Евгений Кисин: Путь к мировому признанию

Russian classical pianist

Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (Евге́ний И́горевич Ки́син, ; born 10 October 1971) is a Russian born concert pianist and composer. He became a British citizen in 2002 and an Israeli citizen in 2013. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He has a wide repertoire and is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic era, particularly those of Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Modest Mussorgsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. He is commonly viewed as a great successor of the Russian piano school because of the depth, lyricism and poetic quality of his interpretations.

Kissin was born in Moscow to Jewish parents. Recognized as a child prodigy at age six, he began piano studies at the city's Gnessin Music School where he became a student of Кантор, Анна Павловна (1923–2021), who was to remain his only piano teacher. At age ten he made his performing debut with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra. A year later he gave his first recital, in Moscow. His talents were revealed outside Russia after 27 March 1984 when, still only twelve, he recorded for Melodiya both of Chopin's piano concertos with Dmitri Kitayenko and the Moscow Philharmonic at the Moscow Conservatory.

Kissin's first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe, followed a year later by his first tour of Japan. In 1987, at age sixteen, he made his West European debut at the Berlin Festival as well as his United Kingdom debut, alongside conductor Valery Gergiev and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin, at The Lichfield 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 played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Herbert von Karajan at the Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Concert which was broadcast internationally, with the performance repeated the following year at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In September 1990, he made his North American debut playing Chopin's two piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the first piano recital in Carnegie Hall's centennial season. In 1997, he gave the first solo piano recital in the history of The Proms in London. Kissin made regular recital tours of Europe, America and Asia. He has performed with nearly all the leading orchestras of the world, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Myung Whun Chung, Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Mariss Jansons, Herbert von Karajan, Dmitri Kitaenko, Jan Latham Koenig, Emmanuel Krivine, James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Georg Solti, Vladimir Spivakov, Yevgeny Svetlanov and Yuri Temirkanov. He has also performed chamber music with Martha Argerich, Mikhail Pletnev, Gidon Kremer, James Levine, Mischa Maisky, Thomas Quasthoff, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Karita Mattila, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Joshua Bell, Leonidas Kavakos, Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, Vladimir Spivakov, the Emerson String Quartet and others.

In addition to classical music, Kissin has given recitations of Russian and Yiddish poetry and discussed his admiration for the Yiddish language in interviews about his life. Three CDs of Kissin's recitals from the classical and contemporary Yiddish poetry have been issued by the Forward Association.

In 2018 Kissin's autobiography was published under the title of Memoirs and Reflections. In 2019, his book of poems, short stories and translations in Yiddish was published under the title "A Yiddisher Sheygets". In 2021, his book of short stories and diaries in Yiddish was published under the title "Bloyz etlekhe minut gang" ("Only a few minutes by foot").

Kissin has composed numerous musical works which have been published by Henle Verlag, including Four Piano Pieces, Op. 1 and Violoncello Sonata, op. 2. His String Quartet, Op. 3 (2016) was recorded by the Kopelman Quartet on Nimbus Records and received its UK premiere on 26 February 2019 performed by the Endellion Quartet.

On 10 March 2017, Kissin married Karina Arzumanova, a childhood friend, in Prague, where they live. Kissin has also been an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, Kissin and other Russian artists signed a letter against the invasion. The piano trio he composed in response to the invasion was premiered in Amsterdam on 14 October 2022.