“A recording compares to a stage performance as cinema to theatre. Or else, perhaps, as a dream to reality. Intricately connected to each other they are nevertheless so fundamentally different I’d never be able to choose one over the other. But I must admit, I am in love with a microphone”
‘This is Tchaikovsky at his best, in music of relatively short duration and of very wide-ranging character … the young Siberian-born Pavel Kolesnikov … shows an extra degree of poetry and is … recorded, under the watchful eye (and ear) of possibly the greatest living classical record producer’ International Record Review
‘Fluid, fine-toned and with formidable power and dexterity when required, all these performances recreate Tchaikovsky's idiom, whether vivacious or drenched in Russian melancholy to rare degree...On this showing Kolesnikov is already a master pianist and Hyperion has captured all the bloom of his magical sonority’ Gramophone
‘An ideal realisation of these exquisite dances, the likes of which I never dreamt of hearing…These performances are the most beautiful and strikingly original I’ve heard’ Gramophone, Editor’s Choice
‘[Pavel Kolesnikov] displays complete poetic freedom of a sort ideal for approaching Chopin's mazurkas … a refreshing way of letting us hear these well-known miniature masterpieces, this is a notable addition to the huge Chopin discography’ BBC Music Magazine
‘The world seems to be awash in brilliant young Russian pianists just now, but Pavel Kolesnikov stands apart. His recording for Hyperion of Chopin's intimate dances is daringly original—a revelation’
The Daily Telegraph
DIAPASON D'OR DE L'ANNÉE 2016
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL RECORDING OF THE MONTH
NPR'S BEST CLASSICAL ALBUMS OF 2016
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL RECORDING OF THE YEAR
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH BEST OF 2016
In this pioneering release Kolesnikov explores the singular world of early French baroque composer Louis Couperin, the eldest in the illustrious Couperin family. Kolesnikov uses a specially conditioned Yamaha CFX prototype to create idiosyncratic soundscape that brings forth Louis Couperin’s uncompromising inventiveness and excruciating melancholy.
‘Pavel Kolesnikov brings vitality, meaning, and stylish aplomb to this music ... not since Marcelle Meyer’s classic 1953 Rameau recordings have I heard French Baroque keyboard music befit the modern concert grand so naturally as on this remarkable release’
Classics Today
‘[Louis Couperin] receives deserved attention on this revelatory release from Pavel Kolesnikov. The format and structure of his programme is, itself, an inspired achievement … Kolesnikov’s performances transcend genre, tradition or repertoire … his innate responses to these twenty-two pieces will surely be of interest to anybody sensitive to music’s expressive capacities.’ Classical Source
‘Very few pianists of Kolesnikov’s generation share his abundance of intelligence, sensitivity, imagination and sheer instrumental mastery’ Gramophone
‘The whole disc…is a rare delight. This pianist’s brilliant playing is exquisitely poised and lyrical, but at the same time captures the composer’s subversive, explosive genius to the point of admiration’
The Sunday Times
‘Unexpected tempos, but the atmosphere is unmistakable. Kolesnikov finds nocturnal quietude in the Moonlight Sonata, and his lucid, thoughtful approach pays off elsewhere too’
BBC Music Magazine
‘This ‘Moonlight’ teems with insight and ambiguity, and leaves an indelible impression that deepens with each listen … an atypical and revealing portrait of the first half of Beethoven’s career, in what is a thoughtfully planned and perfectly executed recital. In short it’s yet another exquisite piano disc from Kolesnikov and Hyperion’
MusicWeb International
‘Kolesnikov’s Chopin is as magical as it is unforgettable’
International Piano Magazine
‘At last, here we have 18 pieces of Chopin by a pianist whose name is rapidly becoming synonymous with searching originality, rhetorical aptness and kinaesthetic authority…Kolesnikov, always eager for the deep dive, here resurfaces with rare pearls of perfect proportion and lustre from the long-picked-over beds of Chopin interpretation’
Gramophone
‘Kolesnikov is the fascinator who, in a calculated sound environment and on a piano without faults, comes to hypnotize you and draw you into his universe…Kolesnikov materializes what one couldn't even imagine’
Le Devoir
‘Intense, emotional and pure’ is how Pavel Kolesnikov describes the experience of making this recording, the fruits of a collaboration between the pianist and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. In order to achieve weightless, “imaginary” sound Kolesnikov again used a Yamaha CFX prototype. This is an internal odyssey triggered by the sound that feels as if it emerges in the mind’s eye - or ear.
‘Kolesnikov the aesthete gives us "his" Goldbergs, without distorting "the" Goldbergs. And this contribution is as major as it is fascinating’
Le Devoir
‘Just when you think there are enough recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, here comes one that makes the music sound fresh off the page… Kolesnikov’s Goldbergs are softly spoken, but they are also extraordinarily eloquent’ The Guardian
‘[Kolesnikov’s] approach here is magisterial, nearing the sublime in the Adagio of variation 25. There are countless great accounts of this music on harpsichord and piano, but this is required hearing’
The Sunday Times