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2024 GILMORE ARTIST ALEXANDRE KANTOROW TO MAKE CARNEGIE HALL RECITAL DEBUT, OCTOBER 22
Kantorow to perform works by Brahms, Bach, Liszt, and Schubert
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Photo credit: Sasha Gusov | |
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NEW YORK, NY (October 2, 2023) – 2024 Gilmore Artist awardee Alexandre Kantorow makes his Carnegie Hall recital debut in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage as part of the Keyboard Virtuoso II Series on Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 2PM ET, performing a program of works by Brahms, Bach, Liszt, and Schubert.
Kantorow has been planning his recent recital programs around each of Brahms’ three sonatas. For his Carnegie program, he opens with Brahms’ Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 1, which he pairs with the final work on the program, Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy, both of which share elements of song. The two works bookend transcriptions by composer-pianists including Brahms’ arrangement of Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor from Violin Partita No. 2 for left hand, and Liszt’s transcriptions of Schubert lieder, including Der Wanderer on which the Wanderer Fantasy was based, Der Müller und der Bach, Frühlingsglaube, as well as Die Stadt and Am Meer from Schwanengesang.
Kantorow’s recent performance of this recital program at Queen Elizabeth Hall “revealed both transcendental virtuosity, very much in the line of Liszt, but also a first-rate musical mind” (Seen & Heard International). He was also praised for his performance of the program at Memorial Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio: “Kantorow seems born to play Brahms. He communicated its themes with rich sonorities and heaven-storming virtuosities, somehow always managing to maintain clarity and beautiful tone…” (Cincinnati Business Courier).
Kantorow is the 2024 Gilmore Artist, an award presented on a non-competitive basis to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, is a performing artist and a profound musician with both charisma and breadth of musicianship; who desires a performing career as a major international concert artist and can make a real impact on music; and whose developing career can benefit from the enhancement of the Award's money and prestige. Often referred to as music’s answer to the MacArthur Foundation “genius grants,” Kantorow receives $300,000: a $50,000 cash grant to be used at his discretion and $250,000 that is typically dispersed over a four-year period for projects and activities that will enhance his musicianship and career.
Kantorow gave his first performance as Gilmore Artist in a special event at the Dalton Center Recital Hall in Kalamazoo, Michigan on September 17, 2023 hosted by GBH Music’s Brian McCreath.
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Alexandre Kantorow, 26, has been praised by Gramophone Magazine as "the real deal, a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery." Born in France and of French-British heritage, he studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley, and Rena Shereshevskaya. At age 16, he made his debut at La Folle Journée festival in Nantes and since then has played with many of the world’s major orchestras. In 2019, at the age of 22, he made history as the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition as well as the Grand Prix, awarded only three times before in the competition's history. Kantorow is a laureate of the Safran Foundation and Banque Populaire, and in 2019 was named ‘Musical Revelation of the Year’ by the Professional Critics Association. In 2020, he won the Victoires de la Musique Classique in two categories: Recording of the Year and Instrumental Soloist of the Year. In 2021, he received the Trophée d’Année from Radio Classique. Kantorow records exclusively with BIS.
In addition to Kantorow's Carnegie Hall debut, he performs the same program on a recital tour of Japan with performances in Yokohama (Oct 6), Shizuoka (Oct 8), Osaka (Oct 11), and Tokyo (Oct 17); and plays recitals in Cologne (Nov 6), Paris (Nov 9), Lisbon (Nov 11), and Frankfurt (Nov 13). He also performs Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Orchestre de Paris in Paris (Nov 15) and Vienna (Nov 17), and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Nov 22 & 23).
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PROGRAM INFORMATION
Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 2:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Alexandre Kantorow, Piano
BRAHMS Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 1
BACH Chaconne in D Minor from Violin Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 (arr. for piano left hand by Brahms)
LISZT "Der Wanderer" from 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert
LISZT "Der Müller und der Bach" from Müllerlieder von Franz Schubert
LISZT "Frühlingsglaube" from 12 Lieder von Franz Schubert
LISZT "Die Stadt" from Lieder aus Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang
LISZT "Am Meer" from Lieder aus Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang
SCHUBERT Fantasy in C Major, D. 760, "Wanderer Fantasy"
Tickets priced from $78 to $135 are available from Carnegie Hall by phone at (212) 247-7800, online at carnegiehall.org, or in person at the box office.
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ABOUT ALEXANDRE KANTOROW
Alexandre Kantorow has appeared at major concert halls including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in their Master Pianists series, Konzerthaus Berlin, Queen Elizabeth Hall London, Philharmonie de Paris, Bozar in Brussels, and Tokyo Opera City. He frequently performs at festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Verbier, Rheingau Festivals, and Klavierfest Ruhr. Additionally, chamber music is one his great pleasures and he regularly performs with artists such as Victor Julien-Laferrière, Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovich, and Matthias Goerne.
Orchestral highlights of Kantorow’s recent and upcoming seasons include concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Montreal Symphony orchestras among others, as well as tours with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Budapest Festival and Munich Philharmonic orchestras. Conductors with whom he is performing include Charles Dutoit, Ivan Fischer, Mikko Frank, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Vasily Petrenko, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Lahav Shani, Tugan Sokhiev, and Kazuki Yamada, among others. In the 2023-24 season he is Artist-in-Residence with the Gürzenich Orchestra, Cologne.
Kantorow’s recordings for BIS have received numerous accolades. In 2022, Kantorow received a double Diapason d’Or for his latest recordings of Brahms solo works and Saint-Saëns Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, with his Brahms recording also receiving the 2021 Trophée Radio Classique. His recordings of Saint-Saëns Concerto Nos. 3, 4, and 5 and his solo disc of Brahms, Bartók and Liszt also won the Diapason d’Or and the Choc de l’Année (Classica) in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and his à la Russe recital recording won numerous awards and distinctions in 2017, including Choc de l’Année (Classica), Diapason découverte (Diapason), Supersonic (Pizzicato), and CD des Doppelmonats.
Born in Clermont-Ferrand, Kantorow is from a family of musicians; his father is the violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow and his mother is also a violinist. He began studying piano at the age of five at the conservatory of Pontoise.
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Press contacts:
Shuman Public Relations
(212) 315-1300
Lisa Jaehnig | [email protected]
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