Sergei Prokofiev: Toccata in C major Op.11

More info..

Soloist: Freddy Kempf
Label: BIS
Cat. No.: 1260

“The meteoric success of pianist Freddy Kempf makes it is easy to forget he is in his mid-20s. If it is true that an artist's finest years come with age, then the mind boggles at the possibilities.” The Guardian, July 2003

“Staggering as Kempf’s technique is, he is a pianist willing to take risks, pushing himself to the limits of his capabilities. That, no doubt, is why there was standing room only on Sunday afternoon.”Barry Millington, Reviews Editor, BBC Music Magazine

“Kempf has the maturity and musicality with which to harness his gifts to artistic ends. He has the fearless exuberance of youth. He is prepared to take risks, a readiness that brings spontaneous combustion to his playing; but he has sensitivity, too." The Telegraph

Freddy Kempf is one of today’s most successful young artists performing to sell-out audiences all over the world. He has built a unique reputation both as an explosive and physical performer not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist.

Born in London in 1977 Freddy began piano lessons at the young age of four. He came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition following a memorable performance of Rachmaninov Paganini Variations. It was perhaps his award of third prize in the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow that rapidly established his international career. For him not to have won the first prize provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him "the hero of the competition" and his unprecedented popularity with Russian audiences since then has been reflected in several sold-out concerts and numerous television broadcasts.

Many international debuts followed including engagements at the Munich Gasteig, the Alter Oper in Frankfurt, Berlin’s Philharmonie & Konzerthaus, New York’s 92^nd Street “Y”, Chicago’s Grant Park festival, Vienna’s Musikverein & Konzerthaus, Salzburg’s Mozarteum and the Concertgebouw amongst others. His immense versatility as a performer has since taken him all over the world from opening the Shanghai Concert Hall in October 2004, to recording Chopin’s Etudes for DVD in a Chateau close to Paris for BBC Television and acclaimed Beethoven Concerto Cycles in London and Sydney.

Freddy has worked with the world’s leading orchestras and acclaimed conductors such as the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and Kurt Sanderling, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti and Matthias Bamert, City of Birmingham Symphony/Oramo, La Scala Philharmonic/Chailly, St. Petersburg Philharmonic/Temirkanov, Russian State Symphony/Sinaisky, Dresden Symphony/Herbig, Seattle Symphony/Schwarz, San Francisco Symphony/Tortelier, Philadelphia Orchestra/Sawallisch, NHK Symphony/Simonov, European Union Youth Orchestra/Ashkenazy, Prague Philharmonia/Belohlavek, Rotterdam Philharmonic/Viotti, the Residentie Orkest/Jaarvi, Vancouver Symphony/Tovey, Luxembourg Philharmonic/Krivine and the Sao Paolo State Symphony/Kalmar.

Recent and forthcoming highlights include engagements with the Royal Philharmonic in Europe, at London’s Cadogan Hall and Royal Festival Hall, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTE, English Chamber, projects with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Brabants Orkest, Salzburg Mozarteum, Orchestra della Toscana, Bergen Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, a major UK tour with the Moscow Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Westdeutsche Sinfonia, Oregon Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, KBS Symphony and New Zealand Symphony, amongst others. A favourite to Australian and Asian audiences, Freddy will return for concerts with the Tasmania, Adelaide and Queensland Orchestras and in September 09 will undergo an extensive tour of Japan with the Royal Philharmonic.

A committed recitalist, Freddy has built up dedicated audiences world-wide appearing at London’s Barbican Centre and Cadogan Hall, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Munich’s Herkulessaal, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Osaka’s Symphony Hall, Grande Teatro di Verona, Milan Conservatorio’s Sala Verdi, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Moscow’s Great Hall of the Conservatoire and St. Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall. Current highlights include return visits to the Moscow Grand Conservatory, St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Conservatorio G. Verdi Milano and in October 2009 Freddy will perform a UK recital tour with a programme featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations in leading concert halls including London’s Cadogan Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Newcastle’s Sage Gateshead, Cardiff’s St. David’s Hall and Dublin’s National Concert Hall.

Freddy records exclusively for BIS Records, for whom he has recorded recital discs of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Schumann and his most recent release includes the works of Mussorgsky, Ravel and Balakirev. This recording has already been received with critical acclaim being chosen as Editor’s Choice in the Gramophone Magazine and Geoffrey Norris writes for the Telegraph that:

Freddy Kempf here tackles three giants of the piano repertoire and conquers them with spirit and imagination. Armed with all the necessary technical resources, he is able to bring colour and well-defined character to Pictures from an Exhibition, revealing how ingeniously Mussorgsky exploited the piano's palette of sound without the aid of all those later arrangers who chose to embellish it with orchestral timbres.

One of those was Ravel, whose Gaspard de la nuit here glows, ripples and, in "Scarbo", bristles with malevolence. The bravura of Balakirev's Islamey is brilliant.

Freddy’s next release will be an all Prokofiev disc including piano sonatas and concerti with the Bergen Philharmonic and Andrew Litton.

June 2009

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Freddy-Kempf/301545410281?ref=ts

Date Last Edited: 22nd October 2009