PavelKolesnikov
Contact
For availability and general enquiries:
Antonio Orlando
For contracts, logistics and press:
Jemima Pickersgill
Representation
About Pavel
Following his seven-concert residency at the Aldeburgh Festival and sixth appearance at the BBC Proms this summer, the 2023/24 season sees Pavel Kolesnikov perform twice with the with the Danish National Symphony (with Susanna Mälkki and Manfred Honeck), debut with Cincinnati Symphony and Netherlands Philharmonic (both with Sir Mark Elder) and embark on a recital tour of North America. He also returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra (Santtu-Matias Rouvali), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Vasily Petrenko), Klavier Festival Ruhr and to Wigmore Hall where he was Artist-in-Residence during 2020/21.
Pavel is known for his cross-genre collaborations and narrative programmes. Recent examples include Celestial Navigation – a sequence of music featuring projections by architect Sophie Hicks and text by Martin Crimp – and his realisation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations with dancer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker which has been staged over fifty times across Europe. Pavel also regularly performs with pianist Samson Tsoy and the duo’s Carnegie Hall debut this season follows recent dates at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw and London’s Southbank and Barbican centres – the latter as part of Europe’s first-ever Classical Pride.
Pavel won the Honens International Piano Competition in 2012 and was a BBC New Generation Artist between 2014-16. He has since worked with all the BBC orchestras, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, The Hallé, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona, City of Birmingham Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Stavanger Symphony among others. He regularly gives recitals at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Park Avenue Armoury, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Konzerthaus Berlin, Piano aux Jacobins Festival and De Singel.
Pavel's discography for Hyperion includes albums of music by Reynaldo Hahn, Louis Couperin and Chopin.
Representation
Season Highlights
Video
Pavel Kolesnikov performs Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Philharmonia Orchestra
With Rory MacDonald (conductor). Filmed in April 2022. Credit: Philharmonia Orchestra
PlayingPavel Kolesnikov performs Bach's Goldberg Variations at Wigmore Hall
Filmed in February 2021 Credit: Wigmore Hall
PlayingPavel Kolesnikov performs Chopin's Nocturne in E minor
Filmed at Bold Tendencies in October 2023. Credit: Yamaha
PlayingPavel Kolesnikov performs Chopin's Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15 "Raindrop"
Filmed in August 2021 at the BBC Proms Credit: BBC Music
Playing
Photos
Selected Repertoire
| Bach, JS | Keyboard Concerto in F major |
|---|---|
| Beethoven | Piano Concertos No. 1-5 |
| Brahms | Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 |
| Britten | Piano Concerto • Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra |
| Chopin | Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 |
| Liszt | Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 |
| Mozart | Piano Concertos No. 9, 17, 20 & 22 |
| Pärt | Lamentate |
| Rachmaninov | Piano Concerto No. 3 • Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini |
| Ravel | Piano Concerto for the Left Hand • Piano Concerto in G major |
| Shostakovich | Piano Concerto No. 2 |
| Tchaikovsky | Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2 • Concert Fantasia |
Sample Programmes
"Celestial Navigation"
L. Couperin: Pavanne in F sharp minor Messiaen: Regard de l’étoile’ from Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus Chopin: Nocturne No. 8 in D flat Op. 27, No. 2 Messiaen: Regard de l’étoile (fragment) Messiaen: ‘La colombe’ from Préludes pour piano Chopin: Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72, No. 1 Messiaen: La colombe (fragment) Messiaen: Prélude 1964 Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1 Messiaen: Prélude 1964 (fragment) Ravel: Une barque sur l’océan Adès: Darknesse Visible interval Schubert: Four Impromptus, Op. 142, D935
Chopin & Schubert
Chopin: Prelude Op. 45 Chopin: Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2 Chopin: Waltz in E major, KK IVa, No.12 Chopin: Waltz in C sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2 Chopin: Waltz in A flat major, Op. 42 Chopin: Nocturne in G minor, Op. 37, No. 1 Chopin: Nocturne in F major, Op. 15, No.1 Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1 Chopin: Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 50, No. 3 Chopin: Mazurka in A flat major, Op. 50, No. 2 Chopin: Mazurka in G sharp minor, Op. 33, No. 1 Chopin: Mazurka in C major, Op. 56, No. 2 Chopin: Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4 interval Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major, No. 21, D960
News
Press
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2
Bournemouth Symphony OrchestraJan 2024**** Then on to the stage for Liszt’s concerto came the elfin, bespectacled figure of pianist Pavel Kolesnikov. You’d expect such a figure to produce a perfect limpid tone in the lyrical passages, and so he did, making the melody float out effortlessly from the left-hand accompaniment like a ripple on a lake. What was startling was the way Liszt’s virtuoso octaves emerged so thunderously from under his figures, and with so little appearance of effort. Part of the fascination of this piece is that you’re never sure whether the hellfire moments are serious or ironic, and that uncertainty was especially acute in Kolesnikov’s sly, knowing performance. At one point, he thundered up the keyboard and suddenly stopped dead – but with a nicely judged pause, hand thrown up in a fine imperious gesture. If you have to go down to Hell, go down in style.
- Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
- 29 January 2024
***** ...conductor and soloist achieved a persuasive integrity... [Kolesnikov] proceeded to deliver a perfectly calibrated performance, virtuosity always placed at the service of the music. Variously thunderous, though never harsh, tender in the dreamy nocturne and glittering in the final pages, he brought character to the work’s episodic structure, equally alive to brilliance and introspection. What particularly impressed was his integration with the orchestra, not least the woodwind players and Jesper Svedberg’s soulful cello. Further evidence of Kolesnikov’s artistry was demonstrated in a Chopin waltz, an encore of drawing room intimacy.
- David Truslove, bachtrack
- 12 January 2024
