Cast
Ilya Gringolts — Violinist
Truls Mørk — Cellist
Program notes
Generously supported by Madame Aline Foriel-Destezet
Since his breakthrough appearance at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition—where Valery Gergiev personally presented him with the Grand Prize—Daniil Trifonov has become one of today’s most widely lauded pianists, described by Martha Argerich herself as an artist who "possesses everything and more. What he does with his hands is technically incredible…I’ve never heard anything like it."
This Trifonov gala of greatest hits from Verbier (he made his assured alpine debut in 2012) begins on a high note worthy of a grand finale: the feverish Danse infernale from Stravinsky’s Firebird in an electrifying piano arrangement by Guido Agosti. The young virtuoso changes gears to interpret the tenderly poetic Hommage à Rameau by Debussy before dazzling us with selections from Chopin: the passionate Concerto No. 2 and a handful of Études (including the lively “Black Key” and the diabolical “Winter Wind”), played with such grace and fluidity as to belie their immense difficulty.
The same goes for the three astonishing Transcendental Études by Liszt he performs next, part of the set for which Trifonov justly won a 2018 Grammy Award. Aside from a few impeccably rendered forays into Bach, the rest of the program is given over to Russian composers—beginning with Trifonov’s own Piano Concerto and moving through Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, as well as works by Rachmaninov that see Trifonov join forces with fellow piano legends Mikhail Pletnev, Evgeny Kissin, Sergey Babayan, and composer Rodion Shchedrin.
Photo © Aline Paley
Daniil Trifonov appears courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.
