Nikolai Demidenko

Description

Hear Chopin and Liszt the way they heard themselves, in the kind of room they wrote for, played by their legendary interpreter. This is the only room of its kind in the United States. “Recordings are an essential part of my life, which I use partly as a reference. The way we play is a reflection of our life, and we can’t play like pianists in the 1930s because it’s a different life… You take encouragement from previous ages, but then you have to make your own decisions.” Mr. Demidenko’s Chopin emerges from the layers of despair and fragmentation a modern pianist brings to the wrought-iron filigree of Haussmann’s Paris. Mr. Demidenko rarely performs in the United States; this is an extraordinary opportunity to hear him. From a review of his Prokofiev Second Concerto with the Galicia Symphony Orchestra: “It is a huge cadenza not only for its duration: the brilliant arpeggios, the crossing of hands and other elements of brilliance that Prokofiev wrote on his own honor and glory were resolved with impeccable technique and profound musicality by Demidenko. Then, the playful irony of the Scherzo, the mock solemnity of the intermezzo and its virtuosic elements - those electrifying glissandi of the right hand with his left hand arpeggios- and the dense and growing intensity of the final Allegro tempestuoso, rounded a version of reference that will remain in the memory of the audience of A Coruña for a long time…” But it is not just his Prokofiev, his Rachmaninoff, his Chopin, his Liszt, his Tchaikovsky, his Busoni transcriptions. With a catalogue of 36 albums, his live Masterworks concerts, his Bach and Beethoven captivate Europe. Please visit Mr. Demidenko’s website at [http://www.demidenko.net/biography](http://www.demidenko.net/biography).

Program