Imaginary Pictures:
- Kirill Gerstein performs.
I got to know Kirill Gerstein as a performer via his great collaborations with violist Tabea Zimmernmann; they sure created some wonderful music!
In this CD, we get to learn that both Robert Schumann and Modest Mussorgsky were highly imaginative composers who found ways of expression that went beyond the conventional.
On this recording, pianist Kirill Gerstein offers an unusual pairing of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ and Schumann’s ‘Carnaval’: piano pieces in which the layer of the visual and the illustrative gives way to subtler and more personal meanings via the explorations of sound.
Here is my Spotify playlist to illustrate this; the first 4 selections are from Schumann’s Carnaval, and the last four are from Mussorgski’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Listen carefully and you can hear the pacing between the pictures:
The selections on this CD are:
Mussorgsky:
- Pictures at an Exhibition (piano version)
Schumann:
- Carnaval, Op. 9
Performed by Kirill Gerstein (piano)
Born in in southwestern Russia, Gerstein moved to the United States at age 14 to study jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music. After completing his studies he turned his focus back to classical music.
Gerstein was the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award in 2010, presented every four years to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who can sustain a career as a major international artist. He has shared his prize through the commissioning of new works by Oliver Knussen.
Here is Kirill Gerstein performing Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9:
And next, Kirill Gerstein performs Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’:
Tags: Kirill Gerstein, Schumann, Modest Mussorgsky, ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’, ‘Carnaval’
