhaus
Concert for Salzburg
Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
MOZART: Concerto No. 21 in C, K. 467

April 16
Salzburg, Austria
Chamber Concert with Staatskapelle Dresden Musicians

April 16
Salzburg, Austria
Grosses Festspielhaus
Osterfestspiele Salzburg
Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
MOZART: Concerto No. 21 in C, K. 467

April 29
Heidelberg, Germany
Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Mikhail Pletnev
CHOPIN: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra Nos. 1 in E minor & 2 in F minor

May 1
Bergamo, Italy
Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Mikhail Pletnev
CHOPIN: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra Nos. 1 in E minor & 2 in F minor

May 2
Reggio Emilia, Italy
Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Mikhail Pletnev
CHOPIN: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra Nos. 1 in E minor & 2 in F minor

May 5
Helsinki, Finland
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hannu Lintu
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G Major

May 12, 13, 14
Dresden, Germany
Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
Semperoper
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G Major

May 16
Madrid, Spain
Ibermúsica
Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G Major

May 20
Paris, France
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G Major

May 22
Vienna, Austria
Musikverein-Grosser Saal
Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G Major

June 2
Moscow, Russia
Recital
SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Toccata in C and Kreisleriana
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

June 4
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg Festival-Anne-Sophie Mutter Anniversary Concert
Grosses Festspielhaus
SCHUBERT: Piano Trio in E flat, D. 897, “Notturno”
SCHUBERT: Quintet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass in A, D. 667, “Trout”

June 5
Baden-Baden, Germany
Festspielhaus
Mutter’s Virtuosi / Anne-Sophie Mutter
SCHUBERT: Piano Trio in E flat, D. 897, “Notturno”
SCHUBERT: Quintet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass in A, D. 667, “Trout”

 

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