Evgeny Kissin and friends explore Shostakovich at Carnegie Hall

Gidon Kremer, Evgeny Kissin and Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė

Evgeny Kissin, Susanna Phillips, Sasha Cooke and John Matthew Myers

Evgeny Kissin and the Kopelman Quartet

By Edward Sava-Segal, 01 June 2025

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“a dance of death pushed to its bitter edge, ending not in closure but in exhaustion”

Reviewed at Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium, New York City on 31 May 2025

Shostakovich, Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin to Texts by Dostoyevsky for bass and piano, Op.146

Shostakovich, Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.57

Shostakovich, Piano Trio no. 2 in E minor, Op.67

Shostakovich, From Jewish Folk Poetry, song cycle, Op 79a

Evgeny Kissin, Piano

Gidon Kremer, Violin

Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė, Cello

Kopelman Quartet

Mikhail Kopelman, Violin

Boris Kuschnir, Violin

Masumi Per Rostad, Viola

Mikhail Milman, Cello

Susanna Phillips, Soprano

Sasha Cooke, Mezzo-soprano

John Matthew Myers, Tenor

Alexander Roslavets, Bass

Dr. Borodin, I presume

Alan Coady, 27th August

On Friday 26 August, Google chairman, Eric Schmidt, told a MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival audience, "Over the past century, the UK has stopped nurturing its polymaths. You need to bring art and science back together." The following morning, Russia's Kopelman Quartet opened their capacity crowd Queen's Hall concert with String Quartet No.

A Evgeny Kissin tour de force in Boston

Kevin Wells, 25th April

Andrey Boreyko makes an impressive debut with the Boston Symphony, where Evgeny Kissin performs in not one, but two piano concertos.

****1

Evgeny Kissin leaves a trail of happy hearts at the Barbican

Christopher Woodley, 31st March

With a spring in his step, Evgeny Kissin returns to Barbican Hall and gives well-wrought accounts of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Schumann.

****1

From Bach to Shostakovich, Evgeny Kissin a commanding force

Sam Jacobson, 7th May

Anchored by the piano music of Shostakovich, Evgeny Kissin’s Cleveland recital also explores works of Bach and Chopin.

****1

You Want it Darker? Evgeny Kissin’s dark-hued San Francisco recital

Michelle Assay, 20th April

Evgeny Kissin delights an overwhelmingly enthusiastic San Francisco audience with Chopin and Shostakovich, but his Bach is less convincing.

****1

Odd couple: Goerne and Kissin are mismatched in Cleveland recital

Cameron Kelsall, 14th April

A program of Schumann and Brahms fails to cohere due to fussy mannerisms and tentative playing.

**111

More reviews...

Edward Sava-Segal

Edward has been living in New York for the last 25 years, one of the reasons being the extraordinarily rich cultural life in this city. He has studied piano and classical music in his early years. He switched later on to computer science and data architecture but he kept an unwavering interest in following the classical music phenomenon here in New York and in his travels. Edward occasionally reviews fine arts events for the most prestigious literary magazine in Romania, his home country.

Fractured voices, vanishing tones: Kissin and friends explore Shostakovich at Carnegie Hall