DANIIL TRIFONOV

Piano

Critical acclaim

“Few artists have burst onto the classical music scene in recent years with the incandescence of the pianist Daniil Trifonov.” The New York Times “The 24-year- old Russian is without question the most astounding young pianist of our age.” The London Times “Every so often -- actually not very often -- an artist comes along who just knocks your socks off. I don't think I've used that expression in a lifetime of reviewing, but it's what came to mind Friday evening when debuting Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov played Prokofiev's "Concerto No. 2" with the Pittsburgh Symphony under guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier in Heinz Hall. Prokofiev's second piano concerto is a fiendishly difficult piece, arguably the most difficult piano concerto in the standard repertory. Composed to showcase his own formidable keyboard skills and premiered just outside St. Petersburg in 1913, this concerto keeps the soloist in the forefront during nearly all the work's 31-minute length. There's a long solo cadenza in the first movement -- containing thematic development and recapitulation. The second movement puts the piano part in perpetual 16th-note motion. With hardly a respite in the intermezzo that follows, the finale contains two more extended solo passages that get harder and harder. This is a work that has to be experienced live to be fully appreciated. It sounds too easy on records, and the 22-year-old Mr. Trifonov filled the bill in every way. With spiderlike fingers, long hair flowing every which way and an intense expression at times reminiscent of a mad scientist, this winner of multiple major competitions flew through the hurdles with an air of sorcery appropriate to the Halloween weekend.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “ The Philadelphia Orchestra played its final concert of the season Saturday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, but for the featured soloist, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, it’s just the beginning of what promises to be a fabulous career…Trifonov lived up to all the accolades. He played with big weighted chords, produced fiery streams of notes and sculpted beautiful melodies with a poetic and tender hand. What made his performance exceptional, though, was his ability to build excitement within a phrase. By using not only a wide range of dynamics, but also musically sensitive nuances with a warm tone, and giving the notes an agitated edge, the passages had an impetuosity that thrilled…Trifonov was so exuberant that his hair flew and he’d lift himself off the piano bench at certain musical highpoints. The conductor, Cristian Macelaru, was a keen listener and followed Trifonov’s every phrase to make the orchestra more of a partner than just a support. Balances were exact…The crowd roared its approval and got an encore: Schumann-Listz’s “Widmung” (“ Liebeslied” ). Trifonov sweetly sang the lovely melody before launching into a fiercely expansive but taut exposition, only to end quietly. The crowd loved that, too, and, in an unprecedented move, got another encore — the “Infernal Dance” from Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” arranged by Guido Agosti — that blew everyone away, it was so electrifying. Trifonov was having fun for sure. He also played it faster than the orchestra does with its version. The Sunday Daily Gazette

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"Alexander Nevsky made a suitably roof-raising conclusion to the concert, but the real revelation came in the first half, in young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov’s spellbinding account of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. Hunched over with his forehead almost touching the keyboard, and dripping with sweat, Trifonov delivered a performance of sometimes unsettling intensity – one that didn’t so much grab your attention as dared you to look away. His technical abilities were spellbinding – exquisitely weighted chords, beautifully graded runs, harmonies hammered out with percussive brilliance – yet they were all harnessed to serve a profoundly lyrical vision of the piece, one that Gergiev and the RSNO supported with a lithe, responsive reading. It was only the EIF’s first concert, but already the rest have plenty to live up to." The Telegraph

"Daniil Trifonov was the soloist in the concerto, an eclectic showpiece that combines graceful acrobatics with modernist aggression. Though it dates from 1921, when Prokofiev was still the bad boy of the avant garde, its big moments of lyricism and mock 18th-century formality peer forward to the ballets of his Soviet period, such as Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella. Trifonov played it with staggering panache and bags of wit and self-deprecating charm. We tend to forget just how good Gergiev can be in concertos, knowing exactly when to rein in the orchestra and when to let them off their leash. He got the best out of the RSNO, who played exceptionally for him. When it was over, Trifonov gave us Medtner's exquisitely limpid Fairy Tale as an encore."

The Guardian

"Daniil Trifonov’s EIF debut came in 2012 and it was one of the most talked-about concerts of that year, a fairly staid, reserved Queen’s Hall audience rising to their feet to give him a standing ovation. It was a shrewd choice to invite him to open this year’s festival, and he didn’t disappoint. Trifonov is a marvel to watch as well as to listen to, a force of nature who seems to teeter perpetually on the brink of chaos. When they strolled onto the stage, the two Russian musicians were a fascinating contrast, Trifonov’s nervy exterior contrasting with the implacable composure of Gergiev. That nervous energy then exploded into playing of remarkable dexterity, the notes seeming to ignite under his fingertips. The faster sections, particularly the very beginning and the very end, seemed to crackle with excitable electricity, but a beautiful sense of line ran through the slower sections: the first variation of the slow movement flowed and rippled beautifully, for example, while the fourth variation seemed to hang suspended in mid-air. Throughout, though, there was a rare sense of excitement written all over Trifonov’s face. He seemed to be irresistibly captivated by the music that was taking shape beneath his fingers, and that sense of excitement was infectious. Yes, his technical accomplishment is breathtaking, but it’s far from empty: it houses outstanding musicianship that will take him very far, and the boundless joy of the final pages spilt over into an ovation that showed that he is an artist that the Edinburgh audience has already taken to its heart." Seen and Heard International "Yet if Valery Gergiev’s final concert in his Scriabin series with the London Symphony Orchestra was ever red-hot, that was the doing of Chopin and the young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov. Still only 23, Trifonov is now maturing into an artist of breathtaking poise and theatricality. Opting here for the lighter, brighter sonorities of a Fazioli piano — it has been a while since anyone ousted a Steinway from the Barbican — his performance of the F minor concerto dealt in small miracles that made up a thrilling bigger picture. The Mozartian elegance of the first movement flowered into a gorgeous tapestry of light and shade, tension and release. Above all, Trifonov tapped into Chopin’s sense of freedom at the piano, and his joy in its potential."

London Times "Daniil Trifonov entered with rich life-force and glittering élan. His was a volatile and flexible account, flamboyant and tender, with much in between, dynamic in every sense, and charismatically accompanied, not least by the four woodwind principals. The slow movement was rapt and deeply soulful, and full of ardour and troubled spirits in the

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contrasting middle section. The dancing finale was given with a sway and an impulse, and deliciously light filigree. A ripe horn solo, itself ideally dovetailed, cued a scintillating coda, Trifonov superbly deft and enjoying every semiquaver; and it was impossible not to share his pleasure. Throughout 35 compelling minutes he coaxed many expressions and colours from the responsive Fazioli instrument. As an encore, the ‘Gavotte en Rondeau’ from J. S. Bach’s E major Violin Partita (BWV1006) – presumably in Rachmaninov’s transcription – enjoyed Trifonov’s impish clarity, enough to suggest that his record company, Deutsche Grammophon, should be looking to issue this exceptional talent in a whole disc of such arrangements."

The Classical Source “A pianist for the rest of our lives ... This is a major artist, phenomenally gifted and almost fully formed, with fresh ideas and a winning stage presence that is quite irresistible from the moment he bounds through the door and sits at the keyboard, unable to contain his need to share.”

Normon Lebrecht on Slipped Disc “We can’t actually know what Liszt sounded like, but we do know he was a virtuoso, and he mesmerized his listeners, and people found something distinctive and other-worldly and spiritual about him. All those things hold true of Trifonov, as well, though they add up to a pretty pale description of playing that can only be described as a visceral experience. … His recital Saturday afternoon at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, courtesy of the Washington Performing Arts Society, was a knockout.”

Washington Post “A slender man with an exuberant stage presence, Mr. Trifonov is certainly a virtuoso with a demonstrably prizewinning technique, evident as he fluidly sailed through bravura passages, his fingers moving in a blur through rapid octaves and chords. But he offered far more than mere virtuosity. …Mr. Trifonov demonstrated an elegant touch and witty grace in more lighthearted moments and poetic insight in more introspective passages.”

New York Times “Trifonov’s recital was breathtaking. [Martha] Argerich last year told the FT she had never before heard a touch like his, and all I can do is concur: it’s not just a matter of precision and weighting, it’s a unique amalgam of fastidious tenderness and seemingly unfettered wildness. After two exquisite Debussy Images, he gave an account of Chopin’s complete Etudes that was truly revelatory: his emotional restraint – and frugality with the pedal – made the lyrical ones all the more moving, while his preternatural dexterity lent the finger-twisters a rare grace.”

Financial Times “Every so often -- actually not very often -- an artist comes along who just knocks your socks off. I don't think I've used that expression in a lifetime of reviewing, but it's what came to mind Friday evening when debuting Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov played Prokofiev's "Concerto No. 2" with the Pittsburgh Symphony under guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier in Heinz Hall.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “…Trifonov's mechanism is nearly infallible, and one of the most immediate impressions is undoubtedly his all-encompassing piano technique. Once the notable distraction of his world-class technique is dismissed, however, an artist of rarest gifts is revealed. … One marvels at the differentiation, the control and the colors that this artist brings to the concert stage. This was not edge-of-your-seat playing, but rather, a beautiful reminder of the value and power of Art by legitimate means. Trifonov’s conceptions were never entirely predictable, and one felt them to be resounding and truthful. The pianist delivers by authentic means, and there is a sense of artistry and thoughtfulness that never wavers. Rarely does a performer come along who brings forth the most powerful comprehensive qualities of each composer they are playing. Daniil Trifonov has this ability; he is a generational talent.“

San Francisco Examiner

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RECORDINGS TRIFONOV: THE CARNEGIE RECITAL (DG) “It is not merely the power and dexterity of Trifonov’s playing that make such an arresting impression, though the torrents of octaves in both the right hand and the left towards the end of the Liszt are astonishing in their brilliance, boldness and bravura. Rather, the key thing here is that Trifonov can harness his digital strength, stamina and skill to a highly developed sense of the music’s expressive substance. … Argerich is right about the tenderness Trifonov can voice through his pianism, nowhere more than in his beautifully poised, interpretatively thoughtful and lucidly textured Chopin Préludes Op 28. An encore of a Medtner Fairy Tale caps a captivating recital brimful of character. [Five Stars]”

The Guardian, Geoffrey Norris (November 21, 2013)

“Trifonov is a player of formidable technique, and imagination; the way he creates tracery that’s like a glistening whisper in Scriabin’s Second Sonata, highlighting the main material by lightening the background, immediately tells you that. And he characterises Chopin’s 24 Preludes with variety and real individuality.”

Irish Times, Michael Dervan (November 8, 2013) Prizewinning young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov's recording of his recital in New York's Carnegie Hall displays a dazzling talent and phenomenal level of accomplishment. “Trifonov fearlessly probes the music’s wild imaginings, creating a compelling emotional narrative out of a work whose episodic patternings can structurally disintegrate in the wrong hands. He thrillingly encapsulates the qualities of two other ‘yellow label’ alumni, combining the crystal technical clarity and superhuman reflexes of Krystian Zimerman with the incendiary spontaneity of Martha Argerich. … [This is] playing at a phenomenal level of accomplishment. More soon, please!”

Sinfini Music, Julian Haycock (October 16, 2013) TCHAIKOVSKY: PIANO CONCERTO NO 1 (MARIINSKY) "Trifonov may be at the start of his career but he is already a mature artist. His youth brings an overwhelming energy which seems to blow the cobwebs off everything he performs: he forces one to listen to these works anew, the sure sign of greatness."

International Record Review (UK) "Trifonov's combination of delicacy and fire leaves an indelible impression in this debut recording with the Mariinsky. The Tchaikovsky, scorching and heart-rending but never bombastic, is paired with solo Liszt transcriptions (of Schumann and Schubert) and Chopin's Barcarolle"

The Observer (UK) "'His [Trifonov’s] performance of the Tchaikovsky warhorse is nuanced but not mannered, virtuosic without being showy, and powerful yet not hammered, as many young Russian pianists do. Liszt’s grandiose transcriptions of Schubert and Schumann songs, including a swirling Erlkönig, reveal his ability to conjure mood and drama with colour or phrasing … He has the world at his feet"

The Times (UK) "… his recording breaks new ground. It confirms, if confirmation was necessary, that St. Petersburg’s Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre is a major-league ensemble, and it represents another jewel in the crown of the new Mariinsky label. Best of all, with the considerable assistance of Mariinsky director Valery Gergiev on the podium, Trifonov scrapes away the bombast and the posturing from a score that’s regularly performed — and listened to — on autopilot."

Boston Globe (USA)

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"Truly exciting Tchaikovsky… One of the most exhilarating recordings of the Tchaikovsky concerto I’ve heard in years… It could easily have been a CD Review disc of the week when it was released last year so I’m glad you’ve heard it this morning."

BBC Radio 3 CD Review 2013 CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS Prokofiev Concerto No. 2 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pianist Trifonov amazes with difficult concerto “Every so often -- actually not very often -- an artist comes along who just knocks your socks off. I don't think I've used that expression in a lifetime of reviewing, but it's what came to mind Friday evening when debuting Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov played Prokofiev's "Concerto No. 2" with the Pittsburgh Symphony under guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier in Heinz Hall. Prokofiev's second piano concerto is a fiendishly difficult piece, arguably the most difficult piano concerto in the standard repertory. Composed to showcase his own formidable keyboard skills and premiered just outside St. Petersburg in 1913, this concerto keeps the soloist in the forefront during nearly all the work's 31-minute length. There's a long solo cadenza in the first movement -- containing thematic development and recapitulation. The second movement puts the piano part in perpetual 16th-note motion. With hardly a respite in the intermezzo that follows, the finale contains two more extended solo passages that get harder and harder. This is a work that has to be experienced live to be fully appreciated. It sounds too easy on records, and the 22-year-old Mr. Trifonov filled the bill in every way. With spiderlike fingers, long hair flowing every which way and an intense expression at times reminiscent of a mad scientist, this winner of multiple major competitions flew through the hurdles with an air of sorcery appropriate to the Halloween weekend.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Robert Croan (November 4, 2013) Young Russian pianist wows audience at Pittsburgh Symphony concert “The way Daniil Trifonov walked on stage to open Friday night's Pittsburgh Symphony concert gave no hint of the amazing musical experience to come. By the time he was done, his face was wet with perspiration, and the Heinz Hall audience was on its feet cheering. Two years ago, the Russian pianist won prizes at three of music's most prestigious competitions. Now 22, he entered with no obvious ego or attitude beyond eagerness to get to the keyboard. Once there, he was transformed. Trifonov, guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier and the orchestra played Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 to open what was a great concert from start to finish. From the soloist's first notes, his command of sonority and atmosphere were obvious. As the piece unfolded, his projection of the expressive arc of the whole form was fully convicing, which is not easy in this concerto. A lyrical passage near the end of the finale was remarkable for its sense of growing inner fulfillment. Trifonov's technique is stunning. Both hands can be thunderous or play with gossamer delicacy. There were times when the power of his playing had the piano visibly shaking, but the keys also popped for him. The musical force in Trifonov is so strong that every kind of music in the concerto seemed to emerge from within, but to say the music burst out would miss the precision and control with which he shaped it. His encore was “Alborada del gracisioso” by Maurice Ravel, originally for piano but far more famous in the composer's orchestra. Trifonov had the keys popping again in the propulsive outer sections. The jester's song in the middle of the piece, which is played by bassoon in the orchestral version, stood out with individuality."

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Mark Kanny (November 1, 2013) Wigmore Hall recital “The astonishing Russian pianist brings an ecstatic quality to his performances”

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“Virtuosity is one thing, youthful exuberance another. Many aspiring talents survive on just one of these qualities. A lucky few have both. No one combines them with musical maturity the way Daniil Trifonov does. The technical brilliance is always at the service of his powerful imagination. The exuberance is controlled by his natural musicianship. What makes him such a phenomenon is the ecstatic quality he brings to his performances – an all-consuming intensity-of-belonging on the public platform that translates into something thrilling, absorbing, inspiring. Small wonder every western capital is in thrall to him – not least London, where a long-sold-out Wigmore Hall listened in quasi-disbelief on Tuesday as this astonishing Russian pianist, still only 22, surpassed himself yet again." [5 stars]

-Financial Times, Andrew Clark (October 9, 2013)

“Trifonov is just 22 and already displays a technical mastery and repertoire of sounds and colours the like of which most pianists struggle to achieve in the entire span of their career. That’s why there’s standing room only – and why the rafters were raised.”

The Times of London, Hilary Finch (October 10, 2013) “Trifonov dazzled in Stravinsky and dispatched Ravel with precision, remaining in taught control throughout” “As a young pianist, you can win practically every competition going – as Daniil Trifonov did two years ago – and still feel you have something to prove. This was a showman's programme that left no doubt as to the brilliance and power of Trifonov's playing, reinforced by three encores. … He created an explosion of brilliant sound that saw him lift clean off his seat. Trifonov's precision was perfect for the last Ravel piece in his set, Alborada del gracioso, his impossibly fast repeated notes conjuring up the sound of clacking castanets. Schumann's Op 13 Etudes Symphoniques crowned the programme, drawing out a convincingly romantic sensibility from Trifonov, who gave the impression of playing with passionate abandon while in fact maintaining taut control."

The Guardian, Erica Jeel (October 10, 2013) With the Philadelphia Orchesetra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center "Trifonov lived up to all the accolades. He played with big weighted chords, produced fiery streams of notes and sculpted beautiful melodies with a poetic and tender hand. What made his performance exceptional, though, was his ability to build excitement within a phrase. By using not only a wide range of dynamics, but also musically sensitive nuances with a warm tone, and giving the notes an agitated edge, the passages had an impetuosity that thrilled."

The Sunday Daily Gazette, Schenectady, Geraldine Freeman (August 25, 2013)

La Jolla SummerFest debut "Count me in. I’m jumping on the Daniil Trifonov is classical music’s next big thing bandwagon. Trifonov ‘s superb performance of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin electrified an overflow SummerFest audience in Sherwood Auditorium Tuesday. Trifonov, who has won several international competitions including the Tchaikovsky and the Rubinstein, is that rare pianist who not only seemed to be an extension of the composer but an extension of the piano itself. The young Russian virtuoso did not play the piano so much as he tested it, pushing it to the extremes in both ends of the dynamic spectrum. Portions of the Rachmaninoff spoke with symphonic power. You wondered how Trifonov was getting that much sound out of the La Jolla Music Society’s Steinway. But at the other end of the spectrum, you were spellbound at how he could coax such delicacy, even tenderness out of his instrument. And then there was the universe of sound he created in between those extremes. But what made all that matter was the unusual combination of absolute conviction and sheer joy he brought to Rachmaninoff. His interpretation was so fluid and yet it sounded so inevitable, it was as if he was plugged into Rachmaninoff’s psyche. This piece is as difficult Rachmaninoff’s more frequently performed concertos, but Trifonov played it with complete ease. His flawless technique was astonishing, yet every note was tied to some musical impulse."

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San Diego Union-Tribune, James Chute (August 20, 2013)

BBC Proms Debut "Daniil Trifonov, winner of the 2011Tchaikovsky Competition, opened with some beautifully pure crystalline playing and, as the Andante Sostenuto section developed, this pianist demonstrated his lovely rubato and shaping of phrases. There were some lovely poetic passages from Trifonov at the heart of the concerto where it slowly builds in romantic expression. Both Trifonov and Gergiev handled the fleeting moods perfectly before some virtuosic playing from Trifonov when the concerto neared its coda. As an encore Daniil Trifonov gave the Prom audience an intoxicatingly brilliant performance of an piano arrangement of Stravinsky’s Infernal Dance from The Firebird, leaving us in no doubt as to his technique."

The Classical Reviewer (August 13, 2013) "Alexander Nevsky made a suitably roof-raising conclusion to the concert, but the real revelation came in the first half, in young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov’s spellbinding account of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. Hunched over with his forehead almost touching the keyboard, and dripping with sweat, Trifonov delivered a performance of sometimes unsettling intensity – one that didn’t so much grab your attention as dared you to look away. His technical abilities were spellbinding – exquisitely weighted chords, beautifully graded runs, harmonies hammered out with percussive brilliance – yet they were all harnessed to serve a profoundly lyrical vision of the piece, one that Gergiev and the RSNO supported with a lithe, responsive reading. It was only the EIF’s first concert, but already the rest have plenty to live up to."

The Telegraph, UK (August 11, 2013) "Daniil Trifonov was the soloist in the concerto, an eclectic showpiece that combines graceful acrobatics with modernist aggression. Though it dates from 1921, when Prokofiev was still the bad boy of the avant garde, its big moments of lyricism and mock 18th-century formality peer forward to the ballets of his Soviet period, such as Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella. Trifonov played it with staggering panache and bags of wit and self-deprecating charm. We tend to forget just how good Gergiev can be in concertos, knowing exactly when to rein in the orchestra and when to let them off their leash. He got the best out of the RSNO, who played exceptionally for him. When it was over, Trifonov gave us Medtner's exquisitely limpid Fairy Tale as an encore."

The Guardian, UK (August 11, 2013) "What a thrilling start to Jonathan Mills' penultimate International festival: the RSNO in excoriating form, the Festival Chorus, with beefed-up bass section, singing in stirring Russian and clearly-enunciated Latin, all with puppetmaster Valery Gergiev pulling their strings. Plus a returning talent, young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, an intensely physical musician who curls over the keys, blasts out of his seat as if being ejected and wipes the sweat from his eyes between movements. Trifonov started the evening of Prokofiev with Piano Concerto No 3 in C major. Prokofiev wrote this as a calling card for his own considerable keyboard skills and Trifonov has more than the range to do full justice to three movements of capricious moods. Compelling to watch as well as hear, he had the audience whooping before the interval."

The Independent, UK (August 11, 2013)

"Daniil Trifonov’s EIF debut came in 2012 and it was one of the most talked-about concerts of that year, a fairly staid, reserved Queen’s Hall audience rising to their feet to give him a standing ovation. It was a shrewd choice to invite him to open this year’s festival, and he didn’t disappoint. Trifonov is a marvel to watch as well as to listen to, a force of nature who seems to teeter perpetually on the brink of chaos. When they strolled onto the stage, the two Russian musicians were a fascinating contrast, Trifonov’s nervy exterior contrasting with the implacable composure of Gergiev. That nervous energy then exploded into playing of remarkable dexterity, the notes seeming to ignite under his

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fingertips. The faster sections, particularly the very beginning and the very end, seemed to crackle with excitable electricity, but a beautiful sense of line ran through the slower sections: the first variation of the slow movement flowed and rippled beautifully, for example, while the fourth variation seemed to hang suspended in mid-air. Throughout, though, there was a rare sense of excitement written all over Trifonov’s face. He seemed to be irresistibly captivated by the music that was taking shape beneath his fingers, and that sense of excitement was infectious. Yes, his technical accomplishment is breathtaking, but it’s far from empty: it houses outstanding musicianship that will take him very far, and the boundless joy of the final pages spilt over into an ovation that showed that he is an artist that the Edinburgh audience has already taken to its heart."

Sean and Heard in Edinburgh (August 11, 2013) Daniil Trifonov: “The Runaway Winner” (Deutsche Grammophon site) “Watch, and you will see that he was born to play. Listen, and be amazed.”

Normon Lebrecht (July 2013) MORE CRITICAL ACCLAIM: "Barely into his 20s, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov is a superpianist, one of those rare performers for whom no technical hurdle is too difficult, and who can tease captivating music out of the densest jumble of notes. The effect of seeing and hearing him make his Toronto recital début at Koerner Hall on Sunday afternoon was stunning. Could it be that a string of notes could be played so seamlessly? Could the concert grand in the hall really be stroked so delicately? Was it possible that those big chords could be played in such quick succession? Trifonov arrived with a programme designed to show off virtuosic skills. But he went well beyond what we know and love in standard interpretations to add his own special musicality. And breathe he did — so audibly that he filled the resonant, sold-out hall with nearly as many sniffing and snuffling sounds as piano notes. Also notable about his way of playing was the trance that he appeared to enter as soon as his hands touched the keyboard, spreading a beatific smile on his face much of the time."

Musical Toronto, John Terauds (April 14, 2013) "His is an immense talent; not just the technical side, which these days goes without saying for young musicians on the concert circuit. It’s his musicianship that sets him apart."

Seattle Times, Philippa Kiraly (April 10, 2013) "The famous opening chords of the Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso rang beautifully through the hall, supported by a carefully weighted degree of percussion. There is a natural, healthy sense of breathing to Trifonov’s phrasing, as evidenced in the Andantino semplice, where rubato was carefully held in-check and phrases were tapered-off marvelously. It was rather telling, midway through the Allegro con fuoco, when Guerrero turned his body from the orchestra and watched, incredulously, as the pianist unraveled the composer’s fill of interpretative and technical problems with rare musicality. We have heard Trifonov perform the Chopin Etudes with ease, and it was clear that the pianist had no intention of winning the octaves race on this night, deferring instead to a musical approach that was studied, heartfelt and authentic. Of course, it is the appeal of the final product, the sum of the parts that has won larger audiences over. No doubt Trifonov dazzles with a virtuoso’s equipment, a facet of his craft that was made clear in Sergei Prokofieff’s Piano Concerto No. 3; frankly, you cannot play either work without a proper understanding of gravity and the mechanics of the instrument. But Trifonov does not deceive his audience or exploit his facility with mere vulgar displays of showmanship. His treatment of the Andante was at times ethereal, a study of gradients in pedaling, producing proper voicings of harmony. The pianist’s rhythmic knife was also remarkably in-sync with Guerroro’s fine orchestra, which offered ravishing moments of beauty in the Tema con variazioni, marked also by clarity. The coda in the Allegro ma

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non troppo left audience members and pianists shaking their heads in disbelief, the young man’s marksmanship proving a mere foundation for the poetic fury, musical distinction and feeling of joy. For many, Trifonov is a breath of fresh air. In the words of a jury member following the 2010 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, “He is really a very great talent and plays in a very natural way. There is really nothing artificial there. Daniil Trifonov is a name that we will hear again many times in the future. He will become one of the main pianists for the younger generation,”. In conversation with him, Trifonov revealed that he devotes upwards of eight hours per day at the piano. It is fortunate that Deutsche Grammophone has acknowledged the overwhelming appeal of this artist. Norman Lebrecht called Trifonov, “A pianist for the rest of our lives”, and we whole-heartedly agree."

Examiner.com, Elijah Ho (February 15, 2013) "It wasn't a typical performance. Through the long opening movement, Trifonov pushed and pulled back tempos within phrases, as he played cat and mouse with the orchestra. His playing was humorous, crisp and percussive, then filled with feathery shadings and effects. Entering the cadenza, his playing was spiky -- stabbing; one could feel Tchaikovsky's pain. The flying double-octaves which close the movement were clean as a whistle."

San Jose Mercury News, Richard Scheinin (February 13, 2013) "The old stereotype of the emerging Russian pianist was fast, loud and so physically massive that the New Yorker once ran a cartoon showing a Carnegie Hall-ish poster of a grizzly bear next to a tiny keyboard reduced to rubble. Not so with Daniil Trifonov, the slim, courtly 21-year-old winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition – even if he does require a piano tuner at intermission. But like many of his generation, he is making his name on his brains rather than his fingers. He can play with the best of them. But the centerpiece of his recent recital tour was the Chopin Preludes Op. 28 (recorded live by Deutsche Grammophon at Carnegie Hall, though I heard him Feb. 7 at Princeton’s McCarter Theater – a highly congenial place for classical concerts). Indeed, Chopin’s series of fragmentary miniatures achieve haiku-like eloquence only among the wise, worldly and middle aged but also did so with young Trifonov. Trifonov’s best moments of poetic insight, sometimes breathtaking, were often in the final seconds that sum up what had come before in each tiny Chopin prelude, like an elegant stroke of Japanese calligraphy. In Liszt’s Sonata in b, he went to all the emotional extremes, laudably, because he could while maintaining an overall sense of architecture that kept the music from ever seeming episodic. Each reiteration of the piece’s recurring motifs had their own meaning and coloring."

Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns (February 12, 2013)

"Here, he was at home, holding the audience enthralled with his delicacy and refinement. The first time I had heard this pianist live was in the summer of 2011, at the final round of the Tchaikovsky Competition, where he played Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1. Although we are used to hearing much more brawny concertos in the final rounds of competitions, everyone, myself included, was in ecstasy over Trifonov's Chopin and it seemed impossible to award him anything but the first prize. Since then I have always thought of him as a Chopin performer, and I was not disappointed. His preludes were impossibly light and airy. No.5 sounded like the wind scattering leaves across a courtyard, while No.8 was an impassioned cry -- the first genuine show of emotion of the evening. There was nothing lacking here -- in No. 15 (Raindrop) he had the depth and brightness that were lacking in the first half of the concert. All the gravity and pathos that he could not conjure up in thirty minutes of Liszt, he had in this one little prelude. On the whole, the Chopin left nothing to be desired, and satisfied in every aspect -- he even had the rich full sonority that had been lacking earlier in the evening. The audience greeted him with frenzied applause -- indeed, there had been a standing ovation even after the Liszt Sonata. Of course, I see what the crowd was so wild about. His boyish appearance, his lanky body and the straight hair falling into his face have poetic appeal; it's not too hard to imagine that Chopin might have looked like this when he was young. His devotion to the music is palpable. Even the way he contorts himself into all sorts of strange shapes on the piano stool, often crouching over the keys, looks as if he is fervently spinning out elaborate music."

Huffington Post, Ayano Hodouchi (February 7, 2013)

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"His soulful artistry and virtuoso chops were in full evidence as he writhed on the seat, his wiry frame often bent low over the keyboard. He offered plenty of distinctive touches in phrasing, dynamics and shadings, the fugue and finale an extremely fast (and clear) whirlwind. Some of the intimate moments were particularly appealing, and he provided plenty of drama, starting with an arresting approach to the opening of the first section. But over all his interpretation lacked an essential power and demonic fury. It’s hardly surprising if at only 21 Mr. Trifonov is not yet at the height of his artistry; it will doubtless be even more rewarding to hear him play this work in a few years."

New York Times, Vivian Schweitzer (February 6, 2013) 2012 HIGHLIGHTS "Two things epitomise Trifonov at the moment: his almost palpable hunger and thirst for music-making (he sat on the edge of his seat after the interval, mesmerised by the second half); and his prodigious command of pianistic touch, timbre and technique. Prokofiev’s second concerto is itself a veritable encyclopaedia of pianism and imaginative invention. Some pianists don’t tackle it at all; those who do often simply get through the work — and that is enough. But Trifonov played as though he might have composed the concerto himself, in a white heat of inspiration, and with a gleeful ability to recreate physically the wildest stretches of Prokofiev’s imagination. From his long, limpid stroking of the keys at the start, to the sheer variety of spikiness and wit that ensued; from the colossal cadenza that almost unseated him from the piano stool, to the contraction of the body for the concentrated moto perpetuo of the Scherzo — Trifonov set up a formidable challenge for the Philharmonia, even for Lorin Maazel himself."

Financial Times (UK), Hilary Finch (December 18, 2012) "Between the power required in this work’s demonic flourishes and the phantasmagorical musings called for elsewhere in its huge single-movement span (both magnificently achieved), the most impressive aspect was the sense of epic space Trifonov brought to the music. But then he had already found the elusive pulse of Scriabin’s Second Sonata, beautifully weaving together its pensive fragments resembling half-remembered Chopin Nocturnes. When it came to Chopin himself and a complete traversal of the Twenty-Four Preludes, Trifonov launched the opening “Agitato” without undue agitation. Bound together by a natural sense of pianistic colour and meticulous pedaling, these were understated yet never under-characterised performances."

Telegraph (UK), John Allison (December 14, 2012) "Grinning from ear to ear and clearly enjoying every second, Trifonov threw himself into [Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2] with a recklessness that was engaging in itself. Technically, much of it was extraordinary. He whirled through both scherzo and finale with devil-may-care panache. The intermezzo teetered nicely between lyricism and the grotesque. The vast cadenza that forms the first movement's development section, however, was spectacular, but could have done with a bit more shape and logic. Maazel also had fun with its dissonance and extravagance, and beamed avuncularly at Trifonov when it was over."

The Guardian (UK), Tim Ashley (December 14, 2012)

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"His musicality overwhelms any limitation put before him. These glittering gems have become associated with the worlds of dance, film and theatre but in Trifonov’s hands you hear them for the first time. Nearly an hour of simply miraculous virtuosity. Apart from redefining as an artist the word musical, Trifonov has the power and stamina of a heavyweight boxer; he doesn’t just have in the palm of his hand a pile of woodwork, wire and ivory, he somehow fills the room with a full-sized and muscular symphony orchestra. After that performance I know who I want on my side in an argument."

Express (UK), Jeffery Taylor (December 9, 2012) "He is unlike any other “young” musician in my experience. In contrast to most of his contemporaries, the technical display is merely the servant of the musical imagination, and such is his temperamental freedom – always in harness with intellectual control – that the listener can’t help being drawn into his world. What this recital also showed was that increasingly rare phenomenon: the musician who only “finds” himself in the act of performance, who needs the adrenaline of public exposure to inspire and excite his musical antennae. It’s hard not to be swayed by Trifonov’s almost manic expressions, which somehow add to the agony and the ecstasy of the romantic expressionism he finds in his chosen composers. Next time he gives a solo recital, Trifonov’s promoters should book the Royal Festival Hall. He has the personality – and the sound, and the ideas – to fill it."

Financial Times (UK), Andrew Clark (December 7, 2012) "This week’s thoroughbred was Daniil Trifonov, a 21-year-old Russian who won the latest Tchaikovsky competition, and who must be the only pianist alive whose sound has driven the great Martha Argerich – plus those of us who heard his Wigmore debut, and his Verbier performance this year - to bemused adulation. The word is now out on him, and the packed Queen Elizabeth Hall had a sizeable Russian contingent. It was a nice idea to open with Scriabin’s early ‘Sonata-fantasy’. Trifonov’s silky touch brought out the atmosphere and suggestiveness of this piece which the composer described as an evocation of the sea in all its moods. Scriabin’s speciality was hearing in colour, and for him this sonata apparently had the bluish-white of moonlight: those of us not blessed with synaesthesia got something just as special, thanks to the way Trifonov let the main melody shine through its filigree ornamentation, and to the impression of floating weightlessness with which he ended the Andante. That was the hors d’oeuvre: Trifonov’s real business lay with Liszt’s ‘Sonata in B minor’ and Chopin’s ‘Preludes’. His achievement with Liszt’s switchback journey through heaven and hell was to make it appear seamless and, by terracing his sound, to suggest vast distances: the lyricism had a visionary quality, and the fury was conveyed with a light and steely touch."

The Indepndent (UK), Michael Church (December 5, 2012) "At 21, Trifonov is by no means the finished article, but he is an utterly thrilling prospect; technically fearless and with a musical temperament to match, he's willing to take risks, and most of them come off."

Guardian (UK), Andrew Clements (December 5, 2012) "By the time the piano part entered the soft passages, Trifonov had summoned a gentle touch, coaxing an audience-silencing pianissimo and an affecting sense of line. His elbows flapped out to his side as the tune sang out, showing that any tightness he’d brought to the stage had vanished. Quick sections maintained musical direction, not becoming machinelike, and his virtuosity shined through when the music turned furious.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Page 12

In an interview with Emmet Sullivan in Chicago’s November issue, Trifonov said “That first movement can be played as a conversation with a spirit, asking life’s questions to God.” His range of expression, from declamatory to introspective, matched his mysteries-of-the-cosmos metaphor."

Chicago Magazine, Graham Meyer (November 15, 2012) "A slender man with an exuberant stage presence, Mr. Trifonov is certainly a virtuoso with a demonstrably prizewinning technique, evident as he fluidly sailed through bravura passages, his fingers moving in a blur through rapid octaves and chords. But he offered far more than mere virtuosity, which is now common among young pianists showing ever more dazzling technique. Mr. Trifonov demonstrated an elegant touch and witty grace in more lighthearted moments and poetic insight in more introspective passages."

The New York Times, Vivien Schweitzer (October 1, 2012) "I doubt there's much written for the piano that Trifonov couldn't breeze through. His technique is mind-boggling and seemingly indefatigable: this programme would be enough to sink the hardiest of technicians, but Trifonov was quick to play not one but four encores…"

Herald Scotland, Kate Molleson (August 25, 2012) "Trifonov’s recital was breathtaking. Argerich last year told the FT she had never before heard a touch like his, and all I can do is concur: it’s not just a matter of precision and weighting, it’s a unique amalgam of fastidious tenderness and seemingly unfettered wildness."

Financial Times (UK), Michael Church (August 3, 2012) "With Trifonov, every note appears to have been refined, and nothing is given to the shallowest sensitivities of his audience. On stage, Trifonov appears lost in the music, always smiling. He plays with an infectious love of the music. Perhaps what is most compelling, however, is his interpretative ability. One gets the impression that the ability to interpret a score beautifully comes most naturally for him; Trifonov’s attention to detail is stunning. In an intimate setting, Trifonov’s sound is splendidly layered and is often heard between the dynamic markings of pp and mf. Trifonov is not one to bang at the instrument – in fact, his sound sings quietly in a most refined fashion. One marvels at the differentiation, the control and the colors that this artist brings to the concert stage. This was not edge-of- your-seat playing, but rather, a beautiful reminder of the value and power of Art by legitimate means. Trifonov’s conceptions were never entirely predictable, and one felt them to be resounding and truthful. The pianist delivers by authentic means, and there is a sense of artistry and thoughtfulness that never wavers. Rarely does a performer come along who brings forth the most powerful comprehensive qualities of each composer they are playing. Daniil Trifonov has this ability; he is a generational talent."

San Francisco Examiner, Elijah Ho (February 21, 2012) 2011 CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS “Trifonov is no stranger to New York. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in May 2009, two years before his pair of victories, first in the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv near the end of last May and in the 14th International Tchaikovsky three weeks later. In late July, he played a recital at the Mannes College International Keyboard Institute Festival. Nevertheless, his appearance with Gergiev and Mariinsky was my first encounter with his playing. The slight frame and boyish countenance of the 20-year old Russian was belied by the massive sonority he produced, fully equal to the solo part‟s heroic demands. For me, the most striking attribute of his pianism was a beautifully pearly tone in passages, which were further characterized by noteworthy evenness of production. Those were also in evidence in the two encores he played after the Concerto: Chopin‟s Grande Valse Brillante No. 1, and Liszt‟s “La Campanella.” However, both the Concerto and the encores displayed a tendency to play too often in a rushed, nervous manner that did not allow phrases to breathe and was intensified by a distressing lack of articulation due to frequent overpedalling. He thus was unable to suggest the

DANIIL TRIFONOV Page 13

extroversion in the Concerto‟s finale, especially the last 60 measures beginning with the piano‟s double octaves that precede the glorification of the “big tune” at Molto meno mosso. Only in the greatest hands does this Concerto possess any suggestion of organic unity; it is usually a succession of impressive bits, and that is what it was on this occasion. Trifonov‟s celebrated predecessor laureate, Cliburn, was far more eloquent in his account in the same room more than half-a-century ago, when he was 23. Still, Trifonov is vastly talented and remains a performer to watch, particularly contemplating a career span likely to extend well beyond his 20th birthday.”

Musical America, October 18, 2011 "The only one with a reputation preceding him was 20-year-old Daniil Trifonov, who has had acclaimed keyboardists as uncompromising as Martha Argerich singing his praises. Trifonov’s Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto more than matched expectations. He gave the opening salvo a spring in the step that immediately banished the “warhorse” tag, before uncovering a multitude of voices in the first movement cadenza, some of them unexpectedly dark. There was no hint of playing for effect. Trifonov is more than capable of the bewitching virtuosity this concerto invites, as his finale amply demonstrated, but he is too much a force of nature to play to the gallery. While his performance had enough lightness and playfulness to banish the bombast, it also harnessed firepower and temperament. The sooner we hear Trifonov in Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, the better."

Financial Times, September 26, 2011 "As advance word suggested, Mr. Trifonov has scintillating technique and a virtuosic flair. He is also a thoughtful artist and, when so moved, he can play with soft-spoken delicacy, not what you associate with competition conquerors."

The New York Times, July 29, 2011 “...he has everything and more. What he does with his hands is ¬technically incredible. It‟s also his touch – he has tenderness and also the demonic ¬element. I never heard anything like that.”

Martha Argerich in the Financial Times, July 8, 2011

“Here is a performer who already knows a huge amount not just about technique, but performance itself. ¬Dispatching the Piano Concerto No 1, what was most noticeable about this fizzing display was showmanship without ¬ostentatious theatrics, and a generous willingness, particularly in the balletic second movement, to let Gergiev and the by now fully fired-up London Symphony players to take the lead where the music required it. But he had the spotlight all to himself for Liszt‟s Campanella, an encore delivered with delicate panache.”

The Times, September 2011 “The charismatic young Russian tore into the Tchaikovsky first piano concerto with exhilarating confidence and formidable technique.”

Guardian, September 2011 “The way Daniil Trifonov played, you‟d say he was a mature master, rather than a mere 20-year-old. Power in spades, crystalline passage-work, and a pearlised singing tone: he‟s already got it all, and his encore – Liszt‟s „La Campanella‟ – had both flawless delicacy, and an engaging modesty.”

The Independent, September 2011 “His performance was ¬fundamentally reserved and inward, but with ¬abundant colour and imaginative, subtle effects. This was playing rich in insight and intensity.”

The Vancouver Sun, May 2011

DANIIL TRIFONOV

MassLive • July, 15, 2017

Review: Boston Symphony Orchestra, Daniil Trifonov terrific at

Tanglewood

BY KEN ROSS

Something happened to Daniil Trifonov.

Maybe the 26-year-old pianist took up meditation.

Or perhaps he changed his diet or practice routine.

Or maybe aliens abducted him or he underwent an exorcism.

All I know is the Daniil Trifonov I saw perform Friday night with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor

Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood was not the same Daniil Trifonov I saw perform last year at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Friday was the third time I saw Trifonov perform live. Before, he was an astounding pianist, one of the best I have ever

seen and heard. (Not trying to brag but this list includes Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Evgeny

Kissin, Yuja Wang and many more.)

But Trifonov used to have long list of odd ticks and quirks. When he performed, he often looked like he was possessed

by a demon. Or rather, he reminded me of a feral animal crouched over the piano. He didn't play the instrument. He

attacked it. And when he did attack the piano, his face was often inches from the keyboard, as if he was inspecting the

keys for particles of dust or some other microscopic objects.

There's nothing wrong with adding a bit a drama to a concert performance. But sometimes, Trifonov's quirks threatened

to overshadow his astounding technique. Before, I often had to force myself to look past his idiosyncrasies. Before, I

sometimes used to close my eyes so I could simply appreciate Trifonov's playing without all the bizarre theatrics.

Trifonov was supposed to make his Tanglewood debut last summer. Unfortunately, due to a serious ear infection that

prevented him from traveling, Trifonov had to cancel his concert with the BSO last summer and a solo recital

scheduled at Tanglewood.

On Wednesday, Trifonov performed a solo recital at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall. On Friday, he made his Shed debut at

Tanglewood with the BSO and he sounded and looked like a different man.

Instead of hunching over the piano like a question mark, Trifonov sat perfectly upright. But it was more than just his

posture. Trifonov looked calmer, more composed. There was something about him I couldn't quite put my finger on,

but he looked so relaxed, so completely at peace as he sat at the piano waiting to perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No.

21.

And when Trifonov did start playing the piano, instead of sounding like a demon, he truly sounded like an angel. I

know how tacky that sounds, but there's no other way to describe how subtle and sublime Trifonov sounded Friday

night.

And I know I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Sometimes, audiences at classical music concerts act like a

roomful of fidgety eight year olds. They crinkle cough drop wrappers. They rustle their programs. They squirm in their

Daniil Trifonov

MASSLIVE July, 15, 2017

page 2 of 2 seats. On Friday night, within seconds of Trifonov performing, it was like he put the entire audience in a trance. You

couldn't hear a single sound throughout the rest of the Mozart piece. Even in between movements, the audience was

completely silent. Trifonov had us all wrapped around his finger.

I've heard Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 many times, but I have never heard a pianist perform this elegant,

understated piece with such passion and precision. Listening to Trifonov, he made Mozart's music sound like his own

composition, as if Trifonov had written each note and made it his own. At one point during the slower, second

movement, I had goose bumps and my scalp tingled as I listened to Trifonov gently coax every single note of out the

piano.

Not surprisingly, Trifonov received a rousing standing ovation at the end of the piece, which was also the last work on

the program. Normally, most soloists perform in the first half of the program. And sadly, many people sometimes leave

at intermission. But the Shed was packed Friday night when Trifonov came back out moments later to play an encore.

I was always impressed by Trifonov in the past. Now, I'm absolutely in awe of this poised, mature artist who just gets

better and better each year.

Along with the Mozart piece, Friday night's fantastic program included Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin," Haydn's

Symphony No. 83 in G minor and Thomas Ades' "Three Studies from Couperin." And in all three cases, the BSO and

Nelsons were spot on in these three, distinct pieces.

The decision to include two pieces dedicated to the Baroque composer Francois Couperin was an inspired decision.

However, I have to admit I felt a bit bad for Ades going second.

Ravel's lush, romantic piece has such a subtle rhythm. At times, some of the birds lingering around the Shed at

Tanglewood would chirp and sing in response to Ravel's beautiful music.

In contrast, Ades' ode to Couperin seemed too restrained at times. It was as if Ades had written music meant to played

in a small, city apartment adjacent to a nosy neighbor who constantly complained the second they heard a loud noise.

The orchestra often sounded too quiet, too reserved.

The Haydn piece on the program also paired perfectly with the Mozart work. First performed two years apart (Haydn's

in 1787, Mozart's in 1785), Haydn's symphony often reminded me of many different Mozart works. Or maybe it's the

other way around. All I know is the first, dramatic movement of Haydn's symphony reminded me of the opening of

Mozart's opera, "Don Giovanni."

Haydn's playful piece also often reminded me of the music many of us grew up on watching "Looney Toons" cartoons

or that Larry David often inserts into some of the more antic scenes in "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

I also love the way Haydn introduces musical themes and then plays with them, creating different variations from one

movement to the next. And in each instance, the BSO and Nelsons perfectly performed every twist and turn in Haydn's

music.

Overall, Friday's concert was one of my favorite ones at Tanglewood in a long time. And best all, the BSO is back

tonight with another, exciting program - a full concert version of Wagner's opera, "Das Rheingold." Be there!

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The Baltimore Sun • June 14, 2017

A startling display of keyboard virtuosity from Trifonov at Shriver

Hall

BY TIM SMITH

With a startling demonstration of precocity, ferocity and velocity, 26-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov made his

Baltimore recital debut Sunday evening for the Shriver Hall Concert Series.

At the very least, he left no doubt about his formidable technique, which sounded as pristine at the end of an unusually

long, demanding program as at the start. It’s a rare and disarming thing to hear such unflappable command at the

keyboard.

At top speed — and Trifonov did a lot of wonderful speeding — he retained clarity of articulation. At top volume, he

somehow managed to avoid brittle banging.

But for all of the razzle-dazzle, which reached a peak in a sensational account of Stravinsky’s Three Movements from

“Petrouchka,” what proved even more impressive was Trifonov’s poetic instincts. For the most part, he never stinted on

subtlety, making room for fine gradations in dynamics and warm phrase-molding.

The one big exception to that thoughtful approach came midway through the recital’s all-Schumann first half, when

Trifonov tore into the Toccata. His caffeinated pace and thunderous sound sure made for fun listening, but, as some

keyboard masters of yore revealed, this kinetic score benefits greatly from applying nuance along the way.

That said, Trifonov’s performances of the nostalgic “Kinderszenen” and split-personality “Kreisleriana” abounded in

sensitive touches. His pianissimo playing proved exquisite, creating an intimacy that contrasted all the more

compellingly with the drama in both pieces.

After intermission, the focus turned to Russian music. Trifonov chose five of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues

and revealed an affinity for their rich layers of mood and meaning.

The pianist’s gorgeous phrasing in the almost gauzy A major Fugue and D major Prelude were major highlights;

notable, too, was the gentle way he handled the many repeated notes in the D major Fugue.

Trifonov brought out the symphonic weight of the D minor Fugue with particular expressive power. In similar fashion,

the pianist summoned an orchestra’s worth of tone coloring in the Stravinsky pieces.

After nearly two and a half hours, Trifonov clearly still had energy to spare, which he put to radiant use in an encore —

Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu — that summed up the pianist’s uncanny resources of technical refinement and artistic

depth.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The Washington Post • April 5, 2017

Pianist Daniil Trifonov’s star continues to rise

BY ROBERT BATTEY

At any given moment, there is an “it” pianist, young and blazingly talented, whom the whole world is clamoring to

hear. We had Evgeny Kissin, then Lang Lang, then Yuja Wang, and now it is Daniil Trifonov — a polished artist, still

in his 20s, whose interpretations are as nuanced and profound as anyone three times his age.

Whatever ailed the Russian virtuoso over the weekend (Trifonov canceled a concert in Baltimore) was seemingly gone

Tuesday. His Kennedy Center recital was a triumphant display of pianism and imagination.

In works of Schumann, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, Trifonov was magisterial, creative and unruffled. The impishness

that marked some of his early appearances was now channeled into still deeper concentration. Most impressive was a

set of five Shostakovich preludes and fugues (from Op. 87): The glowing, sidereal textures of No. 7, the expressive

details within the furious agitation of No. 2, the Himalayan sonorities of the No. 24 prelude, invoking the “Great Gate

of Kiev,” and the amazing control of tempo in the ensuing fugue (a long accelerando, perfectly judged) — all bespoke a

master pianist. In Stravinsky’s “Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka,” Trifonov, if anything, held back some of his

blistering keyboard power.

Other pianists have played the “Russian Dance” faster, but none have given it such an earthy kick.

Trifonov is also a composer, and in his Schumann set — “Kinderszenen,” his Toccata and “Kreisleriana” — the

liberties he took with the score were startling. Perhaps he felt he knew better, but Schumann’s dynamics and phrasing

marks were regularly ignored or changed. To be sure, what remained was fulsome music-making, with long lines and a

sense of fantasy everywhere; but one has to wonder whether he couldn’t have done the same with the music as written.

This is one of the great young artists of our time, and it’s hard to imagine what another 20 years of experience and

reflection will bring to his interpretations.

The concert was a presentation of Washington Performing Arts.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Classical Melbourne • March 16, 2017

Review: Daniil Trifonov

BY GLENN RIDDLE

There was a palpable mix of both anticipation and rare excitement in the packed foyer of the Melbourne Recital Centre

on Tuesday night as pianophiles came together with piano students of all ages, as well as the elite of the Melbourne

piano world. They had all come to hear arguably the finest young musician on the world stage at the moment, Russian

pianist Daniil Trifonov.

Russian-trained, but now American-based, Trifonov captured the musical world’s attention when in a period of less

than six months he won First Prize in two of the world’s major international piano competitions – the Rubinstein in Tel

Aviv, followed soon thereafter by the Tchaikovsky Grand Prize in Moscow. The year prior, he’d also secured Third

Prize in the Warsaw Chopin Competition, where many would have placed him higher still. To win one such

competition might be considered serendipitous, and not necessarily indicative of an assured career trajectory. But

successes in three such major competitions before the age of 21 is a sign of a formidable talent.

Now 26 years old, Trifonov has already forged a career performing in all the major concert halls with the cream of the

world’s symphony orchestras and conductors, with no sign of waning interest in an artist who continues to deliver, both

in recital and on CD. Oh, and did I mention, he composes as well! It was something of a coup for the MRC to secure

Trifonov in recital, and he did not disappoint.

The recital began with a first half dedicated to the works of Robert Schumann, himself once an aspiring virtuoso, but

who – fortunately for musical posterity – had a promising career curtailed by injury, thus allowing him to dedicate

himself entirely to composition. Not surprisingly Schumann’s first 23 Opuses are for solo piano and it is from this

group of works from the 1830s that Trifonov selected three vastly contrasting works, Kinderszenen, the Toccata, and

Kreisleriana.

Conceived as reminiscences of childhood, rather than as teaching pieces for children, and before the composer married

his muse ClaraWieck, (later having 8 children together), Kinderszenen contains some of the most exquisite pages of

Schumann. Often deceptively easy, they require a performer who can imbue the collection of 13 miniatures with a

simplicity and directness of approach that capture the optimistic essence of childhood, pensive here, rambunctious there

inquisitive or simply falling asleep elsewhere.

The Toccata by contrast was perhaps the most overtly finger-busting piano piece conceived to date (1833), with its

relentless double-note twistings and turnings that are unforgiving to all but the most assured techniques.

Kreisleriana in many respects embodies so much that the Romantic movement represents – it is a work that wears its

literary associations on its sleeve, being inspired by E.T.A Hoffman’s fictional literary creation, Johannes Kreisler,

whose seemingly schizophrenic character vacillates between untamed tempestuousness and quiet reflection. A series of

eight Fantasias – dedicated to Chopin no less – it presents many challenges to the performer who can too easily struggle

to make a cohesive whole of the disparate musical narrative.

After interval our musical journey took us to Russia.

Daniil Trifonov

Classical Melbourne March 16, 2017

page 2 of 2 In 1950 Dmitri Shostakovich, inspired after having attended a festival in Leipzig commemorating the 200th anniversary

of Bach’s death, set about composing his pianistic magnum opus, a set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, as the German

master contrapuntist had twice done earlier in 1722 and 1744. Shostakovich, whose key sequence diverges from Bach’s

original, seems to have established a trend amongst his Russian compatriots, with composers such as Shchedrin,

Slonimsky and Kapustin all following suit. (Even popular children’s composer Dmitri Kabalevsky composed a set of

Preludes and Fugues, though he stopped at 6). Trifonov selected five Preludes and Fugues – the cycle of 24 is rarely

heard in its entirety – aptly finishing with the vast monumentality of the D minor Fugue that concludes this magnum

opus of twentieth century piano.

Then came Petrushka. Best known as one of a triptych of Stravinsky’s revolutionary pre-WW1 ballets, Petrushka

actually began life as a Konzerstück for piano and orchestra and not surprisingly the piano features prominently in the

orchestral ballet score. Perhaps no less surprising, a decade later Stravinsky decided to create Three Movements from

Petrushka (1921) for Polish pianist Artur Rubinstein, the composer always insisting however, that it was not a mere

arrangement or transcription but a piano work in its own right. Petrushka is a pianistic tour de force, requiring an

acrobatic dexterity complemented by an ability to differentiate between a myriad of contrasting and competing lines

and textures. Often violent, it is unforgiving in its requirement of finely etched musical detail and performing stamina.

A none-too-easy challenge at the end of an already generously substantial and varied program.

What however of Trifonov?

In short this was one of the most transcendental performances heard in Melbourne for a long time, and none who were

there will forget it easily. An assured, nay sublime, technical assurance was complemented by a musical engagement

that had the listener wholly bound to every note, each prepared and delivered as though Trifonov’s life depended on it.

It is rare to witness the musical commitment that unfolded on the Elisabeth Murdoch stage tonight and it clearly left the

performer enervated by night’s end. There were no weak moments in the program and one wonders how Trifonov can

sustain such white heat intensity with such a rigorous touring schedule. Personal highlights were the opening

Kinderszenen, where Trifonov’s tonal palette contained at least five different varieties of pianissimo each one carrying

through the vast expanse of this wonderful auditorium effortlessly and beguilingly cantabile. As for the Toccata – too

often offered up with unrelenting thunder and bluster – has it ever been more musically rendered and with such

nuanced detail? This was a Toccata of contrasts, of varied hues, and not merely a vehicle for virtuosic display. The

concentration that then sustained Kreisleriana was imposing. For such a large and contrasting structure, it was as tautly

cohesive as you could wish for. One wondered how it could be maintained post-interval?

Yet Trifonov made as persuasive a case for Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues as you are likely to hear, with the

added spice of highly individual, yet no less persuasive, approaches in aspects of some. But what is a concert if one

doesn’t hear something new, something unusual that sheds perhaps a new light on familiar works? Then came the

pianistic tour de force that is Petrushka – this was a performance that left the audience no less enervated than the

performer. Not only did Trifonov become Petrushka, he seemingly was Nijinsky inhabiting Petrushka. A performer

possessed, transcendent, giving more of himself than we by rights deserved.

This was no ordinary concert. Sadly, despite the almost unanimous standing ovation, I suspect it shall be a long time

before Daniil Trifonov returns to Melbourne in recital – so I urge those of you who can – secure a ticket to one of his

three performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra later this week playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto

No 1 (Friday, Saturday, Monday nights at Hamer Hall). Better still, go to all three. You won’t regret it.

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Gramophone

October 2016

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DANIIL TRIFONOV September 15, 2016

Russian Pianist Daniil Trifonov Is Named Gramophone “Artist of the Year” 2016

FROM 21C MEDIA GROUP

Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov has been named the Gramophone “Artist of the Year” for 2016, as announced at the Gramophone Awards at London’s St. Johns, Smith Square earlier today. The “Artist of the Year” award is the only Gramophone prize decided by international public vote, and recent winners have included conductor Paavo Järvi, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, tenor Joseph Calleja, and conductor Gustavo Dudamel. After learning of the win, Trifonov said, “I couldn’t be happier about receiving the publicly-voted Gramophone award. The attention of this audience, based in our shared love for classical music, means so much to me. Many thanks!” The 25-year-old pianist accepted his Artist of the Year award with a videotaped speech from Tel Aviv, which can be viewed here. In his Gramophone citation, Stephen Plaistow said: “It has been claimed that among pianists a talent such as his is a phenomenon that appears no more than two or three times in a generation, if that. In the five years since winning the Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky competitions Trifonov has made a successful career on terms that are his own and established himself everywhere as someone we shall always want to hear.” On September 22 Trifonov embarks on a European tour with the Filarmonica della Scala under the direction of Riccardo Chailly, followed by recitals in Germany and his debut in the Berliner Philharmoniker Piano Series. He then travels to Chicago for the gala finale of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 125th Anniversary Celebration. He plays Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto under the baton of Riccardo Muti, in a recreation of the very first program of the CSO’s history, performed on October 16 and 17, 1891. More information about Trifonov’s 2016-17 season can be found on his website here. About Gramophone Classical Music Awards The annual Gramophone Classical Music Awards, the world’s most influential classical music prizes, given this year in association with EFG International and the BPI, were launched in 1977 by Gramophone magazine (founded in 1923 by Sir Compton Mackenzie). Available internationally, Gramophone publishes a bespoke edition of the magazine for North America. To celebrate its 90th anniversary, Gramophone’s full archive was made available digitally for iPad and other tablet devices, smartphone or computer. Gramophone’s podcasts are available from iTunes. Unique Gramophone playlists are available on Qobuz and Apple Music.

DANIIL TRIFONOV August 1, 2016

TRANSCENDENT TRIFONOV

FROM DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov extends his Deutsche Grammophon discography with yellow label’s first ever recording of Franz Liszt’s complete concert Études

“Daniil Trifonov proves himself an heir to Liszt” Washington Post

“Without question the most astounding young pianist of our age” The Times (London)

Transcendental, the title of Daniil Trifonov’s latest solo album for Deutsche Grammophon, could serve to describe the Russian pianist’s artistry and his ability to reveal the deepest truths in every work he performs. The power of Trifonov to transcend the ordinary and touch the sublime has inspired critics and commentators to liken him to the greatest keyboard virtuosos of all time. He was recently hailed by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as a “Russian Miracle”, a pianist without equal for his combination of “spontaneity, risk and high-drilled technique”. The newspaper’s acclamation underlines the overwhelming critical consensus that Daniil Trifonov is one of the most remarkable musicians of this or any other age. His beguiling pianism can be heard at its finest on Transcendental, a double-disc set comprising Franz Liszt’s complete concert Études which is set for international release on 7 October 2016.

“Liszt changed music for ever: how it was heard, how it was performed, what music could express – what it meant to be an artist,” comments Trifonov. “He was the grandfather of us all! He was a phenomenon.” Transcendental includes captivating interpretations of “La campanella”, the most popular of Liszt’s fiendishly difficult Grandes études de Paganini, and of “Mazeppa” in its final, 1852 version, an ideal showcase for Trifonov’s virtuosity and musicianship from the dozen Transcendental Études.

Daniil Trifonov is one of the few pianists to have recorded Liszt’s concert Études in one concentrated period and the first to record them complete for Deutsche Grammophon. He set down his visionary interpretations within the space of five days, a feat in keeping with the tireless energy and superhuman spirit of Liszt himself. Trifonov’s approach to Liszt is informed by the legacy of the Russian school of piano playing in which he was raised and by his profound understanding of the composer’s musical language. “Liszt’s technical virtuosity is just a means to evoke extremes of emotion,” observes Trifonov. “His daring harmonic and structural innovations revealed new horizons for emotional and psychological expression in music. His compositions can be described as dynamic depictions of the spiritual experiences of a Romantic soul.”

Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon, is certain that Transcendental will convey to listeners all the power and passion noted by contemporaries in Liszt’s own performances. “Daniil Trifonov brings unique qualities to these compositions, which are even more demanding musically than they are technically,” he comments. “Not only does he possess the supreme skills necessary to bring each one to life but he is also blessed with the spiritual insight and artistry that belong to the truly greatest performers. Transcendental is sure to become the benchmark by which all other recordings of these works will be judged in future.”

Daniil Trifonov Transcendental Press Release • August 1, 2016 page 2 of 2 Trifonov’s busy schedule in 2016-17 includes summer dates at the Verbier, Ravinia, Aspen and Edinburgh festivals, recital tours in Germany and Austria in October, performances of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel and the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, and a major tour of Australia.

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The Sunday Telegraph

10 April 2016

DANIIL TRIFONOV

San Diego Union Tribune • February 29, 2016

Trifonov captivates and enchants a full house

BY CHRISTIAN HERTZOG

When an audience makes a concerted effort to stifle all sounds — sniffles, coughs, chair squeaks, program rustling —

it’s a sign they’re enchanted by a master entertainer.

No one wanted to break the musical spells that Daniil Trifonov cast in Sherwood Auditorium on Sunday evening. In a

La Jolla Music Society recital devoted to virtuosic variations and expansive sonatas, the young pianist captivated a full

house with his seemingly superhuman technique and intuitively poetic interpretations.

Who would dare intrude on his pianissimos, so delicate their beginnings were imperceptible, tones appearing out of

nowhere? What brazen clod would interrupt the timing of his phrasing or tromp on his smooth and liquid

arpeggiations? Who could have the effrontery to encroach on one of his pauses after it had been set up so exquisitely in

the preceding notes?

His program was built around two massive piano sonatas: Schubert’s G major Sonata, D 894, and Rachmaninoff’s

Sonata no. 1 in D minor, Op. 28. Both works pose special challenges.

In Schubert’s late piece, one must grapple with its formidable scale. The musical ideas themselves are genial and overly

comfortable, but stretched out to great lengths. It’s simple enough to bask in the warmth of each section, but it takes

discipline and insight to keep the entire piece moving along, or else it simply sounds like a series of pleasant character

pieces.

Trifonov, 24, approached the work in a manner some might find overly precious: delicate sonorities emerged, melodies

softly and slowly rang out. To this listener, Trifonov’s understatement generated suspense that paid off when his sound

opened up into full, firm arrival points.

Rachmaninoff’s First Sonata is rarely programmed; its technical demands are extreme. It has a profusion of themes and

their development is not clear. It is a rambling composition that challenges a pianist to negotiate its thickets of notes

while delineating its musical arguments.

Trifonov was an ideal exponent for this difficult work. The minute to minute beauty of his sound, in face of the

virtuosity Rachmaninoff demands, was always captivating, whether spinning out quiet flurries of notes to accompany a

gentle melody or navigating blustery full-fisted chords.

The remainder of the program focused on variations inspired by solo violin music. Brahms’ translation of Bach’s D

minor Chaconne for violin — one of Bach’s most inspired set of variations — was given a highly (and appropriately)

Romantic reading by Trifonov. Brahms arranged it entirely for the left hand, and Trifonov used a full range of colors in

his performance, from dramatically percussive to softly singing.

Brahms wrote two sets of variations on a caprice by the virtuosic violinist/composer Niccolo Paganini. Trifonov gave a

thrilling account of Book 1 of Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme of Paganini.” The skill needed to simply play all of

Brahms’ notes and rhythms is high enough; Trifonov brilliantly transcended that to give these works a miraculously

musical performance where all of the melodies, counter-melodies and accompaniments were clearly and sensitively

marked out.

Daniil Trifonov

San Diego Union Tribune February 29, 2016

page 2 of 2 Two of the three encores Trifonov played slyly tied in to his program. After a captivating transcription of the

Tchaikovsky’s “Silver Fairy” from “The Sleeping Beauty,” which seemed a wry break from the drama of

Rachmaninoff’s Sonata, he performed a difficult but gorgeous left-hand work harking back to Brahms: Scriabin’s

finger-stretching Prelude op. 9, no. 1. Coaxed onto stage one more time, Trifonov whipped off another dazzling set of

variations on Paganini’s Caprice, this time by Liszt (the “Grandes Études de Paganini”).

DANIIL TRIFONOV Hamburg Abendblatt • February 6, 2016

An historic performance by Daniil Trifonov at Laeiszhalle BY JOACHIM MISCHKE

**This review has been translated from German. The original review can be found here: http://www.abendblatt.de/kultur-live/article207013547/Historischer-Auftritt-von-Daniil-Trifonov-in-der-Laeiszhalle.html

Playing the piano: Come to think of it, the notion itself is intimidatingly grandiose and trivial at the same time. For playing the piano, ideally, means the ability to do with a toy whatever one sees fit. To be relaxed and at peace and not to care the least bit about anything in the world but this one moment. And all of a sudden the grand piano, this merciless monster, this silently rumbling key-pressing machine made of wood, metal, and felt, becomes an integral part of one’s own body as it breathes and feels and thinks together with the player. That moment, when Daniil Trifonov made it clear that playing the piano must achieve what it almost never can achieve and must happen in the flow – that moment at Laeiszhalle Concert Hall lasted for almost two hours.

The critic’s mind wants to think in historic dimensions when thinking of such exceptional performances. For almost precisely ninety years ago, in January 1926, another young Russian, by a year younger then than Trifonov today, took the very same stage and did his magic and said afterwards: ‘In Hamburg they loved me from the very first note.’ Horowitz was the name. The Horowitz.

It is this far back in history one has to go to understand what it means when someone like Trifonov returns to this of all stages, takes his seat at the piano and achieves more with one had, just five fingers, than others even had they brought four instead of two hands. Trifonov played the Brahms version of the Bach Chaconne, originally built for the violin, hands down – literally hands down, with his left only. When something like this happens, music turns into architecture and structure becomes audible. D minor, for centuries the key for the deepest abysses, one that Trifonov gave an entire sound character of its own, dark, almost obfuscatory, by no means prepared for a good end arrangement with destiny. A piece barely to get to grips with, so extreme is its inner pressure. Five fingers were all one could see, the other hand holding the grand piano time and again, possibly to stop it from lifting off the stage. And yet, here one witnessed someone building a hermit’s world out of nothing and few keys, a world cleared of all what is unnecessary. And in the front left of the dark parquet, this night, there sat, Yoda-like, the legendary pianist Menahem Pressler, 92 years old, almost four times the age of Trifonov. Not the worst of all omens, one would think.

This concert program by Trifonov, extended at short notice and newly ordered in a meaningful sequence, was not just an exhibition of technical capabilities that could have other pianists loose all hope and run off to the next-best occupational retraining program. It was a sequence of variations on the theme of virtuosity in the spotlight as such. It began with Bach’s purity law of this-is-exactly-how-it’s-to-be and ended with

Daniil Trifonov Hamburg Abendblatt • February 6, 2016 page 2 of 2 Rachmaninoff’s demand to go all in, with undamped subjectivity, and to let oneself go in rubati and the time holes of this exuberant music.

Following the reverent essence of Bach by Brahms the music historian, which combined geometry with both an understanding of form and modesty, came Rachmaninoff’s bright E major gimmick of the BWV 1006 Prelude Gavotte and Gigue. The same piano, the same key-mover, but sound-wise worlds apart, charged with late romanticism, equipped precisely with that well controlled mix of abundance of passion and refinement that distinguishes the virtuoso from the impersonator.

Liszt’s transcription of Bach’s organ Fantasia and Fugue in G minor has the first little sounds bounce like a pebble skipping across the lake in spring light. Any journey begins with the first step, any Bach fugue with the first note, and then it flourishes and grows. Trifonov played this episode from his ripening as a master student with great liberty. Very slowly, very cleverly did he increase the dose of the intoxicant.

If Trifonov were a simpler mind when programming a piano recital, he would probably have opened with the hit of Liszt’s Paganini Etudes, which here now are presented only after the intermission. Infernally difficult, heavenly beautiful if presented successfully, and if the fingers do not get fastened with knots or outright broken. But Trifonov promenaded through the half-dozen or so maximal difficulties as if these were cute precursors to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Again and again he bent down deeply towards the keyboard, to have a very good look at what was going on there, bending the spinal disks to breaking point. Or maybe he was counting his fingers—were there still only ten? Who knows? He produced tremolos and double octaves and festoons of notes in the most glorious fashion, worlds apart from any manual challenges and with an infinitely graded spectrum of tone colors. And that little top note sparkling out of the abundance of notes of La Campanella as a tiny porcelaine bell came out just perfect, effortless, every damn time.

Then, however, Rachmaninoff once more, as if it were not sufficiently clear already that this would not be a challenge for him, either, and definitely not something to be afraid of. The First Sonata, Opus 28, inspired at the outset by Goethe’s Faust, a piece one can get lost in as it billows and darkens and, in all this, remains incredibly vague. In all of this, Trifonov let music happen: Music which had a horizon, width, broadness, and depth, with colors reminding at times of a Turner painting.

That piece of music that Trifonov cannot play is yet to be composed it seems. At the very end, back to the here and now, he stood in the limelight as if just pulled out of the water, acclaimed. Nostalgics are welcome to have their tickets enframed.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Vanity Fair • November 11, 2015

Daniil Trifonov, the 24-Year-Old Wunderkind, Comes to the New York Philharmonic BY WAYNE LAWSON

The New York Philharmonic is devoting the last half of November to the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), and the star chosen for this special festival is Daniil Trifonov, the 24-year-old, mop-headed Russian pianist-composer who sprang to international recognition in 2011, when he won both the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition, in Moscow, and first prize at the Rubinstein Competition, in Tel Aviv. Since then, he has been a guest artist with most of the leading orchestras in America and Europe; the Deutsche Grammophon recording of his 2014 Carnegie Hall recital was nominated for a Grammy; and his virtuosic technique has been compared routinely with that of Vladimir Horowitz and Franz Liszt.

Between November 11 and 28, Trifonov will give multiple performances of Rachmaninoff’s second, third, and fourth piano concertos as well as his “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra.” (He played the first piano concerto last year with the Philharmonic.) He will also present a program of chamber music by the composer with members of the orchestra at the 92nd Street Y. The day before the festival began, at the WQXR Greene Space in Hudson Square, Trifonov played Rachmaninoff’s “Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos” with Sergei Babayan, his teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where Trifonov has spent the last seven years earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees. Trifonov concluded that program with a composition of his own called “Rachmaniana.” In the past year he has performed all four Rachmaninoff concertos in London, and he is now in the process of recording them for Deutsche Grammophon with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, following their release, in August, of Rachmaninov Variations.

Trifonov talked informally with me at the Gramercy Tavern the day before his first concert with the Philharmonic. He started performing professionally when he was 8, and at 17 he left Moscow, at the suggestion of his teacher there, to study with Babayan in Cleveland. Up to then he had never played the music of Rachmaninoff, but Babayan considered him perfect for it. Rachmaninoff left Russia after the 1917 revolution, and he lived for many years in the United States, where he developed a close friendship with Horowitz. The composer was also a virtuoso pianist, and his recordings from as early as 1924 are still available. Trifonov described Rachmaninoff’s keyboard artistry as being extremely focused on finding the dramatic center of a piece. Trifonov’s technical mastery of such difficult composers as Liszt, for example, is well known. He explained that playing Rachmaninoff requires a certain emotional preparation from deep inside. Liszt is about the hands and fingers, he said. But for Rachmanifoff he has to feel the energy come all the way from the spine, through the shoulders. “I can almost compare it to swimming,” he said.

Daniil Trifonov Vanity Fair • November 11, 2015 page 2 of 2 How about stage fright? Questioned on the subject at WQXR, Babayan said that every performer has it before every performance: the fear of forgetting, of going blank. I asked Trifonov if he ever uses scores in performance. “Only with chamber music,” he said.

Does he ever relax? “I like hiking, wherever I am,” he said. He also apparently likes movies. He said that he and his girlfriend, who is also a pianist, were going that evening—the evening before his first performance—to see Spectre.

DANIIL TRIFONOV The Guardian • October 11, 2015

Daniil Trifonov; Angela Hewitt; Total Immersion: Górecki review – fireworks and finesse BY FIONA MADDOCKS

From agile thoroughbred to bucking bronco, gawky puppet to noble athlete, careworn sage to innocent child, Daniil Trifonov’s playing has it all. The young Russian superstar pianist – not another of those you might think, eyes rolling – played to a packed Royal Festival Hall on Thursday as soloist in the Philharmonia Orchestra’s series of Rachmaninov’s works for piano and orchestra. It was my first encounter with him live. He is, no other word, a phenomenon. Like Rachmaninov, he is both a dazzling pianist and a composer. Born in 1991 in Nizhniy Novgorod, he gave his first concert at eight, apparently losing one of his baby teeth mid-performance. At 24, a multiple international prize-winner, he leaves you struggling for superlatives.

This is the Philharmonia’s 70th-anniversary season. They and their exciting young conductor Rafael Payare, an El Sistema alumnus – a name to watch – played with vigour and warmth. The partnership with Trifonov felt ideal, the orchestra’s enthusiasm for him evident both in their playing and in their smiles. It was, however, Trifonov’s night. He was a fine advocate for Rachmaninov’s little-known Piano Concerto No 4 (1926). Much revised and cut, it was hardly played until a modern edition, published in 2001, gave it fresh life. The shortish piece engages yet puzzles: rich in romantic gesture, fireworks and melody but always swerving from big ideas. By the end, Trifonov looked fired up with enough energy to power a small town, his whole body quivering with exhilaration.

Next came the ever popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which Rachmaninov himself premiered in Baltimore, Maryland in 1934. The first 10 variations, all fast, gave Trifonov every chance to display both his dexterity and the astonishing aural imagination that, above all, sets him apart. In the luscious Variation 18 he favoured simplicity, with not an ounce of indulgence. He sits quite close to the piano, moving from the waist, at times rising from the stool as if balancing on the tips of his fingers. In chordal passages he achieves miraculous layers of sound by – don’t ask me how – using the dominant fingers to bring out the melody with steely power, while the other fingers, softly accompanying, turn to blancmange. If that all sounds too purple, take a look on YouTube.

The Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt once said she didn’t care if she never played a note of Rachmaninov again. She launched the Southbank’s international piano series with music by Bach, the composer who has been part of her life since infancy. (A tape exists of her playing Bach at the age of four.) Refuting the idea that she might have felt in the shadow of her fellow Canadian and Bach guru, Glenn Gould, Hewitt wrote in the Times Literary Supplement: “As a kid I saw him regularly on Canadian television. ‘Who’s that kook?’, I asked my parents. Playing with his nose practically on the keyboard, and always at tempos that even at that age I knew were bizarre…”

Hewitt herself, willowy and expansive in gesture, instead leans back from the keyboard, lifts her arms high, or wrenches them away sharply, with a swivel. She studied classical ballet in her teens. Many of her movements are, literally, choreographed: she writes instructions to herself in the score. It makes her performances an enigmatic mix of control and spontaneity. Hewitt’s strength lies in her clarity of articulation. Not all players – or listeners – like the musical structure to be quite so conspicuous, just as there are those hikers keen to identify every triangulation point and others who refuse a map. That said, she takes admirable risks in between the big cadence points – her speeds are often

Daniil Trifonov The Guardian • October 11, 2015 page 2 of 2 astonishingly fleet; her octave leaps rarely miss. She was at her best in Liszt’s Dante Sonata, from the Book 2 of the Années de pèlerinage. With its thundering octaves and diabolic syncopations and trills, this fantasy work suited Hewitt, who found order in near incoherence and certainly played more correct notes than most pianists manage.

A short burst of praise for the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s latest Total Immersion, an all-day event devoted to the music of Henryk Górecki (1933-2010), best known for the late success, in the 1990s, of his Symphony No 3, “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” (1976). The Polish composer’s stylistic range goes far beyond the slow simplicity of that work. The effect of listening to his output in the concert hall was cumulative and rewarding. No one could have been more surprised than myself. Górecki’s story, and the hard-won musical decisions that resulted, would be interesting to many. It’s a pity Radio 3 now has too rigid a schedule to relay more marginal events such as this live. The chance to listen online is of course valuable, especially for the already converted. But live radio has an inestimable extra value, not least serendipity, the chance to stick with something that catches your ear. Total immersion in the concert hall becomes partial exposure at home, not helped by the iPlayer search engine leading me to Total Sport and Totally Sausage first.

DANIIL TRIFONOV The Guardian • September 17, 2015

Rachmaninov: Variations - Trifonov's joyous, exceptional collection BY ANDREW CLEMENTS

fter hearing a bit too much dutiful Rachmaninov playing at the Leeds international piano competition last weekend, Daniil Trifonov’s disc provided the best possible antidote. Here is an outstanding pianist who plays Rachmaninov because he is fascinated by the music and can bring genuine imagination and musical wit to it. Trifonov signals his deep admiration by including a piece of his own: the five miniatures that make up his glittering Rachmaniana are an homage to the pianistic tradition that reached its late-Romantic zenith in Rachmaninov and a celebration of the Russianness of that music.

The authentic works are the Paganini Rhapsody, in which the large-than-life sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin provide the perfect foil to Trifonov’s thoughtful and sometimes surprisingly introspective playing, and the two sets of solo variations, on themes by Chopin, Op 22, and Corelli, Op 42. Both receive dazzling performances, showing why Trifonov, when at his best like this, is peerless among younger pianists today. There’s emotional weight and structural integrity about the Chopin set, and all the panache and bravura anyone could want in the Corelli. It’s a joyous, exceptional collection.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Trib Live • September 16, 2015

Pianist Daniil Trifonov more than just a set of nimble fingers BY MARK KANNY

For all that's wrong with music competitions, including the excessive pressure and focus on technique, sometimes they do live up to their purpose by calling attention to extraordinary talents.

Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov was 20 when he won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv in 2011. Pittsburgh music lovers heard his stupendous talent in February 2013 when he played Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

But it turns out his first musical impulse was to create, not play.

Trifonov will return to Pittsburgh to open the symphony's season of BNY Mellon Grand Classics by playing music he composed, with Manfred Honeck conducting, at concerts Sept. 18 and 20 at Heinz Hall, Downtown. The program is Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 (“Italian”), Trifonov's Piano Concerto and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's “Capriccio Italien.”

The Pittsburgh Symphony has lowered its tickets prices from top to bottom at the start of this season.

Trifonov wrote the concerto in 2013-14 on commission from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied piano and composition. He gave the world premiere April 23, 2014, with the institute's orchestra conducted by Joel Smirnoff, the school's president and former first violin of the Juilliard Quartet.

The commission was part of Smirnoff's effort to encourage students to compose and perform. Trifonov is the first of five composer-performers the symphony is featuring this season in place of the “composer of the year” program.

His concerto is in the traditional three movements and runs about 40 minutes.

Trifonov was born in Russia in a musical home. His mother taught music theory. His father wrote music at the keyboard — rock, before turning to classical style for Russian Orthodox Church music.

“I didn't pay interest in it until I was about 5 years old,” Trifonov says. “It wasn't even a piano. It was a synthesizer, which my father was using since he was also a composer. When I experimented with how it worked, I was fascinated touching the same key and a couple of different buttons produced a completely different sound.”

After improvising at his father's keyboard for about a half year, he began taking piano lessons.

When his family moved to Moscow, where he studied at the prestigious Gnessen Academy, Trifonov found himself with no time for composition, partly because getting to school took 1½ hours each way and also because of the “incredible demands” of practice time.

Trifonov's first favorite composer was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “not only for the beauty and simplicity of expression, but at the same time the never-ending line of storytelling — one motif being followed by another with complete effortlessness.”

A few years later, Trifonov's enthusiasm was for Frederic Chopin for his harmonic language, subtlety and flexibility of phrasing and the generally chromatic nature of melody and harmony.

Daniil Trifonov Trib Live • September 16, 2015 page 2 of 2 At 12, his favorite orchestral piece was Alexander Scriabin's “Poem of Ecstasy.” Before long, he was preparing Scriabin's piano music, with its “incredible harmonic language” to play at competitions.

He has other favorites. He's recorded Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra and Sergei Rachmaninoff's “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” with Yannick Nezet-Sequin and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Trifonov will return to Pittsburgh to play Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Honeck and the orchestra in early May, and he will play it on the orchestra' European tour.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Deutsche Grammophon • August 5, 2015

Trifonov's Tribute to the Last of the Romantics “… without question the most astounding young pianist of our age …”

The Times (July 2015)

Daniil Trifonov’s latest recording for Deutsche Grammophon, released on August 28, 2015, pays homage to his musical idol, Sergei Rachmaninov, as the 24-year-old Russian artist connects with the soul and spirit of his fellow countryman’s art.

Rachmaninov Variations, his first studio album, unlocks the romance, energy and sheer virtuosity of the fiendishly difficult Variations on a Theme of Chopin and Variations on a Theme of Corelli, both ideal showpieces for this young pianist’s talents. By way of a perfect interlude between these two classics of the solo piano repertoire comes the world premiere recording of Trifonov’s own Rachmaniana, created as a tribute to the legendary pianist-composer.

Before all these delights, however, the album revels in the intensity of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, recorded with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The connections with Rachmaninov are particularly visceral here, as this was his favourite North American ensemble and gave the Rhapsody’s premiere in 1934, with the composer himself at the piano. As Trifonov observes, “Rachmaninov’s music is part of the DNA of the orchestra; that is why playing his music comes so effortlessly.”

Having begun to play the piano at the age of five and to compose soon after, it didn’t take long for Daniil Trifonov to develop an enduring passion for the expressive eloquence of Rachmaninov’s music. He’s always felt a close cultural identification with the composer, noting, “I relate to his Russian character, as well as his love for the language of musical Romanticism.”

He composed the five-movement Rachmaniana as “a kind of homage to the composer”, a work for solo piano rich in virtuosity, lyricism and what he describes as “nostalgic yearnings.” That sense of personal affinity with Rachmaninov, enhanced by his experience of performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, informs his playing in all the works on this album.

Audiences worldwide flock to hear Daniil Trifonov perform. His playing regularly receives five-star reviews, inspiring critical superlatives and positive comparisons with great artists from the past. “In his trance-like dream of a slow movement, Trifonov was closely attuned to each orchestral soloist, and to the emotional heart of Rachmaninov himself,” observed The Times after his interpretation of the First Piano Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall in April. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote of his “warhorse-smashing, wildly entertaining performance” of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, given at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall in January last year, while the Washington Post has summarised his performance of this work simply as “a marvel”.

Daniil Trifonov returns to Philadelphia this October to perform Rachmaninov’s Fourth Piano Concerto before joining the Philharmonia Orchestra in the UK and Iceland for performances of the composer’s Second Piano Concerto. His 2015/16 season with Rachmaninov continues in November in Japan with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and with performances of the Second, Third and Fourth Piano Concertos in New York with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Daniil Trifonov Deutsche Grammophon • August 5, 2015 page 2 of 2 US Dates:

September 18 – Pittsburgh, PA

September 19 – Morgantown, WV

September 20 – Pittsburgh, PA

September 25-26 – San Francisco, CA

October 1-4 – Philadelphia, PA

November 11-27 – New York, NY

DANIIL TRIFONOV The Arts Desk • July 29, 2015

Prom 14: Prokofiev Piano Concertos BY GAVIN DIXON

Gergiev’s programme for this concert raised eyebrows when the Proms were announced: all five Prokofiev piano concertos, presented in chronological order, over the course of a long evening. As it turned out, he had some good reasons for his plan. The three Russian pianists he lined up – Daniil Trifonov (Concertos 1 and 3), Sergei Babayan (2 and 5), and Alexei Volodin (4) – had between them the talent to carry any programme. And the composer benefited too, with his Fourth and Fifth Concertos, both difficult works to programme, finding a natural home, and both appearing for the first time at the Proms.

Daniil Trifonov opened the proceedings with an austere but committed reading of the First Concerto. Trifonov has a distinctive sound, precise, clean and focused. He is expressive, but not flamboyant or sentimental. In short, he is an ideal pianist for Prokofiev, and there was little to fault here.The bold opening statement was given with a strident but austere determination, setting the tone for the whole piece. There is a deceptive power behind Trifonov’s technique: he’ll be pushing through fast passages with astonishing speed and accuracy, but then he’ll accelerate into a cadence, faster still, and without any compromise to his precision or the evenness of his tone. An impressive start to the evening.

The Second Concerto was performed by Trifonov’s former teacher, Sergei Babayan. They are similar pianists, both very much of the Russian school: definite touch, articulation focused and directed phrasing. But Babayan is a more lyrical pianist, better able to bring out the melodic lines above Prokofiev’s virtuosic textures. Both give that impression of understated virtuosity that Prokofiev demands, and Babayan too is able to make the long passages of runs seem effortless, including the one that makes up the entire second movement of this concerto. His greatest moment was the intense cadenza of the first movement, played with a paradoxical mix of weighty conviction and deftness of touch.

Impressive performances both, from teacher and pupil, but it was the latter who triumphed, with a reading of the Third Concerto that surpassed anything else this evening. Here again Trifonov played with that steely precision, but also moments of warmth too. Nowhere else in the concert was raw virtuosity so effectively put into the service of musical expression. And Trifonov demonstrated that the distinctiveness of his touch was not at the expense of variety of expression. Some of the more atmospheric quiet music of the finale sometimes seemed somewhat literal, suggesting that, just for once, Prokofiev’s expression had become more Romantic than the pianist was willing to indulge.

The applause that followed this concerto was by far the loudest of the evening, suggesting that the relatively obscure items ahead might prove an anticlimax. In fact, both the Fourth and Fifth concertos are so different to their predecessors that there was little sense that they were acting as summation here. The Fourth Concerto is for the left hand: like Ravel’s it was written for Paul Wittgenstein. But Prokofiev evidently had a lower opinion of Paul’s abilities than Ravel, and produced a much more straightforward work, in which the left hand usually carries just a single line. It’s an attractive piece though, and received an excellent performance from Alexei Volodin. Little effort was made here to make the music sound sophisticated. There is certainly virtuosity to the piano writing, but it is set within a neoclassical framework where over-interpretation could only distract. The modest scoring allows the piano’s lines to

Daniil Trifonov The Arts Desk • July 29, 2015 page 2 of 2 come through, although there are occasional moments of drama, and Volodin had the weight of tone to ensure he was always heard.

The Fourth and Fifth Concertos are similar in spirit, and of common vintage. After Wittgenstein rejected the Fourth, Prokofiev immediately set about writing the Fifth for his own use. Both are adventurous structurally, in four and five movements respectively, many of which are short and end abruptly. Babayan returned to give a playful and energetic account. Prokofiev never seems to quite decide on what role he has in mind for the soloist here, but Babayan was happy to project whatever idea or mood the composer was following at each moment. His passagework was not always as precise as the music demands (what might Trifonov make of the work?), but it was still an assured reading.

Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra were on top form throughout their long evening. All the demanding woodwind and brass solos were delivered with panache, and the strings offered ideal support for each of the soloists. Gergiev was never the passive accompanist, and there were occasional moments when he and the pianist seemed to be vying for authority over the tempo. But all round this was a success for him. Gergiev’s eccentric programme was fully vindicated, even if it was Trifonov who ended up stealing the show.

DANIIL TRIFONOV The London Times • July 27, 2015

DANIIL TRIFONOV Orange County Register • April 14, 2015

Pianist Daniil Trifonov rocks Soka with Liszt BY TIMOTHY MANGAN The young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov gave one of the most extraordinary solo recitals this listener has ever heard Sunday afternoon at Soka Performing Arts Center. Judging from the audience’s reaction afterward, everyone felt much the same as I did. The boy can play. Trifonov, just 24 and making his first appearance in Orange County, already comes with a long and impressive résumé – winner of the Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein piano competitions, record contract with Deutsche Grammophon, a series of recitals at Carnegie Hall and the breathless commendation of none other than Martha Argerich. On Sunday, his program was daunting enough on paper alone: Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor as transcribed by Liszt; Beethoven’s final piano sonata, Op. 111; and not one, not two, but all twelve of Liszt’s “Transcendental Etudes,” more than an hour of music by itself. They are among Liszt’s most difficult-to-play pieces, from a technical standpoint, his own answer to Paganini’s Caprices for violin. The title in French is more specific – “Études d’exécution transcendante” – in other words, one’s technique must be transcendent to play them. Musically speaking, they are not invariably of the highest quality; they are bombastic, grandiose, verbose, ornamented to within an inch of their life, more icing than cake. But they are never less than entertaining to hear, and to watch someone play. Trifonov tore into them relentlessly, a pugilist on the verge of a knockout. The tone was colossal, rich fortissimos without brittleness. His pianissimos were haloed. Technically, he had such command of the pieces that he could toy with them, speed up or slow down at will, nudge notes with straight fingers, and even with the side of his fist. He managed a hyper-smooth legato, gossamer lightness, super-slow-mo without stalling. What was perhaps most impressive was that he had the measure of the work musically. This was a Horowitzian reading, a theatrical performance first and foremost that never forgot that Liszt was after creating sensation. I clocked it at 65 minutes and Trifonov never let up, or tired. The first half of the program showed that Trifonov was no Bachian with kid gloves. His account of the Fantasia and Fugue was big and robust, evoking its pipe organ roots and coming and going in gigantic, crashing waves of sound. His interpretation of the Beethoven explored all of the work’s nooks and crannies without losing its way and pounced on contrasts with a suddenness that startled. The theme-and-variations Arietta finale became more of an epic yet interior journey than ever with Trifonov’s rich array of colors and moods, timing and technical ease. His delicate encore (after the Liszt) was Medtner’s “Alla Reminiscenza.” Not incidentally, Trifonov smiled sweetly in response to the thunderous ovations, just a kid without airs enjoying himself. Remember the name: Daniil Trifonov. It’s pronounced dan-EEL TREE-fon-ov.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Manchester Evening News • October 30, 2014

Review: Daniil Trifonov @ Bridgewater Hall, Manchester BY ROBERT BEALE He's a name that will be very well known before long. But right now, though his fame is massive in Moscow, Paris and New York, Manchester hasn’t quite caught up: only a few hundred, though highly enthusiastic, listeners greeted the young Russian pianist’s first solo recital at the Bridgewater Hall. ‘The most brilliant pianist I’ve ever heard’ was a comment I’d gleaned beforehand from a widely travelled and discerning friend, about Daniil Trifonov. That was setting the bar high – but in truth his technical powers are among the most dazzling I’ve ever witnessed, too. The virtuosity of his playing in the final four of Liszt’s Twelve Transcendental Studies was almost unbelievable. But there was more to this recital than pure brilliance. Beginning with a Liszt transcription of Bach, and continuing with Beethoven’s last sonata, it was a study of the transcendental in itself – and a reconstruction of the kind of pianism that made Liszt and others pop stars 150 years ago. Trifonov cuts a slight figure, almost rushing on stage to get on with his task when he appears. For his Bach (the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, transcribed), he sits with back ramrod straight but plays it with a totally Romantic rhetoric, not a Baroque one – grand and heroic to begin and end, betimes dreamy and mysterious, the fugal part-playing exemplary. For Beethoven he bent tightly over the keyboard, or turned his face heavenwards as if entranced. There’s an old-fashioned showman in Trifonov – but then when was there not in any great pianist? The delicacy of his softest touch became apparent here, revealing the range of tone he can get and lending the music theatricality that even Beethoven might not have quite expected. His playing was not flawless – the sort of fistfuls of notes he plays could hardly be totally immaculate, and some might carp about the amount of pedal he brings to studies like Mazeppa in the Liszt set. But there’s a demonic quality that perhaps only a young virtuoso can recreate (as in Feux Follets) and an aspiration to the superhuman that outshines the ragged edges (as in Vision). In the end the supreme difficulties of Wilde Jagd were triumphantly overcome, Ricordanza was superbly accurate and very beautiful, Harmonies Du Soir simply amazing, and Chasse-Neige a climax of thunderous tone and buckets of Romantic feeling. There will be more standing ovations like that one.

DANIIL TRIFONOV The Cleveland Plain Dealer • April 24, 2014

New piano concerto by CIM student Daniil Trifonov comes to life in staggering premiere by the composer (review) BY ZACHARY LEWIS Even having seen it, one cannot quite believe it. Such is the artistry of pianist-composer Daniil Trifonov. Much as Prokofiev’s earliest listeners were surely stunned, so was a house full of benefactors Wednesday night in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music staggered by Trifonov’s titanic premiere of his own First Piano Concerto. A student at CIM and a world-class soloist, Trifonov was commissioned by the school to pen and perform a concerto as part of an effort to spawn a new generation of composer virtuosos. It was this work, the artist’s largest creation to date, the pianist presented Wednesday with the CIM Orchestra and conductor Joel Smirnoff. To place Trifonov the composer on a level with the giants of the 20th century may be a bit of a stretch. At least for now. While his concerto contained whole expanses of raw originality, the work also struck this listener as heavily indebted to such masters as Scriabin, Bartok, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. But that does not diminish the accomplishment. Not at all. Even to compose in the vein of such luminaries is no easy matter. Moreover, for Trifonov to have written a work showcasing and testing his own prodigious talents is a feat nothing short of brilliant. Indeed, the concerto’s whole first movement is probably off-limits to all but the most gifted pianists. The musical equivalent of a hailstorm, the piece as performed by Trifonov raged with percussive, almost violent force nonstop but for a few seconds of radiant melody, all in elegant partnership with the orchestra. Even to one who heard the work in rehearsal, the score was unpredictable, prone to veer off in any direction at any moment. If, at times, Trifonov’s structure was hard to follow, the sheer volatility of the music kept things relentlessly interesting. Likewise, the finale, marked Allegro Vivace, was not for the faint of heart. A pianist would have to be more than usually daring to take on an episode so jam-packed with crazed scampering, hallucinated dances, and brute stomping in time with drum and low brass. Trifonov, of course, made it all seem easy, not to mention wildly exciting. But Trifonov the composer was actually at his best in his Andante, the concerto’s centerpiece. There, the pianist – later to treat his approving audience to two original encores – switched from virtuoso showman to musical poet, engaging the strings and a solo clarinet in dialogues as beautiful as they were mysterious.

Daniil Trifonov Cleveland Plain Dealer • April 24, 2014 page 2 of 2 Trifonov may have been the headliner, but he was not the night’s only act. Also featured on the concert were Smirnoff and the CIM Orchestra in short but sparkling works by Liadov, Bartok and Tchaikovsky. Liadov’s “The Enchanted Lake” was a sumptuous, regally paced treat, while the Polacca from Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty” made for a rousing warm-up. But the highlight on the first half was surely Bartok’s “Hungarian Sketches,” five short scenes full to overflowing with sentiment, drive and humor. For a brighter introduction to his youthful magnum opus, Trifonov could not have hoped.

DANIIL TRIFONOV The Washington Post • March 7, 2014

Daniil Trifonov: A pianist ahead of his time BY ANNE MIDGETTE The Romantic genius is one of our more ironclad stereotypes: the artist who moves slightly in a different world, his head preoccupied with different thoughts, not quite at home in the every day. So when someone sets out to incorporate that typus, it’s easy to surround him with the veils of our imaginings. Enter the 23-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov: pale of skin, lank brown hair hanging down the back of his head, bending and bobbing and weaving over the keys while his long, slender fingers caress and thunder and draw out and press down until every drop of music is wrung out. When he last played in Washington a year ago, I — astounded by the visceral, ethereal quality of his playing — compared him to Franz Liszt. So, I later found out, have a majority of the other journalists who have written about him. Trifonov, who will make his National Symphony Orchestra debut this week in Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, is also living out the storybook overnight-sensation, star-is-born narrative so beloved in the popular imagination. In 2011, he won both the Rubinstein competition in Israel and the legendary Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, having recently placed third in the Chopin competition. The combination rocketed him to renown and led to a spate of major international debuts, including a tour with Valery Gergiev that brought him to George Mason University, where audiences in this region had their first sight of him; debuts with the so-called Big Five orchestras in the United States last season (New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago and Philadelphia); and a recital at Carnegie Hall that was recorded live for his new record label, Deutsche Grammophon, and released in February. None of this is quite as straightforward as it seems. Competitions, even the Tchaikovsky competition, don’t automatically make stars, though winning a lot of them at the same time certainly doesn’t hurt. And Romantic-looking young men with profound pianistic gifts may prove in a phone conversation to be not neurasthenic divas who require kid-glove treatment, but affable young men eager to talk about the music they love. You can’t quite package Trifonov in what’s become another favored classical music trope these days, that of showing that great musicians are just normal guys and gals like the rest of us. (He studies in the States! He has a girlfriend!) But comparisons with the eccentric pianist divas of the past and present seem misguided. Trifonov is an open, friendly person who is, in interviews, clearly eager to be helpful and to connect with those around him. He just happens to eat, breathe and sleep classical music. When the pianist Zsolt Bognar, interviewing him for the online video series “Living the Classical Life,” asked him how he spent his free time, he lapsed into a long, bemused silence. “There is not much time,” he finally said, “for any other activity.” Leave the comparisons with Liszt, the showman, and think more of Rachmaninoff, the pragmatist. “He is one of my musical idols,” Trifonov said. Like Rachmaninoff, he was born in Russia; his parents were both musicians and made

Artists Name The Washington Post • March 7, 2014 page 2 of 2 considerable sacrifices to move the family to Moscow so that their son could study at the Gnessin School of Music. (He made his debut with orchestra at the age of 8.) Like Rachmaninoff, he is a performing virtuoso in the Russian school, although Trifonov moved to the States after graduation, at his teacher’s recommendation, to study with Sergey Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music. “It was a completely right decision,” he says. And like Rachmaninoff, he is also a composer. “The time when it was normal for a pianist to be a performer has gone,” he says. “It’s very interesting to go [in] the same direction.” He is pursuing a degree in composition. And one of the highlights of his crowded spring calendar is a concert with the orchestra at the Cleveland Institute in April, when he will give the world premiere of a piano concerto that he wrote himself. In the meantime, he’s immersed in Rachmaninoff’s Paganini rhapsody, already a specialty, and now a vehicle for debuts with four notable American orchestras. His Washington performances follow others in San Francisco, Detroit and Houston. The “Rhapsody” is a favorite vehicle for young virtuosos, mingling as it does complex technical demands with big schmaltzy tunes. But Trifonov sees in it a lot more than just a pretty face. “The writing of Rachmaninoff is so very different from other concerti,” he says, “in his usage of the dialogue between piano and orchestra, but also in terms of the structure.” The piece is a set of 24 variations on a theme from Paganini’s 24th and final caprice, but what Trifonov means is less the variation structure than the piece’s sense of drama. “There is much more characterization,” he says, than you find in other concertos, pointing out that the piece, which premiered in 1934, was subsequently used as a ballet score by Fokine, a choreography that underlined the contrast between good and evil running through the piece, with variations alternating between a more classical and a more popular style. Take the juxtaposition of the 17th variation and the famous 18th variation, which sounds like a big pop tune and is immediately familiar even to a casual listener from movie and TV soundtracks. The 17th, Trifonov says, features chromatic notes that the composer often “used as a symbol of his religious work;” the 18th, by contrast (which is an inversion of the original theme), “can be taken as a look back at his past.” This analysis demonstrates a few things about Trifonov. One, he is in no sense an academic analyst: he is all about finding the emotions in the score, when he’s not thundering out its fireworks. “An odd combination of clangorous ferocity and sensitivity,” said the critic Joshua Kosman of his San Francisco performance of the Rachmaninoff in January. Another is that he thinks like a composer. And a third is that he loves Rachmaninoff. With all of the concerts that Trifonov has on his plate at the moment, there is little time for composing. But there is certainly time for Rachmaninoff. “The project I’m very much looking forward to,” he says, “is the complete Rachmaninoff recording project.” Stay tuned for the complete Trifonov, a decade or two down the road. Daniil Trifonov will play with the National Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Pioneer Press • February 20, 2014

Minnesota Orchestra review: Young pianist a storm on stage BY ROB HUBBARD Maybe it was the storm warning that resulted in so many empty seats at Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall on Thursday morning, even though the snow didn't start in earnest until about an hour after the Minnesota Orchestra's concert concluded. But those who were there will tell you that a tumultuous tempest erupted from the hall's piano. The master of the elements was 22-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov. Currently one of classical music's most talked-about musicians, Trifonov demonstrated why during his Minnesota Orchestra debut. He took a piece that's become a fount of bombast in the hands of some -- Sergei Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto -- and brought out the beauty at its contemplative core, yet didn't shortchange its urgent explosiveness. It was a simply magnificent performance, one that left me dumbfounded as to how someone so youthful could have such a deep understanding of Rachmaninoff, not to mention the technical skills to summon such furious flurries of notes and lyrical lines of arresting intimacy. Trifonov not only possesses marvelous musicality, but he's a joy to watch, attacking the piano with such ferocity it seemed an insufficient conduit for his passion. He bounced on the bench and almost off it, seemingly imploring the instrument to give more. And that was just the first movement. The ensuing Adagio had a different kind of intensity, sounding like a heartfelt confession, soft yet piercing. On the finale, Trifonov leaned over the keyboard like a chemist crafting a concoction quite unlike any other, bringing whispering pianissimos to a piece in which they are rarely found. An extended standing ovation resulted in an encore, Chopin's E-flat "Grande valse brillante." It underlined the impression that this young pianist is both "grande" and "brillante." But the Minnesota Orchestra sounded pretty darn "grande," too. Displaying balance, crispness and clarity far beyond what was offered during the first fortnight of post-lockout concerts, it not only did splendid things with the Rachmaninoff, but also with a pair of greatest hits from the first third of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird" Suite and Maurice Ravel's "Bolero." The conductor, Minnesota Opera music director Michael Christie, clearly came in with strong interpretive ideas and communicated them well.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Chicago Tribune • February 11, 2014

Trifonov triumphs in downtown debut recital BY JOHN VON RHEIN If the United States can send some of its finest Olympians to Russia this winter, it seems only sporting that one of Russia’s own champions – musical champions, that is – should be displaying his mettle on our shores at the same time. The young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov had demonstrated a leonine command of the keyboard along with remarkably mature musical insights at his CSO debut in 2012. A just-released Deutsche Grammophon live recording of a recital he gave at Carnegie Hall last February adds luster to the impressions one took away from that concert. So expectations ran high before Trifonov’s Orchestra Hall recital debut on Sunday afternoon. And the 22-year-old winner of the 2011 Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky competitions did not disappoint. The pianist went from strength to strength in a program that began with neoclassical Stravinsky (the 1925 Serenade) and explored miniatures of Debussy and Ravel before savoring the richly romantic half-tints and emotional interiors of Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, Opus 13. Trifonov’s Stravinsky was marked by whistle-clean textures, coiled-spring attacks and rhythms that retained their sharp outlines even when notes issued in a torrent from his seemingly infallible fingers. A group of six Debussy and Ravel pieces was distinguished by two evocations of water, Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” and Ravel’s “Une barque sur l’ocean.” Each spray of notes took on a pellucid radiance, while Ravel’s “Alborada del gracioso” luxuriated in colors to rival those of the familiar orchestral transcription, the Spanish rhythms incisively etched. During intermission Trifonov switched from an American Steinway piano to a German Steinway, reportedly because he felt the latter would better suit Schumann’s music. The brilliant yet warm and well-balanced sound he produced for this technically formidable series of variations seemed to justify the change of instruments. Trifonov adhered to the now-common practice of inserting variations into Schumann’s original sequence that were published after the composer’s death. This touchstone romantic work evinced a sovereign technical command, suppleness of line and unusually wide range of moods and colors that kept the listener engrossed in the interpretation rather than casting any showy light on the interpreter. Any pianist who chooses to deliberate as lovingly as Trifonov did over the posthumous variations Nos. 4 and 5 would risk becalming the interpretation. But Trifonov made these reflective pieces just the lyrical resting-place that was needed before the eruptive brilliance of the final four etudes swept the music to a triumphant conclusion. He acknowledged the audience’s roar of applause with multiple bows and four encores: Chopin’s Preludes Nos. 17 (A flat) and 16 (B flat minor); Medtner’s “Fairy Tale” in B flat minor; and the vivacious Scherzo from his own Piano Sonata. Perhaps Trifonov will play the entire piece next time the CSO invites him back, which I hope will be soon.

DANIIL TRIFONOV Chicago Classical Review • February 10, 2014

Trifonov shows artistry of the first order in Chicago debut BY LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON There was more hubbub than usual in the Symphony Center lobby Sunday afternoon for the Chicago debut of Daniil Trifonov. At the age of 20, Trifonov took first prize at both the Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions in 2011, and the Russian pianist’s career has rocketed even more rapidly than most previous high-profile winners. Chicago pianophiles turned out in force Sunday to hear what all the excitement is about, and Trifonov did not disappoint. The slender pianist—who looks even younger than his 22 years—is the real deal, blessed with an awesome technique coupled with a poetic, finely nuanced expressive palette and impressive artistic maturity. Stravinsky’s Serenade in A proved a suitable curtain-raiser. Trifonov showed himself fully in synch with this music, bringing an apt rhythmic edge and spiky insistence to Stravinsky’s fragmented lyricism and Neoclassical high spirits. Yet it was the French music at the center of his recital that brought the finest playing of the afternoon. In two excerpts from Debussy’s Images, Trifonov weaved a spell. Time seemed to stand still in “Reflets dans l’eau,” his spacious, luminous performance an ideal blend of supple strength and tonal refinement. In “Mouevement” Trifonov maintained an essential elegance in a rollicking account with wonderfully even right-hand articulation. As inspired as the Debussy items were, Trifonov’s Ravel was finer still, displaying artistry of the first order in four selections from Miroirs. He brought a ballad-like narrative quality to “Noctuelles” with a pointillist touch. “Oiseaux tristes” was extraordinary. Trifonov’s delicate half-tones made the piano seem like an instrument without hammers, rendering Ravel’s avian evocation with subtle hues and a hushed evanescent atmosphere. Likewise he brought out the dramatic undercurrents in “Une barque sur l’ocean,” the climax powerful without sacrificing elegance. The jaunty rendition of “Alborada del gracioso” rounded off the set with great rhythmic verve and Gallic panache. The pianist changed to a Hamburg Steinway at intermission for Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, which made up the entire second half. This epic set of 12 variations contains some of the most technically challenging music in the keyboard repertory. Trifonov added three of the five “posthumous etudes” cut by Schumann (Nos. 1, 4 and 5), artfully working them into the larger canvas. With his outstanding technical arsenal one will rarely hear this complex music tossed off with such polish and security. After a rather deliberate statement of the Andante theme, Trifonov’s fleet tempos, fluent touch and youthful fire brought fine cohesion and a gathering momentum to a work that can sometimes become episodic. He consistently underlined the quirky caprice of Schumann’s writing, and brought drama and focus to the flamboyant Florestan passages.

Daniil Trifonov Chicago Classical Review • February 10, 2014 page 2 of 2 Yet despite the clear intelligence and near-faultless playing, this music didn’t feel entirely lived in as yet interpretively. The dreamy Eusebius side of Schumann’s dueling alter-egos was less apparent, slow sections played with sensitivity yet rather literal and lacking the kind of inner glow and expressive depth that Trifonov brought to the French music earlier. The tumultuous ovations brought the young pianist out for four encores. First were two Chopin Preludes: a searching and eloquent rendering of the Prelude in A-flat Major, and a brilliant account of that in B-flat Minor. Russian music, appropriately, closed the afternoon with a nostalgic account of Medtner’s Fairy Tale in B-flat Minor and the Scherzo from Trifonov’s own Piano Sonata, similarly echt-Rachmaninoff in style, and tossed off with a bluesy swing.

DANIIL TRIFONOV The New York Times • February 7, 2014

Infusing Études With a Kaleidoscope of Flavors Daniil Trifonov Returns to Carnegie Hall BY CORINNA DA FONSECA-WOLLHEIM Almost exactly one year after his Carnegie Hall recital debut, the young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov returned to its main auditorium. Word of that triumphant debut, in which the then-21-year-old demonstrated his uncommon technical gifts and poetic sensibility in works by Scriabin, Liszt and Chopin, and the recent release of its live recording, contributed to the crush of ticket seekers outside the hall on Thursday evening. Such high expectations — and the accompanying marketing din — would tempt many a young soloist to respond with a flamboyant program of the fast-and-loud school of piano playing. Instead, the first half of Mr. Trifonov’s recital, comprising short works by Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel, was almost entirely concerned with color. The second half was given over to Schumann’s Symphonic Études (Op. 13), which, in his individualistic rendition, became an investigation of coded messages and half-dreamed inner voices. The Symphonic Études are a series of variations — Mr. Trifonov included three of the posthumously published ones for a total of 15 — on a pensive theme. Schumann gives each a distinct rhythmic motion; the challenge to the performer is to imbue each with a specific mood, too. But Mr. Trifonov rarely contented himself with a singular flavor. With the spendthrift imagination of youth, he created miniature narratives for each étude that traversed multiple states of mind. Amid the complex textures he would pick out a single line and make it the lead character, then zoom in on another detail and promote that to the sometimes unlikely antihero. In selections from Debussy’s “Images” (Book I), Mr. Trifonov showed that he’s capable of reining in that storytelling instinct when needed. The first, “Reflets dans l’eau” (“Reflections in the water”), begins with placid, shimmering chords that are in no rush to get anywhere — music that may, in fact, not want to get out of bed at all. Mr. Trifonov was content to create delicately shaded colors that appeared suspended in time. In selections from Ravel’s “Miroirs,” too, he demonstrated an affinity with the French repertory and its intense romance with instrumental timbre. The program opened with Stravinsky’s Neo-Classical “Serenade in A,” which Mr. Trifonov played with careful attention to structure, his lanky frame bent over the keyboard so far that his face nearly touched his hands and he resembled a watchmaker absorbed in the assembly of minute and intricate gears. Mr. Trifonov gave three encores: two fluid accounts of Chopin’s Opus 28 Preludes (Nos. 17 and 16) and one composition of his own, a breathless, exuberant Scherzo from his Piano Sonata.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The Telegraph November 21, 2013

Daniil Trifonov, The Carnegie Recital, review

Daniil Trifonov, young pianist of the moment, absorbs Scriabin's distinctive

world of sound and brings poise and lucid texture to Chopin BY GEOFFREY NORRIS

Daniil Trifonov, winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and very much the young pianist of the

moment, gave this debut recital on the main stage of New York’s Carnegie Hall in February. The playing testifies to a

maturity of technique and vision remarkable in a musician who was only 21 at the time. No less an authority than

Martha Argerich has said that “he has everything and more. What he does with his hands is technically incredible”,

adding that “his touch has tenderness and also the demonic element”.

That combination of qualities comes through with particular clarity and thrill here in Scriabin’s Second Sonata (Sonata-

Fantasy) and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor. It is not merely the power and dexterity of Trifonov’s playing that make such

an arresting impression, though the torrents of octaves in both the right hand and the left towards the end of the Liszt

are astonishing in their brilliance, boldness and bravura. Rather, the key thing here is that Trifonov can harness his

digital strength, stamina and skill to a highly developed sense of the music’s expressive substance.

In the opening Andante of the Scriabin, for example, you can hear (and see, if you follow the score) that Trifonov has

absorbed the significance of nuances and graduations of dynamics and pacing to find the very nub of Scriabin’s

distinctive world of sound. Argerich is right about the tenderness Trifonov can voice through his pianism, nowhere

more than in his beautifully poised, interpretatively thoughtful and lucidly textured Chopin Préludes Op 28. An encore

of a Medtner Fairy Tale caps a captivating recital brimful of character.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Sinfini Music October 16, 2013

Daniil Trifonov's Carnegie Recital BY JULIAN HAYLOCK

Prizewinning young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov's recording of his recital in New York's Carnegie Hall displays a

dazzling talent and phenomenal level of accomplishment, says Julian Haylock.

Label: Deutsche Grammophon Classics

Rating 4 stars

Alexander Scriabin was music’s most deluded megalomaniac. Carrying the late 19th-century’s popular cultural interest

in theosophy to its outer limits, he believed that the world’s ills could only be cured through a single cataclysmic event

and that he was the person destined to bring it about! Be that as it may, no one can deny his propensity for creating

explosions of sound out of highly compressed musical materials and it is the resulting sensation of music barely kept on

the leash that makes Daniil Trifonov’s account of the Second Sonata so memorable. Like the music itself, he can turn a

musical 180 degrees in a split-second, from half-spoken gestures of poetic introspection to volcanic explosions of

sound.

Liszt’s epic 1854 Sonata in B minor – described by the notoriously conservative Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick as ‘a

bloody battle against everything that is musical’ – similarly runs the gamut of emotions, bringing music of startlingly

different hues within frighteningly close proximity of one another. Trifonov fearlessly probes the music’s wild

imaginings, creating a compelling emotional narrative out of a work whose episodic patternings can structurally

disintegrate in the wrong hands. He thrillingly encapsulates the qualities of two other ‘yellow label’ alumni, combining

the crystal technical clarity and superhuman reflexes of Krystian Zimerman with the incendiary spontaneity of Martha

Argerich.

The 24 Preludes represent the pinnacle of Chopin's achievement, ranging from the technically facile and charmingly

seductive to restless microcosms of emotional angst. Compared to the magisterial Maurizio Pollini (another DG stable-

mate), Trifonov is more inclined towards impressionistic washes of colour, offering a Turneresque counterpart to the

Italian’s fine-etched Caspar David Friedrich canvases. He makes each Prelude a striking study in sound, with voices

emerging and receding in and out of the textures with exquisite subtlety. There is an underlying, probing restlessness

about Trifonov’s interpretative vision that on occasion (the central section of the Liszt, for example) is almost too much

of a good thing, yet this is still playing at a phenomenal level of accomplishment. More soon, please!

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Financial Times October 9, 2013

Daniil Trifonov, Wigmore Hall, London – review BY ANDREW CLARK

The astonishing Russian pianist brings an ecstatic quality to his performances

Virtuosity is one thing, youthful exuberance another. Many aspiring talents survive on just one of these qualities. A

lucky few have both. No one combines them with musical maturity the way Daniil Trifonov does. The technical

brilliance is always at the service of his powerful imagination. The exuberance is controlled by his natural

musicianship. What makes him such a phenomenon is the ecstatic quality he brings to his performances – an all-

consuming intensity-of-belonging on the public platform that translates into something thrilling, absorbing, inspiring.

Small wonder every western capital is in thrall to him – not least London, where a long-sold-out Wigmore Hall listened

in quasi-disbelief on Tuesday as this astonishing Russian pianist, still only 22, surpassed himself yet again.

The programme looked odd – a first half of Stravinsky’s 1925 Serenade, just two of Debussy’s Images and an

incomplete Ravel Miroirs, then Schumann’s Etudes symphoniques in an unconventional version interpolating three

early variations that did not make it into the standard edition. We need not have worried. Trifonov lent it all an

inevitability, investing every phrase, every paragraph, with his own inimitable, unpredictable, rapturous éclat.

There was nothing neo-classical about the Stravinsky. Trifonov’s handling of the opening motif and disharmonic

clusters rooted it in the grand Russian tradition, infusing the émigré composer’s dry clarity with colour, temperament

and fearlessness, not least in the mad chatter of the Rondoletto and the thunderous octaves of the finale.

His Debussy was less a question of taste than a matter of tone – a touch hard for “Reflets dans l’eau”, sometimes

overpowering the music in a “Mouvement” of eager spirit. Miroirs (minus “La vallée des cloches”) fared better.

“Oiseaux tristes”, slow and eruptive, suggested a watercolour in sound, while “Une barque sur l’océan” had diabolic

depth beneath the shimmering surface. As for “Alborada del gracioso”, Trifonov created an unstoppable torque-effect.

Schumann’s studies came across as both manic and poetic, each emotional nuance heightened and close to the precipice

– a journey of unbroken concentration and momentum. Trifonov does not do reflection or repose and doesn’t need to,

as long as his self-belief continues at this extraordinary level.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

U~T San Diego August 20, 2013

Trifonov electrifies at SummerFest

Young Russian pianist shows he's the real deal in sold-out concert BY JAMES CHUTE

Count me in. I’m jumping on the Daniil Trifonov is classical music’s next big thing bandwagon. Trifonov ‘s superb

performance of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin electrified an overflow SummerFest audience in

Sherwood Auditorium Tuesday.

Trifonov, who has won several international competitions including the Tchaikovsky and the Rubinstein, is that rare

pianist who not only seemed to be an extension of the composer but an extension of the piano itself.

The young Russian virtuoso did not play the piano so much as he tested it, pushing it to the extremes in both ends of

the dynamic spectrum. Portions of the Rachmaninoff spoke with symphonic power. You wondered how Trifonov was

getting that much sound out of the La Jolla Music Society’s Steinway.

But at the other end of the spectrum, you were spellbound at how he could coax such delicacy, even tenderness out of

his instrument. And then there was the universe of sound he created in between those extremes.

But what made all that matter was the unusual combination of absolute conviction and sheer joy he brought to

Rachmaninoff. His interpretation was so fluid and yet it sounded so inevitable, it was as if he was plugged into

Rachmaninoff’s psyche. This piece is as difficult Rachmaninoff’s more frequently performed concertos, but Trifonov

played it with complete ease. His flawless technique was astonishing, yet every note was tied to some musical impulse.

The balance of the program showed Trifonov to be a sensitive collaborator. In Schumann’s “Five Pieces in Folk Style”

for piano and cello, he allowed cellist Gary Hoffman to take the lead.

And in Schumann’s Quintet for Piano and Strings in E-flat Major, one of the keystones of the chamber music

repertoire, Trifonov never overplayed his part. In this work, which essentially launched the genre of the piano quintet,

the piano typically dominates. But Trifonov didn’t.

What dominated this interpretation was a musical impulse shared by Trifonov, violinists David Chan and Stephanie

Jeong, violist Richard O’Neill and cellist Gary Hoffman. Each of these players has a strong, pronounced musical

personality (or ego), but they set it aside in a convincing performance that was both nuanced and vibrant.

Trifonov played two encores: Guido Agosti’s arrangement of “Dance Infernale” from Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” after

the first half and Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s “The Trout” after the second. The Stravinsky was just as fierce as

the Schubert was charming.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

ArtsNash April 19, 2013

Pianist Daniil Trifonov, Nashville Symphony shine in Mozart’s

masterpiece BY JOHN PITCHER

Pianist Daniil Trifonov is a hot commodity in the classical music world.

In 2011, he became the first pianist in history to win back-to-back gold medals in both the Arthur Rubinstein Piano

Master Competition and Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. Now, he’s in constant demand as an orchestral

soloist and has recorded his first CD for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label.

This weekend, Trifonov is in Nashville, performing a Mozart piano concerto with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Music director Giancarlo Guerrero wasted no time securing the Russian piano phenom for his orchestra, though

interestingly (and gratefully) he resisted the urge of hiring Trifonov to perform one of his trademark knuckle-busting

Russian concertos.

Instead, Guerrero is accompanying the lanky, boyish-looking virtuoso in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat

major. Mozart composed this magnificent work – his first mature masterpiece – when he was just 21 years old, so

Guerrero thought it would be a neat idea to have the 22-year-old Trifonov play it. Certainly, the Mozart provided us

with insights into Trifonov’s musicianship that we wouldn’t have gotten from a Rachmaninoff concerto.

For instance, we learned from Thursday’s opening night concert that Trifonov is an extremely poetic player whose

interpretations combine grace and lucidity with lyricism of almost operatic intensity. His approach to the concerto’s

opening measures – where the piano interrupts the orchestra fanfare in the second bar – was delightfully playful. As the

first movement progressed, Trifonov’s playing became more animated as he engaged the orchestra in a dramatic

dialogue.

Trifonov was at his level best in the slow movement, which he played with the immediacy and intimacy of an opera

aria. He launched into the fleet finale with the unbridled energy of a racehorse leaving the gate. Throughout the

performance, Trifonov swayed to the music, often bending low above the keyboard, always wearing an expression of

pure ecstasy on his face. I’m not sure his expressions always match the emotions in the music – he tends to look the

same way whether he’s playing Tchaikovsky or Mozart. But there’s no doubt he’s an exhilarating performer.

This weekend’s NSO program is jam-packed and features three other works, including another concerto. That would be

Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra, Op. 25, featuring NSO principal harpist

Licia Jaskunas as soloist. Ginastera doesn’t treat the harp like some celestial instrument played by angels on clouds.

Instead, he employs it at times as a kind of percussion instrument, with the harpist plucking aggressive chords and

tapping out syncopated rhythms on the soundboard. Jaskunas played this demanding music with a deft technique and

rhythmic vitality. Guerrero and the NSO provided dramatic and colorful accompaniment.

Thursday’s concert opened with Zoltán Kodály’s Suite from Háry János. This six-movement work is scored for a

Wagner-size orchestra and explores every conceivable instrumental color. Guerrero and the NSO captured all the

pomp, pageantry and magic of this fairy-tale score. They played every note with polish and precision.

Daniil Trifonov

ArtsNash April 19, 2013

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Guerrero ended the concert with the evening’s most unusual (and entertaining) piece – Mexican composer Carlos

Chávez’s Sinfonia India (Symphony No. 2). The piece features a large battery of traditional Mexican percussion

instruments – a Yaqui drum, clay rattle, water gourd, deer hooves and butterfly cocoons – that produce sounds that are

as exciting as they are exotic. Chávez’s Sinfonia is bright, rhythmic, joyful and infinitely danceable, and Guerrero and

the NSO gave it a vibrant reading. The performance won a rousing ovation and brought the evening to an appropriately

festive conclusion.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Musical Toronto April 14, 2013

Concert review: Pianist Daniil Trifonov’s spectacular Toronto début

at Koerner Hall. BY JOHN TERAUDS

Barely into his 20s, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov is a superpianist, one of those rare performers for whom no

technical hurdle is too difficult, and who can tease captivating music out of the densest jumble of notes.

The effect of seeing and hearing him make his Toronto recital début at Koerner Hall on Sunday afternoon was

stunning.

Could it be that a string of notes could be played so seamlessly? Could the concert grand in the hall really be stroked so

delicately? Was it possible that those big chords could be played in such quick succession?

Trifonov arrived with a programme designed to show off virtuosic skills. But he went well beyond what we know and

love in standard interpretations to add his own special musicality.

And breathe he did — so audibly that he filled the resonant, sold-out hall with nearly as many sniffing and snuffling

sounds as piano notes. Also notable about his way of playing was the trance that he appeared to enter as soon as his

hands touched the keyboard, spreading a beatific smile on his face much of the time.

By the end of each half of the programme, Trifonov was drenched in sweat looking very much like one of those boxers

who needs to be handed a towel as soon as he walks off the ring.

The sold-out house loved Trifonov’s performance, giving him several standing ovations.

While I came away with a deep respect and appreciation for this exceptional artist, I can’t say that I liked everything I

heard.

The opening piece, Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, from the late 1890s, is a jumble of notes that Trifonov

skillfully organised into something not only coherent, but beguilingly shimmering. It was the work of a magician, not

just a competent pianist.

Then came Franz Liszt’s B minor Piano Sonata, a work heard far too often these days.

Trifonov made the loud bits louder and the soft bits softer. Nearly everything loud also became impossibly fast, with

the pianist’s fingers becoming lighting bolts shooting up and down the keyboard. The quiet bits were stretched out

slow, almost to the point of immobility at times.

Yes, it was dramatic and, yes, it probably helped us feel something of the piano-shredding excitement people must have

experienced at a recital by Franz Liszt himself in the mid-19th century. But it was also a gaudy interpretation that

turned Liszt’s emotional effusions into something more like obsessions.

The second half of the programme was devoted to the Variations on a Theme of Chopin by Sergei Rachmaninov.

Daniil Trifonov

Musical Toronto April 14, 2013

page 2 of 2

Like Liszt, Rachmaninov was a composer-pianist who knew how to impress his audiences. This 1903 concert piece

was a silver-plated vessel for Trifonov to further show off his phenomenal, easy technique and love of cranked up

dynamic contrasts.

If there is one thing that particularly impressed me, it was Trifonov’s skill with runs. We know that lines are made up

of tiny dots sitting so close together than we don’t notice the spaces in between. Trifonov’s keyboard runs were the

equivalent of a seamless line drawn by fingers on the white and black keys, just a smooth progression of uninterrupted

tones going up and down.

Even if the overall interpretations pushed the boundaries of good taste, there were enough Wow! moments on Sunday

afternoon to make this one of the handful of truly memorable concerts of the season.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

TheaterJones April 7, 2013

He Rachs It

Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov astounds the Fort Worth Symphony

audience with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.

BY GREGORY SULLIVAN ISAACS

You hardly know where to start to describe the performance in Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall on Saturday

evening. Word had already spread about the incredible performance by 22-year-old Russian pianist and recent winner

of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Daniil Trifonov’s Friday night performance with the Fort Worth

Symphony, of the monumental third piano concerto of Rachmaninoff. However, the reality still came as a surprise;

Trifonov delivered a stunning, powerful yet lyric, and completely original, interpretation. We heard the piece anew.

And that is saying something for a work that, because of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, is

practically the city’s anthem.

By pure serendipity, I ran into Trifonov earlier in the day. We both attended the excellent concert presented as part of

the Cliburn at the Modern series. A review of that concert will appear here soon. We chatted about music, pianos, and

life as we wondered through the eclectic exhibit of modern art.

He looks younger than his 22 years, although a much older soul looks at you through his eyes. He is slight of build and

his hands look small for a pianist who tackles the wide reaches that Rachmaninoff requires. It is hard to know if his

reserved manner was due to the fact that we were in a museum, which required low-voiced conversation, or his

insecurity about his acceptable English or both, but it reserved appeared to be his natural state.

However, when he began to play, that other, older soul took over and exploded into the concerto. This must have been

what it was like to hear Horowitz at 22. From the opening melody, so lovingly shaped and original that it barely

sounded familiar, to the hurricane-force blizzard on notes that he delivered in the first movement concerto, the audience

sat spellbound. When the movement ended, there was no applause as often happens when a first movement is hit out of

the park. No, we just sat there thinking, “What did we just hear?” No one wanted to break the spell until the entire piece

was ended.

That ovation was thunderous: deafening applause, whistles, cheers, foot stomping. It went on, with no let up, for curtain

call after curtain call, until he sat down to play an encore. After the demands of the concerto, you might have expected

something not so challenging. On the contrary, he picked a piece that requires dazzling virtuosity and overwhelming

power, both of which he delivered with obvious relish. The piece was Guido Agosti’s nearly unplayable transcription

of the “Infernal Dance” from Stravinsky’s Firebird.

After intermission, Music Director Miguel Harth Bedoya gave one of his best performances with Shostakovich’s

Symphony No. 5, the composer’s most frequently performed work. Harth-Bedoya and the orchestra had already

acquitted themselves well in the Rachmaninoff, as supportive and equally exciting partners to Trifonov.

Right from the start of the symphony, Harth-Bedoya unleashed the raw power that this work requires yet he never

overplayed, keeping everything is scale until the last booming notes in the timpani. All of the solo players have a

Daniil Trifonov

TheaterJones April 7, 2013

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workout in this piece so extra credit has to of to all of them: Concertmaster Michael Shih, flutist Jan Crisanti (flute),

clarinetist Ana Victoria Luperi, oboist Jennifer Corning Lucio, bassoonist Kevin Hall and Mark Houghton on the horn.

There could have been a little more sarcasm in the scherzo, but the meditative ruminations of the slow movement were

both serene and searing at the same time. The last movement raced to its conclusion, finally breaking out into the

sunlight, delivering a message of hope that the Soviet repressed composer could only dream about.

The concert opened with a work by one of the former FWSO composers-in-residence, Kevin Puts. The FWSO

commitment to the music of our time deserves a gold star and puts other organizations stuck in ancestor worship to

shame. This piece is fast and slow at the same time, as the composer overlaps contrasting lines. Some of the players had

some difficulty with the complex rhythms, especially in the complex fugal passages, but all were in high alert and gave

the piece a zinger of a performance.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Star-Telegram April 6, 2013

Young Russian pianist puts on bravura performance with Fort

Worth Symphony BY OLIN CHISM

An amazing 22-year-old Russian pianist, Daniil Trifonov, is the star attraction of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's

concerts this weekend. On Friday night, an unusually large audience virtually filled Bass Hall to hear him play. They

got more than their money's worth.

Trifonov and the orchestra, with Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting, played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, a

work thoroughly familiar to local audiences by virtue of its numerous appearances at the Cliburn competition through

the years.

Despite the familiarity, there was nothing routine about this performance. To be sure, there was plenty of the pianistic

derring-do that audiences have come to expect and love with this piece, as, for example, in the titanic first-movement

cadenza and the pulse-racing finale. But Trifonov is a true musician, not just an acrobat of piano technique, and his

performance was unusual in its strongly lyrical impulse -- gentle passages made their impression as much as stormy

ones.

There was also remarkable clarity despite the thick texture of the music, and much attention to detail, with subsidiary

lines that tend to get lost in many performances becoming audible for once.

For the Fort Worth Symphony, this might have been seen as a practice run for the upcoming Cliburn. If so, the

orchestral part of the competition is going to be in good shape. The string sound was lush, and instrumental soloists

were in fine form.

At the end of the concerto, Trifonov got more than the routine standing O, and after a number of bows gave the

audience a lovely encore.

The concert opened with Network by Kevin Puts, a former composer-in-residence with the FWSO. It's a highly

energetic work, heavy on brass and racing strings, and it generated its share of excitement. Whether it has staying

power, only time will tell.

The program ended with an effective performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. The high point for me was the

moving slow movement, beautifully molded by Harth-Bedoya, with gorgeous strings and eloquent woodwinds.

Much of the rest of the work tends to be pompous, but conductor and orchestra made effective advocates.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Minnesota Public Radio February 5, 2013

Young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov conquers Twin Cities BY MICHAEL BARONE

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Wow! Daniil Trifonov's Twin Cities debut on Sunday for the Chopin Society proved him a

compelling advocate for the grand romantic repertoire, and a virtuoso of the highest order. Perhaps we should not have

been surprised, as Trifonov has taken Gold Medals at both the Rubinstein (Israel) and Tchaikovsky (Moscow)

Competitions and has been a consistently astonishing and delightful talent applauded by audiences here and abroad in

the course of the last few seasons.

Trifonov is a slender fellow, about 5' 10", not yet 22 (born March 5, 1991), looking somewhat like a young Franz Liszt

— more boyish, but with similar flaxen hair down over his ears. It could be said he plays like Liszt, too, based on the

rapt attention of the audience in the newly revamped concert hall at Macalester's Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center; had

had us eating out of his prodigiously skilled hands. The place was packed, with an overflow of at least 50 people seated

in chairs onstage, and from the magical, gauzy beginning to Alexander Scriabin's Second Sonata, Trifonov had and

held our attention.

His program, though hardly unusual, provided a wonderful and revelatory summary of the highly dramatic romantic

keyboard era... occurring in reverse sequence. First, from 1897, the Scriabin Sonata-Fantasy, a two-movement score

with intimations of impressionism that opens, according to the composer, with representation of "a quiet southern night

on the seashore," but closes in torrents of sound equated by the composer with "the vast ocean in stormy agitation."

Trifonov has the uncanny ability to make rapid streams of notes sound like a continuous, fluid sweep; you are less

aware of a quick sequence of keys being depressed by agile fingers than of a glistening shower or, perhaps more to the

point here, huge waves crashing on a craggy shoreline.

From where I sat, the piano's sound was dark, not unlike the aura of the room itself, but perhaps a bit swollen and

sullen. As this was my first time in the auditorium since its renovation, I wondered whether this was caused by the

acoustics, the new Steinway, or Trifonov?

All was revealed in the next work, Franz Liszt's B-minor Sonata from 1854, where every possible shading and color

was evident, and what had been cloudy before became crystal clear. As Trifonov hunched over the keyboard, Liszt's

masterwork seemed revealed as something brand new. It is a cunning evolution of the multi-movement classical sonata

format into a continuously transformed structure where themes shape-shift from grim outbursts into lyric sighs, the

drama all the while rigorously staged and directed. I've listened to this piece, one of my favorites, many times, live and

on record, but Trifonov's immersion in the Lisztian ethos was so complete, and the smile on his face during much of the

performance, even during horrendously difficult passages, so authentic that he seemed to say, "What fun this is, what a

supreme joy we are sharing!" And share we did.

Faustian turmoil, devilish demands, whatever program you want to apply, Trifonov drove Liszt's treacherous course

with the bravery and skill of a World Rally Champion, bringing us repeatedly to the perilous edge and then feinting at

last minute, swinging back on course and charging forward. Even he was caught up in the breathless excitement and, in

the pause after the huge climax before the quietly transfixing denouemont, took an audible gasp of air. One audience

member overheard at intermission confessed that she did not need ever again to hear that piece, feeling that no other

Daniil Trifonov

Minnesota Public Radio February 5, 2013

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performance could surpass what she had just experienced. I'd suggest that even Trifonov would play it differently on

another occasion, and who would not want to be present then?!

After intermission came the entire set of Chopin's Twenty-four Preludes, Op. 24, published in 1839, a veritable

dictionary of the vocabulary of the emerging "romantic piano." Though the Raindrop (No. 15) often is played alone, the

cycle behaves as a unit, providing the performer with a myriad of technical challenges and the listener with a

kaleidoscope of emotional states, from frenzy to felicity, agitation to absolute bliss. Trifonov's delicate, feather-light

touch, contrasted with the profound power of his climaxes and his fluent use of the sostenuto pedal all were presented

with the assurance of a young master completely in his "zone," totally involved with his instrument.

As the last Prelude's three final thunderous subterranean Ds exploded from the depths of the Steinway, we were on our

feet in ardent, enthusiastic applause, and rewarded with four encores: a Medtner Fairy-Tale (gossamer filigree), Liszt's

arrangement of the Schumann song Widmung (passionate lyricism), Rachmaninoff's arrangement of the Gavotte from

Bach's Solo Violin Partita No. 3 (such clarity of the newly-added inner voices!) and Guido Agosti's transcription of the

Infernal Dance from Stravinsky's Firebird (the piano became an orchestra!). We might have wished that Trifonov

continue indefinitely (he seemed willing), but for the need for the Chopin Society's Mary Sigmond to whisk him off to

make a tight flight connection to New York City where he plays his solo debut at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night.

Thanks for bringing him to us first, Mary!

Martha Argerich, herself no slouch at the keyboard, is quoted in London's Financial Times: "Last night I listened to him

again on YouTube — he has everything and more. What he does with his hands is technically incredible. It's also his

touch — he has tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that." Nor had we.

DANIIL TRIFONOV February 4, 2013

DANIIL TRIFONOV SIGNS TO DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON YOUNG RUSSIAN “LISZT” SIGNS TO HISTORIC YELLOW LABEL BY AUTHOR Today, at central Manhattan’s historic Russian Tea Room, young Russian piano sensation Daniil Trifonov announced a new recording partnership with the 115-year old Berlin-based classical label, Deutsche Grammophon.

Described by The Washington Post as “an heir to Liszt”, the dynamic young Russian has been hailed around the world for his breathtaking virtuosity and the intense, inspired originality of his musical interpretations. In the line of great Russian piano virtuosos, from Horowitz to Richter to Kissin, critical opinion is unanimous: Daniil Trifonov is “The Next One” - THE Russian pianist-poet for the 21st Century.

Winner of the Grand Prix, First Prize and a Gold Medal in the 14th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2011, and following performance debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Mariinsky Orchestra, twenty-one year old Trifonov has already made a lasting impression on piano connoisseurs around the world. No less an authority than the great Martha Argerich herself says of Trifonov “He has everything - and more. What he does with his hands is technically incredible. It’s also his touch – he has tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that.”

Currently resident in New York to give his February 5th recital debut in the world’s most famous concert venue, the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Trifonov said: “The highest musical ideals I strove for from childhood were embodied by Deutsche Grammophon and its association with such names as Vladimir Horowitz and Martha Argerich; to be part of this tradition is for musicians a stage for posterity, and for me the greatest possible honor."

Trifonov’s Carnegie Hall recital debut is bound to be a landmark event. In the past thirty years, Deutsche Grammophon has bestowed the honour of a live Carnegie Hall recording on only two other pianists: Mikhail Pletnev and Lang Lang. Trifonov joins this elite company, sensationally, for his very first recording on the Yellow Label. As Vice President of Artists and Repertoire, Ute Fesquet, commented: “Ever since his performance in the finals of the last International Chopin Competition we have been closely following the breathtaking development of Daniil Trifonov. His complete dedication to music making, the wide range of colours and pure beauty of his playing are irresistible. We are convinced of his extraordinary talent and are delighted to welcome Daniil to the DG family."

Daniil Trifonov’s debut album on Deutsche Grammophon is set for global release later this year.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Chicago Tribune November 15, 2012

Young Russian virtuoso’s flying fingers wow crowd at CSO debut BY JOHN VON RHEIN

Apart from the bicentennials of Wagner and Verdi, no major anniversary in classical music is getting wider play this

season than the centennial of "The Rite of Spring," which received its notorious premiere in Paris on May 29, 1913.

The reasons are clear. One hundred years after it touched off the most famous riot in music history, Igor Stravinsky's

iconic masterpiece established the template for much of 20th century music, on into the 21st. The score remains

incontestably vital today, even if concertgoers' ears have absorbed far ruder shocks than those that greeted the Parisian

audience that had turned out in force to see Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes dance Stravinsky's ballet of pagan

sacrifice.

What once seemed music to rip tradition off its hinges has become a standard showpiece for virtuoso orchestra, a

glossy musical machine conductors crank up to show what they're made of. The latest to do so with the Chicago

Symphony Orchestra is Charles Dutoit. The Swiss maestro is completing his two-week podium residency this weekend

by making "Le Sacre du Printemps" the focal point of an all-Russian program. He and the CSO also are central to a

new Gerard McBurney examination of the work that opens the new season of "Beyond the Score" presentations.

Dutoit must be given credit for moving the "Rite" away from the crude, sensationalized thrills lesser conductors visit on

the piece. His reading on Wednesday night was less about the theater than about pure musical abstraction. Clear, tight

organization ensured that eruptive detail fell into place within a coherent, well-paced and finely balanced whole.

Dutoit's was nothing if not a sophisticated exegesis of this miraculous music.

But something seemed missing. Shouldn't a performance of the "Rite" carry a spark of divine madness? Shouldn't one

be swept along by its savage dissonances, clashing polyrhythms and spasms of percussive violence? Wednesday's

reading felt a bit too civilized, even if I came away in awe of how brilliantly the orchestra played it. Do any orchestral

musicians nail the fiendish, three-against-four duel between timpani and bass drum in "Dance of the Earth" better than

the CSO's?

Certainly an extrovert manner was not lacking in Daniil Trifonov's exhilarating account of the Tchaikovsky Piano

Concerto No. 1. Winner of multiple competitions, including the Rubinstein in Israel and the Tchaikovsky in Moscow,

the boyish-looking, 21-year-old Russian virtuoso is making a host of debuts with major orchestras this season,

including the CSO. I missed his Ravinia recital last summer, but the fireworks he kicked up in parts of the Tchaikovsky

confirmed the positive reports.

Trifonov certainly had the explosive power, the wide tonal palette and the big Russian manner this romantic warhorse

requires. His large hands took in stride the massive opening chords, just as they did the torrential octaves near the end.

The lyrical command he brought to the Andantino middle movement suggested poetic reserves to be tapped even

deeper as the young pianist matures. He was generous in his use of rubato, which meant Dutoit had to keep his eye

firmly peeled on him to ensure that their tempos meshed. The orchestra similarly did everything expected of it. John

Sharp delivered the warm cello obbligato.

I was less taken with Trifonov's speeding up and slowing down in parts of the Allegro and the finale. These impetuous

gear changes disrupted the flow of the line, calling attention more to the pianist than to the music.

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Chicago Tribune November 15, 2012

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The audience, which included more than 500 students, obviously wasn't as troubled as I was by these things. The crowd

whooped its pleasure at the end, calling the pianist back for several bows before a beaming Trifonov offered them an

encore: Guido Agosti's solo-piano arrangement of "Kastchei's Infernal Dance," from Stravinsky's "The Firebird." He

tore through it with hands a blur. The playing was a mess, but an exciting mess.

Dutoit began the program with Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain," in the familiar Rimsky-Korsakov

arrangement. The satanic chills and thrills were delivered neatly and rather coolly, rather like the conductor's enamelled

Stravinsky.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Chicago Classical Review November 15, 2012

Young Russian brings fresh illumination to Tchaikovsky with CSO BY LAWRENCE A. JOHNSON

“He’s only 21,” said one of the five hundred students in attendance at Wednesday night’s Chicago Symphony

Orchestra concert, referring to the evening’s soloist, pianist Daniil Trifonov.

“Scary,” said his companion.

Even by that nation’s long and celebrated standard of piano mastery, it seems we are awash in a wave of extraordinarily

gifted Russian keyboard musicians. Nikolai Lugansky had a memorable Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut last

season in Rachmaninoff. And Wednesday, his young compatriot, Daniil Trifonov made an equally remarkable bow

with the CSO led by Charles Dutoit in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Looking even younger than his 21 years, Trifonov is having a career-breakout season with debuts with the CSO,

Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony, as well as the Vienna Philharmonic and London

Symphony. A first-prize winner of the Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions, Trifonov is currently a student of

Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Tchaikovsky’s not unfamiliar Piano Concerto in B flat minor may not have been the most adventurous choice but the

degree of technical elan and individuality that Trifonov brought to this thrice-familiar work, made it sound newly

minted.

Trifonov is clearly a stupendously gifted musician, though his youth was also evident at times. In the first movement he

darted ahead of the orchestra more than once, and likewise didn’t pay as close attention to Dutoit and the CSO

musicians as he should have in the Andantino.

Still, one will rarely hear this warhorse emerge as fresh and illuminating as in the hands of the young Russian. He

brought a lean, leonine power to the virtuosic pages and discovered a distinctive array of expressive nuance throughout

with subtle, iridescent coloring and hairpin dynamic turns. The scherzando section of the slow movement was thrown

off at striking speed with pinpoint clarity and even articulation.

Trifonov is not a volume player yet he ratcheted up the force and intensity in the final movement with the triumphant

concluding octaves delivered with impressive sheen and strength. Dutoit offered close and equally distinctive

accompaniment, and—apart from a droopy flute solo—the CSO provided their young colleague with superb support.

For an encore, Trifonov offered Guido Agosti’s arrangement of “Kastchei’s Infernal Dance” from Stravinsky’s ballet,

The Firebird. This showpiece piles tortuous complexities and blizzards of notes on top of the familiar music, and

Trifonov delivered the glitzy fireworks with fiery panache.

After intermission, Dutoit led a propulsive and dynamic performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. There was no lack

of raw, driving brutality and, under Dutoit, the CSO players put across the violent complex rhythms with daunting

volume and individual bravura. Notable particularly was David McGill’s plaintive opening bassoon solo and Cynthia

Yeh’s powerhouse bass drum playing.

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Chicago Classical Review November 15, 2012

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Yet—perhaps due to the short rehearsal week—this Rite sounded like a work in progress. The slower sections felt a bit

streamlined and metrical, with the first part of “The Adoration of the Earth,” wanting in expressive detailing and pagan

atmosphere, and missing the unsettling sense of new life unspooling from the muck.

The evening led off with a vivid, sharply colored account of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain in the standard

Rimsky-Korsakov version (amazingly, not heard downtown in a decade).

It was heartening to see so many students in the audience and to observe them listen so raptly and with such

concentration. Some of the Thursday night hackers could learn a lesson in concert deportment from these young

people.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Chicago On The Aisle November 15, 2012

‘Rite of Spring’ and a young piano sensation sparkle in CSO concert

ablaze with surprises BY NANCY MALITZ

There was the ice-cracking shock of a sudden Russian spring at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall on Wednesday night, and I

am not solely referring to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” which was on the second half of the Chicago Symphony

Orchestra’s blaze of a program conducted by Charles Dutoit.

Freshness abounded, the sublime experience of having something entirely familiar seem so new and incomprehensibly

beautiful. At the center was 21-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, who plays Tchaikovsky with the fluidity and

grace of Chopin — that is, when he’s not bursting with mercurial pop.

As Trifonov made his dauntless way through Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, I was never sure

what this poetic champion was going to do next, but it was a breathtaking display of technique harnessed to the mind of

an exciting, original thinker.

Trifonov is a complete pianist — old school, new school, rare school. One hopes that his life unfolds in such a way that

he can be a fixture for decades on the concert stage. Nice to see the audience was peopled with roughly 500 college-age

students, roughly his own age, who can look forward to a splendid time of it.

It’s one thing to know that Trifonov is the latest winner of the Tchaikovsky and Arthur Rubinstein competitions. (There

have been plenty of competition winners, and we have unfortunately become hardened by the experience of hearing

works of phenomenal technical difficulty tossed off by 16-year-olds as if they were compulsory figures.) It’s quite

another thing to be in the first stretch of a long work you know very well, and to realize that you are going to be

touched in surprising ways at every turn.

Trifonov could not have been among better collaborators than Charles Dutoit and the musicians of the Chicago

Symphony, who embraced the pianist’s distinctive, idiosyncratic choices with respect. They seemed delighted to go

with him to the extreme edge of softness when the moment called for a particularly chimerical effect and appeared

generally delighted to recognize him as one of their own.

The pianist’s performance turned a reflective mirror on the complementary work of conductor Charles Dutoit and the

orchestra. The program began with Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain” as orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov

— a staple of pops programs and symphony orchestras of every caliber, its satanic revels particularly apt around

Halloween. Surely not a reason, in and of itself, to buy a ticket, I might have said.

But I would have been wrong. Here was another work that seemed surprisingly new. Dutoit, at 76, retains that robust

innocence so evidenced in Trifonov — exuberance for the small things, the enchanting details, that give a whole work

its momentum and impact. And of course anything Dutoit wanted the CSO to do in the way of bone-rattling effects and

supernatural colors was available to him.

Listening to the CSO and Dutoit make their way through “The Rite of Spring” was a lesson of another kind. Not too

many decades ago, it took months of preparation and sometimes two conductors onstage to perform this work. But in

Daniil Trifonov

Chicago On The Aisle November 15, 2012

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this centennial season of its premiere in 1913, musicians are completely comfortable with its once-baffling rhythmic

complexities, its once-foreign sonic mix and its erotic pagan power.

One had the feeling at this riveting performance that the audience, too, had assimilated “The Rite’s” secrets and were

pulling along with the musicians onstage, aware of what was coming next and eager to participate. “The Rite” still

sounded shocking and new, but in the way a great performance of Beethoven’s “Eroica” does. Like its century-older

counterpart, Stravinsky’s elemental work is part of all of us now, and the CSO with Dutoit tapped into the energy of

that communal experience.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Boston Globe October 8, 2012

Daniil Trifonov salutes his musical ancestry BY MATTHEW GUERRIERI

CAMBRIDGE—Daniil Trifonov's Celebrity Series debut at Longy on Friday came accompanied by impressive

credentials: notable appearances, a clutch of competition successes—including first prize at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition. But more interesting than his resumé was how the 21-year-old Russian pianist revamped his

program (at the last minute, necessitating a program insert) to emphasize his lineage. Pianists like cultivating

genealogies of teachers and collaborators; Trifonov's recital was, partially, a splendid assertion of musical ancestry.

One unspoken progenitor: Vasily Safonov, the legendary Moscow professor who taught two of the program's pianist-

composers, Alexander Scriabin and Nikolay Medtner, as well as the Gnesin sisters, founders of their own conservatory

(of which Trifonov is a graduate). In Scriabin's opulent, oracular Piano Sonata No. 3 and three of Medtner's intricate

“Fairy Tales,” Trifonov showed quintessential traits of the Russian Romantic style that Safonov pollinated: emphasizing the music's inner melodic spine while coupling interpretive leeway to harmonic fluctuation, surprising

shifts suddenly expansive and hushed, like a change in the wind.

Trifonov's touch, at its best, was pearly and clear; Medtner's E-flat major “Fairy Tale” (Op. 26, No. 1) and “Mouvement” from Book 1 of Claude Debussy's “Images” had the cut-glass effervescence that Horowitz and

Rachmaninoff often summoned forth. Extremes of volume were more idiosyncratic. Trifonov's loud passages, for all

their terrific impact, sometimes hammered power into the piano rather than drawing it out. Soft passages often skated

over the top of the keys (as in the rest of the Debussy), but Trifonov usually pulled it off with scrupulous evenness and a balm of pedal.

And Trifonov's virtuosity was something to behold — as was his connoisseurship. The scheduled Liszt B-minor Sonata

(a standard warhorse) was replaced with a cult classic, Guido Agosti's jaw-dropping transcriptions from Stravinsky's “Firebird”; Trifonov's performance was all youthful fire, in thrall to the adrenalin of high-wire pianism. By contrast,

Frédéric Chopin's opus 25 Études were aristocratic; even at his most torrential — the one-two punch of the A minor

“Winter Wind” and the C minor “Ocean” had elemental fury — Trifonov expressed his authority more through bursts of refinement.

Trifonov's encores flanked a zippy romp through Chopin's Op. 18 “Grand valse brillante” with more transcriptions,

claiming forbears two at a time: Liszt's version of Schumann's “Widmung,” effortlessly grand, and Rachmaninoff's

light, lush, arrangement of the “Gavotte” from Bach's E major Violin Partita.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The New York Times October 1, 2012

A Young Virtuoso Makes His Philharmonic Debut BY VIVIEN SCHWEITZER

Daniil Trifonov in Piano Debut With New York Philharmonic

Alan Gilbert, the music director of the New York Philharmonic, has likened the experience of working with a musician for the first time to a blind date. But there were certainly no awkward moments during the terrific performance of

Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 by the 21-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov that he conducted on Saturday

evening at Avery Fisher Hall.

The orchestra and the soloist clearly had chemistry, sounding completely in sync even during the trickiest passages.

Their vivid dialogues unfolded with both verve and spontaneity, at brisk tempos that stopped short of breathless.

Mr. Trifonov, who is making his Philharmonic debut with this work, has won several major competitions recently,

including the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv and the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

A slender man with an exuberant stage presence, Mr. Trifonov is certainly a virtuoso with a demonstrably prizewinning

technique, evident as he fluidly sailed through bravura passages, his fingers moving in a blur through rapid octaves and chords. But he offered far more than mere virtuosity, which is now common among young pianists showing ever more

dazzling technique. Mr. Trifonov demonstrated an elegant touch and witty grace in more lighthearted moments and

poetic insight in more introspective passages.

After this concerto’s New York premiere in 1922, Prokofiev lamented that American audiences did not appreciate the piece, though he would surely be gratified to see its popularity almost a century later. At a preintermission encore Mr.

Trifonov rewarded the enthusiastic audience on Saturday with a lovely, gracefully shaped rendition of the Liszt-

Schumann “Widmung.”

Mr. Gilbert opened the program with Rimsky-Korsakov’s arrangement of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,”

leading a vividly etched performance brimming with ghoulish spirit. Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, played his solo with panache.

“It has always been a dream of mine,” Mr. Gilbert writes in the program book, to perform Rimsky-Korsakov’s

“Scheherazade” with Glenn Dicterow, the Philharmonic’s concertmaster since 1980, as violin soloist. (Mr. Dicterow,

the orchestra’s longest-serving concertmaster, will step down after the 2013-14 season).

Mr. Dicterow clearly enjoyed his role, expressively rendering the solos that depict the voice of Scheherazade. The orchestra sounded superb here as elsewhere; Mr. Gilbert led a full-blooded and kaleidoscopic rendition, with sensuous

string playing and alluring woodwind solos that vividly evoked languid Arabian nights.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

NPR’s Deceptive Cadence September 18, 2012

Trifonov's Triumph: Tchaikovsky, Twice Over BY ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS

At just 21 years old, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, the most recent winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition, is

zooming into the classical music stratosphere — and with his new album he's out to prove he's here to stay.

Born in the city of Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky), Russia in 1991, Trifonov studied at Moscow's Gnesin

Academy of Music; since 2009, he has been at the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with Sergei Babayan. In

addition to his Tchaikovsky Competition triumph, Trifonov has taken first prize and three special prizes at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, as well as the bronze medal at the Chopin Competition

in Warsaw. He is a competition winner who brings shape and meaning to even the most hackneyed and familiar

concertos; his firepower at the keyboard has depth, color and line.

Tchaikovsky Competition chairman Valery Gergiev has become a real mentor to and champion of Trifonov; it's very much worth noting that the last pianist Gergiev took under his wing, was one Evgeny Kissin, back in the mid-1980s.

When Trifonov came to New York last October to play at Carnegie Hall with the Mariinsky orchestra and Gergiev, it

was a stunning success. The pianist delivered the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto — the piece that has become his international calling card — with fierce power and precision, coupled with a really intense musicality. And Gergiev

isn't the only celebrity enamored of Trifonov's playing: In an interview Martha Argerich gave last year, she said, "He

has everything and more."

Still, Trifonov seems to be working hard to assure listeners that he's not just a flash-and-dazzle guy. The second half of this album features a selection of solo works, including Tchaikovsky's Un poco de Chopin, Chopin's Barcarolle, Op.

60; Schumann's Liebeslied and an array of Schubert songs arranged by Liszt: "Erlkonig," "Fruhlingsglaube," "Die

Forelle," "Auf Dem Wasser zu singen" and "Die Stadt." This portion of the album is more uneven. Trifonov floats the Barcarolle with easy grace, but the "Erlkonig," which should be a harrowing five-minute horror tale, instead takes on a

weird and inappropriate prettiness. But on the whole, this album is a snapshot of a very promising talent.

Meanwhile, if you haven't yet heard Trifonov live, keep your ear to the ground. Despite the fact that he's still — at least on paper — a student in Cleveland, he's been engaged as a soloist by the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago

Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as a constellation of European

orchestras. His recital schedule stretches from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie and

the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Will he play the Tchaikovsky No. 1 everywhere? Only time will tell. But if he's going to have a calling card, it's a good one to keep at the ready.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Herald Scotland August 25, 2012

Daniil Trifonov Queen's Hall BY KATE MOLLESON

Daniil Trifonov is a sensation.

Floppy-haired, incredibly young-looking, he gave three brisk bows and a quiet smile before launching into one of the most challenging recital programmes any pianist could tackle. He set the first half in home Russian territory: Scriabin's

Third Sonata, Three Fairy Tales by Nikolai Medtner and Guido Agosti's fiendish transcriptions from Stravinsky's

Firebird. After the interval he turned to Book 1 of Debussy's Images and Chopin's Opus 25 set of Etudes. In its entirety. All from memory. Did I mention that Trifonov was born in 1991?

I doubt there's much written for the piano that Trifonov couldn't breeze through. His technique is mind-boggling and

seemingly indefatigable: this programme would be enough to sink the hardiest of technicians, but Trifonov was quick

to play not one but four encores, starting with the first of Chopin's Opus 10 set of Etudes. You got the feeling he'd have happily stayed to trot out the whole lot. And that's the real joy of hearing him: his brimming, infectious ebullience. This

is no tortured prodigy. He lets himself have fun when he plays – I loved the ridiculous abandon he gave to Stravinsky's

Danse infernale.

Maybe he's yet to find total warmth in his fortes, maybe his softer melodies could sing more clearly. But his colours are

supple and varied, and his expression always deeply felt. Sometimes he looked to be in a kind of reverie; sometimes he

stared down at the keys with ferocious intensity. A mobile phone rang – twice – between two Chopin Etudes but it

didn't dent his composure a bit. Trifonov is an extraordinary talent.

He returns to Scotland this autumn, playing Liszt and Chopin in Glasgow on November 24.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Cleveland Plain Dealer August 6, 2012

Pianist Daniil Trifonov works with passion and artistry in Cleveland

Orchestra concert BY MARK SATOLA

The most electrifying moment in Saturday's Cleveland Orchestra performance was not listed on the program.

Pianist Daniil Trifonov had just finished a sparkling performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, and

had returned to the stage for what presumably was another bow. Instead, he sat at the piano and launched into Guido Agosti's ferociously difficult 1928 transcription of the Infernal Dance of King Kastchei from Stravinsky's ballet "The

Firebird."

One wishes he would have continued past the dance's fortissisimo glissandi and final chord (Agosti also transcribed "Firebird's" Berceuse and Finale), but that would have been asking too much, considering Trifonov already had spent

the previous 40 minutes delivering a finely shaded and passionate reading of Chopin's first concerto, a work that has

come in for criticism over the years as an extended piano solo with at best discreet orchestral accompaniment.

Renowned artists from Liszt to Emanuel Ax, however, have championed it unflinchingly, for its marvelous pianism and unabashed Romantic expression.

Trifonov, who is a lad of just 21, brought the level of artistry that one would expect from a performer who last season

bagged two of piano's biggest prizes -- first prize at the Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, and the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. His playing in the Chopin concerto demonstrated exquisite finger control, a

good ear for tonal shading and supreme contrapuntal clarity.

Trifonov is studying with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music; it is hoped that his proximity will allow Cleveland audiences to hear him in meatier repertoire.

James Gaffigan, a former assistant conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra, and now chief conductor of the Lucerne

Symphony, was on the podium for the evening, which began with a texturally rich reading of the somber Prelude to Act

Three of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." It was an unusual choice as opener, though it resonated with the "doomed love" theme of the concert's second half, selections from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet."

Wagner's prelude features a 31/2-minute, chromatically wayward solo for unaccompanied English horn, which in the

opera's context signals the unraveling of Tristan's mind. English hornist Robert Walters earned a lengthy ovation for his beautifully shaped performance of this plaintive cadenza.

Gaffigan drove the orchestra hard in the short suite from Prokofiev's 1936 ballet "Romeo and Juliet," especially in the

aggressive excerpts ("Montagues and Capulets," "The Death of Tybalt"). Even in the music's more melting moments, including the so-called balcony scene and the scene at Juliet's tomb, Gaffigan kept up the intensity, perhaps a little

more harshly than was called for. In the quicksilver "Juliet the Young Girl" and the jaunty "Masks," Gaffigan

emphasized the music's irresistible danceability.

Prokofiev's ballet is so familiar that it's easy to overlook its brilliant and idiosyncratic scoring, but Saturday's performance was a welcome reminder of the composer's startling originality and subtle modernity.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Financial Times August 3, 2012

Daniil Trifonov’s revelatory piano recital outclasses the more ear-

battering offerings at Verbier BY MICHAEL CHURCH

Tom Wolfe’s critical polemic The Painted Word had a salutary effect when it hit the streets in 1975. Debunking the

pretensions of abstract expressionism’s literary champions, it gave the rest of us licence to stop feeling guilty for failing

to appreciate the philosophical transcendence of their art form. The book is just as relevant now but it needs a musical counterpart: The Composed Word could make hay with the high-flown verbiage without which no self-respecting piece

of “new music” can be let loose.

Commissioned by the Verbier Festival, where it was premiered last week, Charlotte Bray’s Invisible Cities came heralded by a theoretical tract that embodied its own hoped-for review. Associating her work with an essay on Venice

by Italo Calvino, this prolific young composer described the convoluted psychological journey on which it would take

us, provided we were prepared to “set our imagination free”. Did anybody warn her that this effusion was counter-

productive? At all events, she popped up to tell us we “might feel more comfortable” if we regarded her new piece as a sonata in four movements.

If such candour was refreshing, the music was not. Aggressively atonal, and reeking of the composition class, this

“sonata” for viola and piano was dictated by the head rather than the heart, and began with a movement so relentlessly ear-battering that the long, slow bow-strokes of the second came as a physical relief. A saving grace should have lain in

the fact that the violist was Lawrence Power – Britain’s answer to Yuri Bashmet – whose sound was a constant delight,

but not even he could breathe life into this dense and rebarbative piece.

The rest of the concert was old music delivered by dream teams. Power was joined by pianist Simone Dinnerstein and

clarinettist Martin Frost for Mozart’s Trio in E flat, K498, then by violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Mischa Maisky

for Mozart’s Divertimento K563. Power and Co. gave it compelling authority.

3 stars

Verbier’s tourist trade may be wilting in the recession, but its music festival is flourishing, with pianists much to the

fore. Although Martha Argerich cancelled her performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 1, her protégée Khatia

Buniatishvili substituted with a subtly nuanced performance. The first week brought whiffs of post-Soviet excellence, with Elisabeth Leonskaya’s limpid Mozart and Nikolai Lugansky’s heroic Liszt, while Valery Gergiev’s pianist-of-

choice Denis Matsuev revealed himself as a closet jazzman.

But the most keenly awaited recitals were those by 24-year-old German-Japanese Alice Sara Ott (the “barefoot pianist”) and 21-year-old Russian Daniil Trifonov. Ott opened with an accomplished performance of Schubert’s Sonata

in D major, D 850 – yet while she found a convincing path through this labyrinthine work, the second movement

lacked the requisite mystery and vulnerability. In Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition she grabbed every

opportunity for virtuoso display, but missed the essential point about this kaleidoscopic work, which is that each mood has its balancing opposite. Like many pianists of her age, Ott equates volume with power, and she doesn’t do poetry.

2 stars

Daniil Trifonov

Financial Times August 3, 2012

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Trifonov’s recital was breathtaking. Argerich last year told the FT she had never before heard a touch like his, and all I

can do is concur: it’s not just a matter of precision and weighting, it’s a unique amalgam of fastidious tenderness and

seemingly unfettered wildness. After two exquisite Debussy Images, he gave an account of Chopin’s complete Etudes that was truly revelatory: his emotional restraint – and frugality with the pedal – made the lyrical ones all the more

moving, while his preternatural dexterity lent the finger-twisters a rare grace. For the next three weeks, anyone

interested can check out this astonishing recital for free on www.medici.tv.

5 stars

www.verbierfestival.com

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Cleveland Plain Dealer June 2, 2012

International competition winner Daniil Trifonov shows sensitive

side in concert presented by Cleveland International Piano

Competition BY DONALD ROSENBERG

The Cleveland International Piano Competition is a biennial event, which means it could disappear – like a keyboard

Brigadoon – when juries and anxious contestants are nowhere in sight.

But the Cleveland competition remains in the public ear throughout the year by presenting concerts featuring former

winners, which is what made Friday’s program, “Musical Encounters,” unusual by half at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts.

Along with Kyu Yeon Kim, last year’s fourth-prize winner, the evening included performances by Daniil Trifonov,

who has never entered the Cleveland competition.

Nor will he ever have to: The Russian pianist pulled off the amazing feat in 2011 of winning first prize at both the

Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky competitions. Oh, and he nabbed third prize at the Chopin competition the year before.

So it was no surprise that much of the anticipation Friday surrounded Trifonov’s appearance, which was scheduled after intermission. He demonstrated many of the reasons that international juries were smitten. He plays with poetry

and fire, and his technique is so potent that he’s able to go beyond notes to achieve his expressive goals.

The program was structured to allow each pianist to present solo and concerto credentials. Trifonov began with Liszt

transcriptions of beloved pieces by Schubert and Schumann, which he could have turned into a display of virtuoso narcissism.

But Trifonov is too sensitive to go the listen-to-me route. He shaped each work with loving attention to shading and

line, even when Liszt’s inclination to devour the keyboard beckoned. Schumann’s “Widmung” was particularly lovely in the way Trifonov acknowledged the music’s roots as an art song.

When he returned to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488, he again declined to show off. Trifonov played the

outer movements with nuanced grace, reveling in the music’s high spirits, especially the finale’s sprightly activity,

while also bringing tender definition to the transcendent slow movement.

Trifonov had an advantage on this occasion that most pianists never experience: The conductor was Sergei Babayan,

his teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a triumphant veteran of competition wars. Babayan led the so-called

Competition Orchestra, an ensemble of excellent freelancers, in a collaboration that honored Mozart and joined seamlessly with Trifonov’s artistry.

To open the concert’s first half, Kim brought bright, modern-piano sonorities to Rameau’s Novelle Suites de Pieces de

Clavecin. She had a tendency to favor the pedal, which obscured some rhythms and textures, but she played with vibrant and polished assurance.

Daniil Trifonov

Cleveland Plain Dealer June 2, 2012

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For her Mozart concerto, the South Korean pianist chose No. 9, K. 271, known as “Jeunehomme.” Kim won the Mozart

Prize at last year’s Cleveland competition, and here she demonstrated her affinity for the composer.

The performance was a bit unvaried in inflection, yet Kim captured the buoyant spirits and poignancy that make the work a prime example of Mozart’s early concerto prowess. Babayan and the orchestra were sophisticated partners, with

the winds taking special honors.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The Independent March 19, 2012

Daniil Trifonov at the Wigmore Hall BY MICHAEL CHURCH

Out of Russia, always something pianistically new. When 20-year-old Daniil Trifonov won the Tchaikovsky

competition last year, it was clear he was extraordinary.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, but trained from the age of eight at Moscow's fabled Gnessin school (where Evgeny Kissin

had trained 20 years before), Trifonov had been allowed to let his talent grow at its own quiet pace, until he burst on the

international scene with medals in the Warsaw Chopin and Tel Aviv Rubinstein competitions, as well as in Moscow's musical equivalent of the Olympics. For his London lap of honour, he played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 with

the confidence of a master, displaying power in spades, crystalline passage-work, and a pearlised singing tone; his

encore – Liszt's '"La Campanella" – had flawless delicacy.

These same qualities were quickly apparent in his Wigmore recital, which was his lap of honour for winning the Rubinstein contest. He glided with a smile into Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's "Fruhlingsglaube", which seemed to

smile back at him; the sound was exquisitely calibrated, and so it was in "Die Stadt", which followed.

Then came Schubert's great Sonata in B flat major, the first of the evening's big tests. His way with this was original, playing the first movement's opening statement with what singers would call a whitened tone, then gradually colouring

it as the layers within layers were revealed, sometimes with crashing force, sometimes as though blown by the wind.

He'd chosen a Fazioli in preference to the usual Steinway, and one could see why, since in his hands much of this work was clad in subtle shades of pianissimo, and the German instrument wouldn't have done the job as well. The Andante

was rapt, the Scherzo airborne, and the pained ambiguities of the concluding Allegro were resolved with a wonderfully

triumphant flourish. This was a young man's account: time will bring more dimensions.

In four Tchaikovsky pieces d'occasion after the interval, his touch had changed, with each being a vividly characterised world. Then, rounding things off with Chopin's Opus 10 Etudes, he blew us away. The cantabile ones were a delight,

and I have never heard the finger-twisters delivered with more nonchalant ease (and speed). Five quirky encores –

some of dubious musical quality – had the hall on its feet, but for me dissipated the spell.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

San Francisco Examiner February 21, 2012

Review: Daniil Trifonov at the Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga BY ELIJAH HO

“Daniil Trifonov is a name that we will hear again many times in the future. He will become one of the main pianists

for the younger generation…” – Dang Thai Son, Jury member and winner of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition.

By way of Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy, Daniil Trifonov, the 20-year-old artist out of Russia, answered the

question as to why the tradition of pianism must continue. At the opulent Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, the latest winner of the International Tchaikovsky competition delivered a compelling musical performance, and one of the most

convincing in recent memory.

Trifonov’s artistry appears unaffected by his growing fame. His conceptions are remarkably planned and there is a

healthy breathing to his sense of phrasing. Like the Tchaikovsky winners before him, Trifonov's mechanism is nearly infallible, and one of the most immediate impressions is undoubtedly his all-encompassing piano technique. Once the

notable distraction of his world-class technique is dismissed, however, an artist of rarest gifts is revealed.

Saturday’s recital was Trifonov’s first public performance of Franz Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, No. 21 D.960. In the first movement of the work, the pianist chose a rather slow tempo (perhaps reminiscent of Sviatoslav

Richter's account), but the development was introduced with such remarkable singing in the chords that one’s spirits

were immediately lifted. The pianist was faithful to the score, and the languorous depths of the Andante sostenuto highlighted the pianist’s remarkable ability to sustain a work. The delivery was also notable for the pianist’s technical

and dynamic control; one could feel the fingers merely grazing the notes, producing the faintest ringing tone. There was

not a hint of vulgarity to be found in the final Allegro movement, where pianists often play with a certain hint of

giddiness. With a steady rhythmic pulse, Trifonov maintained the structure of the celebrated work, and there was a profundity to the performance - a sense of development and balance that prevented one’s attention from wavering.

With Trifonov, every note appears to have been refined, and nothing is given to the shallowest sensitivities of his

audience. On stage, Trifonov appears lost in the music, always smiling. He plays with an infectious love of the music. Perhaps what is most compelling, however, is his interpretative ability. One gets the impression that the ability to

interpret a score beautifully comes most naturally for him; Trifonov’s attention to detail is stunning. And these qualities

were perhaps most aptly displayed in Book I of Debussy’s Images. The first of the set, Reflets dans l’eau, showed the pianist to be a fine and most natural colorist. Trifonov’s sense of timing evoked images of Impressionism and the

feeling of submergence.

After the Debussy, Trifonov delivered a clinic, performing in succession the Opus 10 Etudes of Chopin. Here are the

notables: No. 1 in C Major: Trifonov played the transcendental work convincingly. The carefully marked rhythms and chosen accentuations brought a freshness to the piece. The fluidity and utter suppleness of his wrist were also

fascinating to observe. No. 2 in A minor: One of the most difficult puzzles in the etude repertoire, Trifonov played this

through at a rather average tempo. The performance was spine-tingling, however, notable for its use of pedal at times and accentuations of the thumb and index finger in the right-hand. It was one of the more poetic performances of the

chromatic etude that this listener has heard. No. 3 in E major: One of the most adored melodies ever composed for the

piano, Trifonov delivered a rhythmically-faithful reading of the piece. Here, Trifonov revealed a world of freedom

Daniil Trifonov

San Francisco Examiner February 21, 2012

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within the score, and delivered a personal poetry. The return to the theme was played with a marked difference from the

opening. No. 12 in C minor: Arguably one of the most powerful live performances of the etude that this listener has

ever listened to, it was the last piece on the program. Here, Trifonov appeared to have finally unleashed the virtuosic side of his artistry. There was a ferocity in the figurations of the left-hand, and the artist took us through the turbulent,

the chaotic, and the image-invoking passages of the masterpiece.

Trifonov gave three encores – the last, a rarely played Sergei Rachmaninoff transcription of J.S. Bach’s Violin Partita

No. 3 (Gavotte en rondeau). Coupled with the pianist’s musical gifts, it was the kind of elegance reminiscent of a previous age - harmonies and singing that went straight to the heart.

In an intimate setting, Trifonov’s sound is splendidly layered and is often heard between the dynamic markings of pp

and mf. Trifonov is not one to bang at the instrument – in fact, his sound sings quietly in a most refined fashion. One marvels at the differentiation, the control and the colors that this artist brings to the concert stage. This was not edge-of-

your-seat playing, but rather, a beautiful reminder of the value and power of Art by legitimate means. Trifonov’s

conceptions were never entirely predictable, and one felt them to be resounding and truthful. The pianist delivers by authentic means, and there is a sense of artistry and thoughtfulness that never wavers. Rarely does a performer come

along who brings forth the most powerful comprehensive qualities of each composer they are playing. Daniil Trifonov

has this ability; he is a generational talent.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

San Francisco Classical Voice February 18, 2012

Trifonov Trips the Light, Fantastically BY ANATOLE LEIKIN

The 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow was a fascinating, if occasionally sordid, affair. Yet,

despite some controversies, a few promising young star artists emerged, one of whom was indisputably Daniil Trifonov, the eventual winner of the competition. (By that time, he had won First Prize at the Rubinstein competition in

Tel Aviv and Third Prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw.)

His Saturday recital at Saratoga’s Montalvo Arts Center was the first time I had heard Trifonov since the Tchaikovsky Competition (June 14–July 2 of last year). Since then, the artistic growth of the 20-year-old musician has been

spectacular, which was immediately apparent in the program’s opener: two of Schubert’s songs, Frühlingsglaube and

Die Stadt, arranged for piano by Liszt. During his competition performances, Trifonov wore quite a bit of his

expressiveness on his sleeve. Now the pianist is far more subdued visually, and it appears that his formerly exuberant facial expressions and bodily movements have been channeled directly into music itself. There are decidedly no

drawbacks to this process of internalization, only benefits.

In the two sharply contrasting Schubert-Liszt pieces, Trifonov shifted effortlessly from the tender lyricism and alluringly singing lines of Frühlingsglaube to the dark-colored, forbidding, and, at times, almost impressionistic Die

Stadt.

But it was Schubert’s B-flat Major Sonata, D. 960, that made it abundantly clear that a description of Trifonov’s talent should include more phrases than merely “beautifully pliable phrasing,” “rhythmic vitality,” and “acute attention to

detail.” More important, he possesses a rare storytelling gift. Schubert’s last Sonata is so drawn-out that listeners may

grow bored during the 40-minute Sonata.

Trifonov, however, presented such a gripping account, filled with poetic intimacy and warm sincerity, that the audience in Saratoga fell entirely under his spell. It was probably the first time I truly regretted that this immensely long piece

had come to an end; I wanted it to last much longer. Indeed, it could have been a bit longer had the artist repeated the

exposition in the first movement. Perhaps when he plays the Sonata again, he should consider doing just that (amazingly, that was the first time he ever played the Sonata in concert!).

In the first book of Debussy’s Images, which followed the Schubert, Trifonov displayed his extraordinary coloristic

flair. He took to heart the composer’s wish to turn the piano into an “instrument without hammers,” merrily juxtaposing various spectra of tone colors, now luminously floating and melting, now seductive, now darkly mysterious.

A true revelation, though, came afterward, in Chopin’s Études, Op. 10. These 12 pieces were never intended to form a

cycle, but Trifonov managed to string them all together and weave yet another enthralling story, with one étude leading

into another and the suspense building up. Many pianists, even the best, use these virtuosic gems as the opportunity to splash and pound on the keys. Trifonov’s approach, by contrast, was immensely refreshing. The sound rarely rose

above mezzo forte, yet was filled with subtly understated élan, gentle insistence, and sheer poetry. This was highly

evocative and unconventional playing, especially in Études 1, 5, 7, 10, and 11. Trifonov is one of the most pianistically soft-spoken virtuosos today.

Daniil Trifonov

San Francisco Classical Voice February 18, 2012

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The generous encores included two more piano arrangements, similar to the program’s beginning. The first was

Trifonov’s own take on Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus, a deliciously wild and witty barnburner. (Trifonov

composes music, as well.) After Chopin’s stylish Waltz, Op. 18, Trifonov offered Rachmaninov’s elegantly droll and touching arrangement of Bach’s Gavotte. All in all, it was the shortest 2¼-hour piano recital I’ve ever heard. Daniil

Trifonov will repeat this program at Herbst Theatre on Feb. 28.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

General-Anzeiger January 13, 2012

Wiener Philharmoniker in Köln BY BERNHARD HARTMANN

KÖLN.

Die Wiener Philharmoniker und Valery Gergiev präsentierten in Köln ein pianistisches Ausnahmetalent.

Valery Gergiev has to be convinced of the qualities of pianist Daniil Trifonov 20-year old already very much. Last

October, he presented him already in New York with a guest performance of Marijnsky orchestra as soloist in

Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, now he obliged him again, this time for the current tour of the Vienna Philharmonic, which was now in the Cologne Philharmonic began. Before the young Russian sat down at the piano,

again to play Tchaikovsky's B flat minor Concerto, conducted the Vienna complete their program with Russian Sergei

Prokofiev's "Symphonie Classique" one. Gergiev conducted the work with a certain serenity. The pace is not too fast,

but every note was the very transparent sounding score highest attention given by the musicians.

Then entered the stage Trifonov, sat down at the piano and equally enthusiastic with the famous chords that accompany

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, the opening theme initialized by the horns. Trifonov, 2011 which won the prestigious

Tchaikovsky prize in Moscow knows, no insecurity, no fear. His game seems almost frightening ease.

He effortlessly fires off completely the dreaded double octaves of the concert. He mastered the technical hurdles, not

just binds the wealth of sounds always in the musical phrase, even if it the pace extremely attracting, whether in the

initial chords, the rapid runs in the middle section of the Andante and the exhausting finale . This game proves to be highly sensitive to the score. Gergiev with him was of course a conductor to the side, who knew very well to respond to

the young pianist.

Russian works that tied

Trifonov, even if it could put his flawless technique sometimes suggests anything but a piano-robot. It was felt, not least in the applause from the audience by violent storms that called the added pieces, Chopin's "Grande Valse

Brillante" by Sergey Rachmaninoff and Bach gavotte.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Cleveland Plain Dealer December 1, 2011

Multiple competition winner Daniil Trifonov exudes joy of music-

making in Cleveland recital BY DONALD ROSENBERG

Any pianist who wins an award at a major international competition must be considered a master of perseverance and

technical accomplishment. But what about a musician who triumphs at no fewer than three top competitions?

Daniil Trifonov, a Russian pianist who studies with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music, managed that incredible feat during the 2010-11 season. He won third prize at the Chopin competition in Warsaw last fall before

taking first prizes at both the Rubinstein competition in Israel and the biggest plum of them all, the Tchaikovsky, in

Moscow.

So it was with more than a little interest that an audience listened intently to the 20-year-old Trifonov in recital

Wednesday at the institute as part of the Mixon Hall Masters Series. The concert was sold out, and stage seats were

filled with young people (CIM students?) dressed in black attire.

Trifonov charmed the crowd by bowing to each corner of the audience after finishing a piece. In many respects, he

demonstrated why juries at the various competitions voted enthusiastically in his favor. His playing is virtuosic and

sensitive, combining remarkable command of the keyboard with an abiding joy of music-making.

The program Trifonov chose Wednesday didn't paint a comprehensive picture of his artistry. The menu comprised short items that added up to an evening of encores (and there were some of those, too). What was missing was a sonata or

other extended work that would have revealed something about his grasp of musical architecture.

But Trifonov certainly made it clear that he can traverse the keyboard at the fleetest tempos without pressure or a hint of sweat. In several of the quickest selections in the complete set of Chopin etudes, Op. 10, he was a master of velocity

and textural clarity.

Elsewhere, Trifonov proved that he also savors restraint and poetry. He began the program's opening work, Chopin's

Ballade No. 4, Op. 52, at a hush, only gradually increasing tension to emphasize the music's dramatic urgency.

The etudes held moments of lyrical beauty, though Trifonov had a tendency to underplay expressive nuances or

obscure harmonies by leaning too generously on the sustain pedal.

Trifonov devoted the second half of the program to works either arranged by Liszt or composed entirely by the man himself. They included four Schubert songs, Schumann's "Widmung" and Paganini's "La Campanella," whose bell-like

passages received glistening delineation.

When it came time for real Liszt, Trifonov tore into the Mephisto Valse with rambunctious glee, as if the menacing feats were natural acts of pianism.

For encores, he offered pieces by Mussorgsky and Bach, as well as a lilting account of Chopin's Grande Valse

Brillante, Op. 18, that sent the audience happily into the night.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The Washington Post October 9, 2011

Pianist Daniil Trifonov’s playing is freakishly brilliant BY ANNE MIDGETTE

Daniil Trifonov, the pianist who won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow this year, looks very much like a 19th-century romantic poet. He has a lot of straight, soft brown hair in need of a trim; pale, translucent skin; and an arsenal

of soulful expressions. When playing, he throws back his head, eyes heavenward, or arches over the keyboard until he

looks like a 90-year-old, Dickensian hunchback picking notes from the instrument with a greedy, acquisitive glee, as if he were purloining cherries. And sometimes he bangs on the keys until the piano grows strident in protest.

In short, Trifonov is the physical embodiment of the stereotype of the Russian pianistic virtuoso. And he does a number of things one might find distracting, or annoying. It really doesn’t matter, though, because, as he showed on Saturday

night, playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra at George Mason

University’s Center for the Arts, his playing is also freakishly brilliant.

That’s not to say it was always easy or even enjoyable to hear. It left me enervated and slightly disturbed. In some fast

passages, his fingers produced a sound with a hypnotic, neurotic effect, an irresistible twitchiness that was all his own.

Throughout the piece, routine patches or banging (was it a bad piano?) would yield to moments of startling precision that offered unexpected insights. Toward the end of the first movement, he played with such intensity that it seemed as

if this moment was the greatest or most powerful thing that one could possibly experience. At that moment, for this 20-

year-old pianist, it was.

The contrast of Chopin’s “Grande Valse Brillante,” which Trifonov offered as an encore, sealed the deal: This is a

major artist in the making. For a musician so rife with mannerisms, Trifonov is shockingly unmannered. That is to say,

he does many things that might read as precious, but he nonetheless conveys a sense of freshness rather than one of calculation. He had his way with the Chopin, so charmingly and artlessly that one didn’t mind being seduced by it. His

rubato was a byproduct of the music rather than something inflicted on it, and the waltz’s repeating theme, which often

feels dutiful and even hackneyed by its final iterations, sounded new, natural, self-evident and delightful each time he played it.

Small wonder that Gergiev — who headed the jury of this year’s Tchaikovsky Competition — has embraced Trifonov

so wholly, bringing him on the U.S. tour with the Mariinsky and having him join the London Symphony Orchestra in the United Kingdom this fall (where, at one concert, a technical malfunction switched off the lights during the

Tchaikovsky concerto, leaving Trifonov to offer some unplanned Chopin while Gergiev held a flashlight over the

keys). To judge from the evidence on Saturday, their musical approaches are similar: the same manic quality, the same visceral impact, the same stretches of routine suddenly alleviated by an unexpected quirk or a flash of brilliance.

Gergiev, older and better-known, is also more obviously quirky, though his quirks have grown familiar to audiences around the world thanks to his ubiquitous, tireless presence on the podium and on recordings. His strength and

weakness are the same: a headlong impetuosity that sweeps along everything in its path, music and musicians and

listeners alike. He plunges into the music — on Saturday, the other piece on the program was Tchaikovsky’s Fifth

Symphony — before the applause has subsided; he lets a movement trail off because his attention is already on the start

Daniil Trifonov

The Washington Post October 9, 2011

page 2 of 2

of the next one; he lapses into stretches of mere routine at points when nothing particular happens to engage his

interest. Details are of little consequence.

Balances were askew on Saturday, the low strings often outweighing the winds and even the brass in their tramping,

marchlike figures; some passage work was mushy. Gesture is of more consequence than precision.

The result is music that seems to say something, or have done something, even if no one involved is given time to evaluate what that something might be. But that hardly matters: Gergiev is already off to his next gig — in this case,

returning to Carnegie Hall with the orchestra in time for another all-Tchaikovsky concert Sunday afternoon. He left in

his wake a performance that was messy, sloppy, headstrong, sometimes merely going through the motions, occasionally vivid. And his orchestra, knowing him well, its members’ evening wear creased from repeated wearings,

responded with the slightly weary willingness and slurred speech of people who go to parties every night and do their

best to lose themselves, over and over, in a bacchanalian frenzy, knowing the outlines of the dance without being quite sure what, on a given night, is likely to happen next.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Independent (UK) September 22, 2011

Tchaikovsky Competition Winners, LSO/Gergiev, Barbican BY MICHAEL CHURCH

Some exports from Moscow carry a health warning, but the one we can be sure of is classical music,

particularly when this comes in the form of winners from the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Over its 50-year span this quadrennial contest has established itself as classical music’s Olympics: Dmitri

Shostakovich, Maria Callas, Aram Khachaturian, and Mstislav Rostropovich were on early juries, with

winners including the pianists Van Cliburn and Vladimir Ashkenazy, and violinists Gidon Kremer and

Viktoria Mullova. The Barbican was packed (and royalty was in attendance) to hear this year’s winners, with

support from the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev on the podium.

The fact that the Moscow jury had not awarded two of the top four prizes in the singing section indicated that

standards were being kept high. Just how high was apparent when the gold medallist, 27-year-old Sunyoung

Seo from South Korea, sang the Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’. Running the whole

gamut of human emotion, this aria makes a great showcase for a great voice, and this comely soprano brought

a big and sumptuous sound to the task. Gloriously even from top to bottom, her voice had an unforced bel

canto expressiveness, and she shaped her long-breathed phrases – and marked the music’s mood-changes -

with impeccable grace. Now she should do the role for real at Covent Garden.

No surprise that the cello gold-medallist should come from Yerevan: Armenia’s capital is still a hotbed of

string talent, despite that country’s now-grinding poverty. And 23-year-old Narek Hakhnazaryan launched

into Tchaikovsky’s ‘Variations on a Rococo Theme’ with a tone whose beauty shone all the more brightly for

its restraint. Every nuance of this subtle work was lovingly observed, and when he did let rip it was with

blazing virtuosity. I would now like to hear what this boy can do with Bach’s solo suites: he could certainly

give Yo-Yo Ma a run for his money.

Finally we got Tchaikovsky’s ‘Piano Concerto No 1’ courtesy of a pianist from Nizhniy Novgorod, but the

way Daniil Trifonov played, you’d say he was a mature master, rather than a mere 20-year-old. Power in

spades, crystalline passage-work, and a pearlised singing tone: he’s already got it all, and his encore – Liszt’s

‘La Campanella’ – had both flawless delicacy, and an engaging modesty.

In short, this year’s jury knew what it was doing.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Musical America August 1, 2011

Of Piano Competitions and Trampolines BY DONALD ROSENBERG

CLEVELAND – Sergei Babayan can hardly contain his wonderment when talking about Daniil Trifonov, who is (hands down) his prize piano student at the Cleveland Institute of Music. “He’s a child still,” says the Armenian-born

Babayan. “I don’t think he realizes what kind of lottery ticket he won by winning these competitions. This is like a

fairy tale.”

Also a reality. In an astonishing series of accomplishments, Trifonov picked up nearly a dozen prizes at three of the

world’s most prestigious competitions in the past nine months. It would have been impressive enough if he’d only won third prize last fall at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. But soon after turning 20 in March, the Russian pianist went

on to take the first prizes (and more) at both the Rubinstein in Israel and – a mere month later – the mother of all

competitions, the Tchaikovsky, in Moscow.

The “child” behind these triumphs is a slender, soft-spoken musician who’s more interested in learning new repertoire

than dwelling on the galvanic events of the recent past. “Of course, I was very happy when this happened, but now I

feel more and more possibilities,” Trifonov says over iced tea at a cafe near the Cleveland Institute. “It’s also great luck. I played successfully, but competitions are never predictable. If you consider a competition as a trampoline to a

career, it opens a lot of doors, and then it’s important how you use it and develop.”

As a result of his victories at the Chopin, Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, the doors have swung wide open for Trifonov.

He already has 92 engagements on his calendar for the coming year, including performances of the Tchaikovsky Piano

Concerto No. 1 in August in Warsaw under Mikhail Pletnev and in October at Carnegie Hall with Valery Gergiev –

head of the Tchaikovsky Competition – and the Mariinsky Orchestra. More concerts are bound to pour forth: Trifonov has just been signed by two major managements, Opus 3 Artists in New York and London-based Intermusica.

Despite these heady opportunities, the native of Nizhny Novgorod, near Moscow, has no intention of rushing headlong into a full-time performance career. Trifonov is determined to spend as much time as possible during the next two years

with Babayan, at least until he finishes undergraduate studies at the Cleveland Institute.

Trifonov has added dozens of works to his repertoire in the past year to fulfill competition requirements, but he has yet to learn the Beethoven, Brahms or any of the Rachmaninoff concertos. Babayan refused to let him go near

Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto for the recent competitions, which, in retrospect, was a wise decision. Trifonov won

both the Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky playing the Chopin E-minor Concerto. (“Nobody won the Tchaikovsky with Chopin in the whole history!” exclaims Babayan.)

It was Chopin that led Trifonov to Cleveland. A pianist since the age of 5, he studied in Moscow with Tatyana Zelikman for nine years. When Trifonov made a North American solo concert tour in 2009, he realized he wanted to

study in the United States. Zelikman consulted with friends, who pointed her to Babayan, also a winner of international

competitions. When Babayan took a recording of Trifonov playing Chopin’s Scherzo No. 4 to Joel Smirnoff, president

of the Institute, “in 20 seconds he gave him a full scholarship,” says Babayan. “We both saw that immediately.”

Daniil Trifonov

Musical America August 1, 2011

page 2 of 2

Zelikman was careful not to push Trifonov into a career, although he won prizes at many small competitions before the

big ones of the past year. “She was afraid it could be harmful for musical understanding at an early age,” he says. Both Zelikman (immersed in the German school of piano playing) and Babayan (the Russian school) concentrated on Mozart

and Chopin with their young virtuoso. “Chopin and Mozart develop the soul of the musician not only musically, but

personally,” says Trifonov. “It’s not enough to be just a good musician or pianist. It’s also important to have a sensitive

personality which can reach in all musical directions.”

On YouTube performances from the Chopin, Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky competitions, Trifonov radiates sensitivity

and the joy of music-making. When I ask him about the delight that he exudes at the keyboard, he notes how crucial it is to relax the body while focusing the mind. Most significant is what the composer has set down. “If I listen to

recordings of pianists, the first thing I care about is if I hear adoration of the music, not himself,” he says.

Trifonov plans to spend coming months between concert engagements learning more Chopin and Beethoven’s four last

sonatas, including the formidable “Hammerklavier,” and the Fourth Concerto. “Of course it’s not for playing,” he

smiles, “just for developing.”

At this point, Trifonov he says he is finished with competitions. Babayan is guiding him to concentrate slowly and

steadily on nurturing his gifts and expanding his musical purview. “He doesn’t need [lessons] twice a week or spoon-

feeding. He’s a dream for a teacher – a real diamond. It’s a one-time life opportunity for someone to have that kind of student.”

As quick as he is to sing the praises of Zelikman and Babayan, Trifonov also looks forward to following his own

intuition – what he terms his “fantasy of mind” – and remaining vigilantly self-critical. “You can have a really good concert, but still you can’t be satisfied. It’s important to request more and more from yourself.”

See www.daniiltrifonov.com and video coverage of Trifonov in performance.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The New York Times July 29, 2011

A Pianist’s Pensive and Fanciful Sides BY ANTHONY TOMMASINI

The Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov has had quite a year so far. In May, two months after turning 20, he took first prize in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. In June he won the gold medal in the

International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Not surprisingly, there was a waiting list of people trying to get into Mr. Trifonov’s sold-out recital at Mannes College

the New School for Music on Thursday night, part of the International Keyboard Institute and Festival. As advance

word suggested, Mr. Trifonov has scintillating technique and a virtuosic flair. He is also a thoughtful artist and, when so moved, he can play with soft-spoken delicacy, not what you associate with competition conquerors.

These qualities came through in his opening work, Scriabin’s Sonata No. 3 in F sharp minor. Unlike the later, mystical

Scriabin sonatas, this is a rhapsodic work with Chopinesque beauties. The first movement is like a lurching dance run through with a nonstop lyrical line. Mr. Trifonov balanced voices beautifully and, in a way, orchestrated the layers of

sound. He played with pensive delicacy in the slow movement and a touch of bracing wildness in the stormy finale.

In four novelty pieces by Tchaikovsky he showed his fanciful side. What most moved me was his account of Chopin’s

Barcarolle. Beneath its surface beauties, this is contrapuntally and harmonically complex music. Mr. Trifonov gave an

unusually subdued performance, sometimes intentionally blurring the lilting barcarolle accompaniment figure to create a shimmering mist of sound.

Now and then details were indistinct, and a burst of impetuosity threw off the poise of his overall conception. Still, his

deep involvement with the music came through in every phrase. Mr. Trifonov is a boyish young man who enjoys performing. But he becomes absorbed when he plays and is no showman. At the end of the barcarolle he looked spent.

He had reserves of energy, it turned out. Though his performance of Chopin’s Three Mazurkas (Op. 56) had a little too much Russian Romantic rhythmic freedom for my taste, he bent phrases with such tenderness that he won me over.

In Liszt’s brilliant “Mephisto Waltz” No. 1, Mr. Trifonov finally let out his inner demon virtuoso, which was fun to

hear. His breathless tempos sometimes caused scrambled moments in his fiery passagework. Who cared? The audience erupted in cheers, and Mr. Trifonov played four encores, all Chopin, including three études.

Now what? His concert calendar for next season is crammed with appearances around the world, including a concert at Carnegie Hall in October with the Mariinski Orchestra, in which he will perform Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto

with Valery Gergiev conducting. He is quickly gaining attention and is all over YouTube.

Mr. Trifonov’s poetic nature needs more mentoring. Since 2009 he has been studying at the Cleveland Institute of

Music. But will his touring life take over? It would reassure me if his repertory list had works by living composers. But

it includes a few pieces he has written: an encouraging sign. I wish he had played one.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

Press Release July 6, 2011

DANIIL TRIFONOV WINS GRAND PRIX AT XIV

INTERNATIONAL TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION

MOSCOW/ST. PETERSBURG—Pianist Daniil Trifonov (Russia) has been awarded the Grand Prix at the XIV

International Tchaikovsky Competition. Maestro Valery Gergiev announced the award at the conclusion of the July 2

laureates' concert in St. Petersburg. Mr. Trifonov also won the Gold Medal and the Prize for the Best Performance of

the Chamber Concerto in the piano competition. Read Mr. Trifonov's bio.

The Grand Prix is awarded to only one competitor from the four Tchaikovsky disciplines (piano, cello, violin, voice),

and comes with a cash prize of 10,000 Euro.

THE WEBCAST

Find the webcast archive at www.tchaikovsky-competition.tv and at http://pitch.paraclassics.com.

ABOUT THE XIV INTERNATIONAL TCHAIKOVSKY COMPETITION

www.tchaikovsky-competition.com

For more than fifty years, the International Tchaikovsky Competition has been regarded as one of the major events in

the global music community, and as an outstanding opportunity for extraordinary young musicians to gain international

recognition and establish their careers. In Russia, the event is considered one of the country’s most valuable cultural

assets.

The International Tchaikovsky Competition is held once every four years. The first, in 1958, embraced two disciplines,

piano and violin. In 1962, a cello category was added, and the vocal division (with separate prizes for men and women)

was introduced at the third competition in 1966.

Among the competition winners who have achieved worldwide recognition are pianists Van Cliburn, Vladimir

Ashkenazy, Mikhail Pletnev, Grigory Sokolov, and Barry Douglas; violinists Gidon Kremer, Vladimir Spivakov, and

Victoria Mullova; cellists Antonio Meneses, Natalia Gutman, and Mario Brunello; and singers Evgeny Nesterenko,

Paata Burchuladze, Elena Obraztsova, and Deborah Voigt.

Under the chairmanship of Dmitri Shostakovich, Emil Gilels, and Mstislav Rostropovich, among others, past juries

have included such legendary names as Sviatoslav Richter, Aram Khachaturian, David Oistrakh, Gregor Piatigorsky,

Heinrich Neuhaus, Nadia Boulanger, Krzysztof Penderecki, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Irina Arkhipova, George London, Lev Oborin, Pierre Fournier, Maria Callas, Leonard Rose, Eugene List, Georgy Svirdov, Mario Del Monaco, Leonid

Kogan, Carlo Zecchi, Joseph Szigeti, Fiorenza Cossotto, Natalia Gutman, Shlomo Mintz, Bidu Sayao, and Magda

Tagliaferro.

The chairman of the 2011 Organizing Committee is conductor Valery Gergiev, one of the most celebrated and

influential musicians in the world today. Leading Russian orchestras are invited to perform with the finalists in the last

round of the competition. In 2011, for the first time, the competition is presented simultaneously at halls in Moscow

and St. Petersburg. Moscow hosts the piano and cello competitions, while St. Petersburg presents the violin and vocal competitions.

Daniil Trifonov

Press Release July 6, 2011

page 2 of 2

Jury members in 2011 include Barry Douglas, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov, Antonio Meneses, Renata

Scotto, and Krzysztof Penderecki, among other noted musicians. Van Cliburn is the honorary chairman of the piano

competition, and the honorary chairman of the vocal competition is Plácido Domingo.

The XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition—which has implemented new sets of rules, regulations, and

procedures for applications and voting—will award prizes totaling approximately 300,000 Euros. In addition, the XIV

International Tchaikovsky Competition will collaborate with three major artist management agencies in Russia, the

United States, and the United Kingdom to organize concert engagements over three years for prizewinners. The concerts will include several performances under conductor Valery Gergiev.

DANIIL TRIFONOV

The Times (UK) July 4, 2011

The titanic Tchaikovsky test BY RICHARD MORRISON

The Tchaikovsky Competition, held in Russia every four years, has always been a titanic test for young performers

When Valery Gergiev added the International Tchaikovsky Competition to his portfolio of musical empires, he

promised to clean it up and wrench it into the 21st century. Perestroika was certainly needed. The Tchaikovsky, held in Russia every four years, has always been a titanic test for young performers from around the world who enter its four

categories (violin, cello, voice and piano). Each must prepare reams of solo material and three concertos for a

gladiatorial contest extended over three weeks and held in front of ferociously savvy Russian audiences in an atmosphere of unremitting tension. “It‟s like War and Peace, without the peace,” a Russian friend quipped. And once

the punters have picked their favourite the partisan frenzy in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire can be scarier

than Centre Court at Wimbledon.

But in recent years the Tchaikovsky has been tarnished, with jury members blatantly voting for their own pupils. “It

became a contest between professors in the Moscow Conservatoire,” Gergiev said last week. So he took half of it away

from Moscow, dispatching the violinists and singers to St Petersburg, and swept away the biased teachers among the judges. Instead, he invited the great stars of classical music. Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuri Bashmet were on the violin

jury; half a dozen former winners, including our own Barry Douglas and Peter Donohoe, judged pianists. The cello jury

ranged from the composer Penderecki to Clive Gillinson, boss of Carnegie Hall. And you could have dream-cast several Verdi operas from the voice jury, led by Renata Scotto.

“When Valery asks, you don‟t say no,” Douglas said. Gergiev also imported a new management, new rules and an

“incorruptible” voting system from the Tchaikovsky‟s rival: the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in the US. He also persuaded the man himself — Van Cliburn, the lanky Texan pianist who won the first Tchaikovsky in 1958 at the age

of 23 — to make his first return to the competition. All last week the legendary Cliburn was mobbed by adoring

women, mostly young enough to be his grandchildren. And his press conference, held on the roof of one of Moscow‟s swanky hotels, completely upstaged the Hollywood stars gathered for the Moscow Film Festival. “Who is this old

guy?” John Malkovich is reputed to have asked in amazement.

Gergiev‟s unrefusable invitations also extended to the top of Russian society. Government ministers mingled with oligarchs during the final stages, where competitors were accompanied by the top three Russian orchestras. Putin was

at the opening gala. It‟s hard to imagine classical music creating such a stir in any country except Russia. But even in

Moscow things are changing. The “new Russians” flaunting their wealth in the indescribably expensive watering-holes have little interest in high culture. Gergiev‟s achievement was to make attendance at the Tchaikovsky seem socially

essential, even to them.

He also turned the event into an internet phenonemon. Every note in every round was webcast: no small achievement

when seven venues were used simultaneously in two cities 500 miles apart. What‟s more, viewers could vote online or

by phone, X Factor style, for their favourites. The results of this poll were given almost as much prominence as the

juries‟ verdicts.

Daniil Trifonov

The Times (UK) July 4, 2011

page 2 of 2

But it was the latter that caused the rows, or “polite discussions”, as Gergiev described them in the press conference he

was forced to call to answer the press outcry about the piano jury‟s decisions. The Russian critics, and a faction of the audience, were upset by the elimination in early rounds of two Russian pianists: the inspired but inconsistent Eduard

Kunz and Alexander Lubyantsev.

And they certainly made the jury aware of their feelings. “I was walking to a restaurant with Michel Béroff [a fellow juror],” said Douglas. “A woman followed us, chanting „Lubyantsev, Lubyantsev‟. I found that creepy. And after we

announced the finalists there were cries of „Shame on you‟.” The Moscow critics even muttered about giving their own,

alternative awards — though, in the great independent tradition of the Russian press, they decided they should ask Gergiev for permission. Unsurprisingly, he said no.

What riled these critics was the suspicion that the jury was eliminating Moscow Conservatoire-trained pianists in revenge for the favouritism shown to homegrown candidates in the bad old days. That two of the five finalists were

Russian was deemed irrelevant because they were the wrong sort of Russians. Both (including the eventual winner, the

20-year-old Daniil Trifonov) study in the West.

That wasn‟t the only controversy. The new rules forbade juries from discussing competitors among themselves before

voting (to stop one strong figure exerting undue influence) and stated that a first prize would definitely be awarded in

each category. Yet the violin jury did the opposite. They conferred, then decided that no one was good enough to get a first prize.

Such decisions are always subjective. And you had to be in the Great Hall (now superbly restored to its Tsarist marble

glory) to feel the astonishing tension around the piano competition. The feisty Korean Yeol Eum Son must have felt like Manchester United playing away to Barcelona when she followed Trifonov in the finals. Yet, to my ears she gave

the more exciting interpretation of the mandatory Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto: a blistering reading that left me

gasping. I would have given her gold, not silver.

What about the British competitors? Well, forget that. There wasn‟t a single one in any category (though two of the five

piano finalists — a Ukrainian and a Russian — are studying in London at the Royal College of Music). Why not? After all, in past decades British pianists from Ogdon to Kempf have done brilliantly in the Tchaikovsky. I‟d suggest three

reasons. First, modern British teenagers don‟t have the desire to win these big competitions, nor the work ethic (or

fanatical parents) to make them good enough to compete in such repertoire. Second, we are paying for decades of

patchy or non-existent music education. By contrast, the Koreans did brilliantly in all categories.

And third, the Tchaikovsky‟s damaged reputation may have put off potential pianists from the West (there were few

French, German or American competitors either). If so, this year‟s competition should supply reassurance. The juries might not have got it all right, but they weren‟t bent. The musicmaking, especially from pianists and cellists, was

breathtaking. And I will eat my hat, or an Aeroflot inflight meal — whichever is the less tasty — if there aren‟t

glittering careers ahead for half a dozen of the finalists. Besides those already mentioned I would pick out the Korean bass Jongmin Park, (just 24, yet already with a voice like a cavern), his soprano compatriot Sun Young Seo, and a

brilliant if wayward 18-year-old Belorussian cellist, Ivan Karizna, as names to watch. sWhatever its defects, the

Tchaikovsky is back — once again the most thrilling music competition on the planet.