Georgijs Osokins is the duo partner of the renowned violinist Gidon Kremer. He has also performed several times as a soloist in the Elbphilharmonie’s Grand and Recital Halls. On this evening, he will present a particularly demanding programme with works by Brahms, Haydn, Chopin and Liszt – the highest virtuosity paired with the greatest expressiveness!
At the age of 30, Thibaut Garcia has already arrived on the Mount Olympus of guitars: the Franco-Spanish musician has won many well-known competitions, performed with famous orchestras and solo in the most beautiful halls worldwide and recorded a highly acclaimed album with the countertenor Philippe Jaroussky (»À sa guitare«). He now presents his latest project at the Elbphilharmonie: a programme all about the Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios Mangoré, who Garcia describes as the »Chopin of the guitar«. In addition to Mangoré’s own works, transcriptions that the composer produced also ring out – for instance of Beethoven’s famous »Moonlight Sonata«. Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885-1944) was one of the greatest composers and guitar virtuosos in South America and beyond. »Today, he is one of the most important composers of guitar repertoire,« says Garcia. »His music is a fine artistic blend of South American folk music, inspired by the jungles of Paraguay and the romanticism of Chopin and Schumann – composers he admired.«
Ivo Pogorelich is undoubtedly one of the most renowned pianists in the world. His unique musical talent and innovative approach make him one of the most original musical thinkers of our time. His adventurous spirit, appreciated for his clarity in discovering new forms of musical expression, is expressed in piano playing of the highest aesthetic value, inimitable virtuosity and technical mastery. An eccentric, he is known for his spectacular performances and profound interpretations that leave listeners breathless.
He is a »sound magician«, his »fine and brilliant technique full of nuances«, his »very personal« style with a »unique sense of poetry in music«. They are all right, these reviewers who praise Arsenii Moon for his artistic qualities. After all, the native of St Petersburg in his mid-20s is already a household name to many in the piano world. His latest coup: at the Busoni Competition in 2023, he not only won first prize and four special prizes, but also the Benedetti Michelangeli Prize, which is only awarded in the event of a unanimous jury decision – i.e. rather rarely, the last time being almost 30 years ago. Arsenii Moon makes his Hamburg debut with a programme that is as varied as it is demanding, ranging from Bach to Chopin and Rachmaninov.
Frederic Chopin’s brilliant music has always captivated audiences and at the same time reveals his favourite instrument: the piano. Today, the great piano composer is a benchmark for every pianist and one of the most famous and successful personalities in music history. The young pianist Burak Çebi plays a diverse Chopin repertoire that includes his waltzes, nocturnes and mazurkas.
The grand final concert of the 8th Érard-Festival will take place this year at the Recital Hall of the Elbphilharmonie. Eight young pianists will perform masterpieces from the Romantic period and subsequent eras at the matinee organised by the Érard Society. The proceeds from the charity concert will go in equal parts to the Junior Sailing League team and the Ukrainian sailors of the North German Regatta Association (NRV). With their musical skills, the young piano virtuosos make it possible to support selected NRV projects to promote the next generation of high-calibre sailors.
The phenomenon of movement is one of the basic elements of music. This manifests itself in a wide variety of forms. An essential manifestation is dance and thus rhythm. There are changing relationships between this and the other basic musical elements, of which melody and harmony are representative. From this field of tension, a multitude of the greatest musical works of art could be created. The horizon extends from the miniature of a mazurka to the large-scale form of the Baroque, the suite, from the carnival swing to the melancholy waltz to the effervescent joie de vivre of a tarantella.
Hyelim Kim is one of the outstanding pianists of her generation. With her virtuosic and sensitive playing, she inspires audiences around the world. Now, in the Elbphilharmonie Recital Hall, Kim presents a diverse and exciting programme ranging from Beethoven to Debussy.
With the stage lights dimmed, pianist Grigory Sokolov manages at every appearance at the Laeiszhalle to fascinate the audience with his unpretentious virtuosity. He never fails to show his unerring sense for the quiet and tender notes in the music. It doesn’t matter so much which works he chooses to play: another Solokov tradition is that the programme is just as unknown at the time of writing as the number of encores he will give.
There are hardly any composers for whom the term »piano composer« applies as much as for Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninov. Both were deeply committed to the black and white keys, both as musicians and as composers. Chopin’s highly sensitive and naturally flowing compositions are characterised above all by the delicacy of sound and colour. Rachmaninov, on the other hand, is characterised by an absolute loss of control and emotional extremes ranging from the deepest romantic sentiment to the hottest drama. A perfect combination for the Hamburg pianist Alexander Krichel, whose playing has been praised by the press as »highly emotional« and »tremendously powerful«.
Mikhail Pletnev is a grand master at the piano. Since winning 1st prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1978), he has been active worldwide and has made over 100 recordings to date. In the Grand Hall of the Laeiszhalle, he will juxtapose Scriabin’s Preludes with Chopin’s – a demanding combination that is rarely heard in the concert hall. Concertgoers can look forward to an exciting piano recital.
At the age of just 24, Mao Fujita is already at home on the world’s top concert platforms and at the side of major orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. In his hometown, he studied at the Tokyo College of Music, and he is currently refining his playing as a student of Kirill Gerstein’s in Berlin. He has also received a lot of praise for his recording of the complete Mozart sonatas: »You can hear how much pleasure he takes in the many, often witty little details,« commented the NDR reviewer. It’s with Mozart that Fujita opens his first solo recital at the Elbphilharmonie. The varied foray into the worlds of Classical and Romantic music continues with a Chopin Barcarolle, with the »Kreisleriana« that Schumann dedicated to Chopin, and then Prokofiev’s impressive F-minor Sonata. In addition, an interesting rarity in the shape of the dreamy and playful »Les fêtes« by French impressionist Déodat de Séverac is on the programme.
Frederic Chopin’s brilliant music has always captivated audiences and at the same time reveals his favourite instrument: the piano. Today, the great piano composer is a benchmark for every pianist and one of the most famous and successful personalities in music history. The young pianist Vladimir Mogilevsky plays a diverse Chopin repertoire that includes his waltzes, nocturnes and mazurkas.
Alexander Yakovlev is a graduate of the Rostov State Conservatory, where he also completed postgraduate studies with Sergei Osipenko and studied composition with Leonid Klinichev. He then studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Alexei Lyubimov and in Berlin at the University of the Arts with Pascal Devoyon. The pianist’s international career grew rapidly after he won the Chopin Competition in Rome in 2006. The Vatican radio broadcast of his performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor was heard around the world. After a series of notable debuts on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall in New York, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Grand Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Alexander Yakovlev has inspired an ever-growing public demand for his artistry.
A young pianist from Granada full of lightness, Juan Elvira Márquez, and a virtuoso grand piano builder specialising in old Steinway grand pianos, Heike A. Schlunck, together create an evening in the Recital Hall of the Elbphilharmonie that is as grandiose as it is unusual. Heike A. Schlunck, who presents two grand pianos that she has professionally restored to perfection – a large concert grand piano of size D and a small one of size S - on stage, leads through the programme with background information and anecdotes. Juan Elvira Márquez plays these grand pianos with inimitable ease and sensitively expresses their individual sound characters. Please note: this event takes place in German.
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