The New York Concert Evgeny Kissin & Emerson String Quartet 

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478
• 1 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478: 1. Allegro (Live in New York City / 2018) 10:57
• 2 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478: 2. Andante (Live in New York City / 2018) 07:42
• 3 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478: 3. Rondo (Allegro moderato) (Live in New York City / 2018) 07:55
• Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924): Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15:
• 4 Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15: 1. Allegro molto moderato (Live in New York City / 2018) 09:24
• 5 Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15: 2. Scherzo (Allegro vivo) (Live in New York City / 2018) 05:29
• 6 Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15: 3. Adagio (Live in New York City / 2018) 08:10
• 7 Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15: 4. Allegro molto (Live in New York City / 2018) 08:02
• Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904): Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, B. 155:
• 8 Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, B. 155: 1. Allegro, ma non tanto (Live in New York City / 2018) 10:26
• 9 Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, B. 155: 2. Dumka (Andante con moto) (Live in New York City / 2018) 15:30
• 10 Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, B. 155: 3. Scherzo (Furiant). Molto vivace (Poco tranquillo) (Live in New York City / 2018) 04:09
• 11 Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, B. 155: 4. Finale (Allegro) (Live in New York City / 2018) 07:28
• Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975): Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57:
• 12 Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57: 3. Scherzo (Allegretto) (Live in New York City / 2018) 03:41
• Total Runtime 01:38:53

Info for The New York Concert

Grammy®-winning musicians Evgeny Kissin and the Emerson String Quartet join forces for their debut collaborative album, captured live at a sold out Carnegie Hall concert, to be released on Deutsche Grammophon this Friday, April 12.

Capturing a rare performance of one of the world’s most acclaimed pianists as a chamber musician, this live album is a new gem in DG’s vast catalogue.

The rehearsal and preparation process for the recording created space for a true meeting of minds, allowing Kissin and the Emersons to preserve their individual characteristics while revealing qualities unique to their collaboration. Ideas tested in the rehearsal room were subsequently forged in the heat of performance, unleashing elemental shifts between Classical heroism and Romantic introspection, and drawing out points of dramatic tension and release. Everything flowed, nothing became fixed as Kissin and the Emersons moved from one concert to the next. Last year’s performances “were the highlights of [their] season,” notes ESQ’s Eugene Drucker.

All of the musicians worked enthusiastically together to achieve a synthesis of views, from which emerged their dynamic interpretations of Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor K 478, Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor op. 15 and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major op. 81. Their choice of repertoire also comprised two encore pieces, including the Scherzo from Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor op. 57.

The close mutual understanding established between the “ideally matched” (New York Times) pianist and quartet was apparent to all who witnessed it.

Evgeny Kissin, piano Emerson String Quartet

Evgeny Kissin
Evgeny Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971 and began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at the age of two. At six years old, he entered a special school for gifted children, the Moscow Gnessin School of Music, where he was a student of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, who has remained his only teacher. At the age of ten, he made his concerto debut playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 466 and gave his first solo recital in Moscow one year later. He came to international attention in March 1984 when, at the age of twelve, he performed Chopin’s Piano Concertos 1 and 2 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic under Dmitri Kitaenko. This concert was recorded live by Melodia, and a two-LP album was released the following year. During the next two years, several Kissin performances in Moscow were recorded live and five more LPs were released by Melodia. ​

Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan. In 1987 he made his West European debut at the Berlin Festival. In 1988 he toured Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov and also made his London debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. In December of the same year he performed with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in a New Year’s concert which was broadcast internationally, with the performance repeated the following year at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Audio and video recordings of the New Year’s concert were made by Deutsche Grammophon. ​

In 1990 Kissin made his first appearance at the BBC Promenade Concerts in London and that same year made his North American debut, performing both Chopin piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta. The following week he opened Carnegie Hall’s Centennial season with a spectacular debut recital, which was recorded live by BMG Classics. ​

Musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Kissin. In 1987 he received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year 1986 (which was his first performance in Japan ). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy . He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America ’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997 he received the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors to be awarded in the Russian Republic , and again, the youngest-ever awardee. He was the first pianist to be invited to give a recital at the BBC Proms (1997), and, in the 2000 season, was the first concerto soloist ever to be invited to play in the Proms opening concert. In May 2001 Kissin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the Manhattan School of Music. In December 2003 in Moscow, he received the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia ’s highest musical honors. In June 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was recently awarded the 2005 Herbert von Karajan Music Prize. Evgeny Kissin is Honorary doctor of the Hong Kong University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheba. ​

Mr. Kissin’s recordings have also received numerous awards and accolades, having contributed significantly to the library of masterpieces recorded by the world’s greatest performers. Past awards have included the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands, Grammy awards, and the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France.​

Booklet for The New York Concert