PavelKolesnikov

Press

• Bach: Goldberg Variations

  Severance Music Center, Cleveland

  Sep 2024

  • ...Kolesnikov created an other-worldly ambiance in Reinberger... Throughout, the pianist played with exquisite articulation, carefully balancing melodic lines, never forgetting that this music grows upward from the bass line, and restricting his dynamic range so that fortes truly became important. All of this left the audience so apparently breathless and totally engaged that they sat on their hands for several long moments after the last notes of the final Aria had vanished.

    • Daniel Hathaway, Cleveland Classical
    • 28 September 2024

• Chopin & Schubert

  Wigmore Hall

  Sep 2024

  • ...unpredictable magic... one of the most extraordinary long term crescendos I've ever heard in a piano recital; Kolesnikov's technique gives him total mastery and control over the extremes of loud and soft, always put to expressive ends. *****

    • David Nice, The Arts Desk
    • 24 September 2024

• Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2

  Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

  Jan 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

• Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2

  BBC Proms with BBC Scottish Symphony/New

  Aug 2023

  • Kolesnikov unspooled the piano’s melody as if one of Rachmaninov’s inspirations, against a heartstoppingly calm orchestral backdrop.

    • Flora Wilson, The Guardian
    • 20 August 2023

  • Pavel Kolesnikov is the perfect ambassador for the work’s youthful spirit, wit and humour, as well as its unaffectedness... so relaxed and unassuming is his demeanour... This was assured virtuosity without showy excess: the gallops were fluent, the melodising honest.

    • Claire Seymour, Seen and Heard International
    • 19 August 2023

• Celestial Navigation recital

  Park Avenue Armory

  May 2023

  • His two Armory recitals exhibited pianism of poetic freedom, assured interpretive choices and a D.J.’s ear for subtle musical connections... His take on the 'Goldbergs,'… was openly personal, the score more like a coloring-book outline filled in with a palette of Kolesnikov’s creation... Kolesnikov came out and declared what kind of pianist he is: entirely, confidently, eloquently himself... His Bach was boldly argued – the kind of performance that invites disagreement but is defended so persuasively, even detractors can’t help but appreciate it.

    • Joshua Barone, New York Times
    • 25 May 2023

  • [Kolesnikov] used the full expressive power of a Steinway grand piano, while still preserving or enhancing all the harpsichord-intended embroideries... Schubert’s Impromptus, D.935, never slipping into sentimentality, were rich with distinctive individual details, such as the textural clarity in the Allegro moderato or the different colors brought to each of the variations in the B-flat major Impromptu.

    • Edward Sava-Segal, Bachtrack
    • 25 May 2023

• Schubert, Bach, Adès, Schumann, Rota recital

  Wigmore Hall

  Dec 2022

  • ***** Master of colour sheds special light on three masterpieces and two surprises... Quite apart from the stunning range of colours and phrasing, Pavel Kolesnikov’s recitals always give you much more than the programme promises... Rather a good way to end the concert year.

    • David Nice, The Arts Desk
    • 23 December 2022

• Bach: Goldberg Variations

  Perth Concert Hall

  Nov 2021

  • You need a whole new thesaurus of superlatives, as words like “stupendous” and “incredible” fall far short... Kolesnikov has been called a poet of the piano and certainly some of the playing was sheer poetry, in the soft serene passages of Bach interspersed with the more dramatic. I’d also call him a magician, a musical merlin whose performances rivalled and maybe eclipsed anything I’ve seen in Perth over the years. The great exponents of the works of JS Bach, like Glenn Gould and Angela Hewitt, can relax. Their rich legacy is continued by this mercurial Russian... He is the master of nuance and the epitome of flamboyant keyboard dexterity. The latter was marvellously illustrated in the soft passages that were almost whispered, with treble pianissimos of the utmost delicacy. The challenging cross-overs, all of which took place in the past semiquaver passages, were a mind-boggling display of skill, panache and breath-taking virtuosity... Perth Concert Hall’s Piano Sundays are renowned for their world-class performances. After this display, the bench-mark of excellence has been raised considerably.

    • Garry Fraser, The Courier
    • 08 November 2021

• Rachmaninov: Paganini Rhapsody

  BBC Proms with Aurora Orchestra/Collon

  Aug 2021

  • ***** [Kolesnikov's] playing was exquisitely subtle in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Buoyant, velvety, ravishing: this Russian pianist’s sound is a thing of magic. After relishing Rachmaninov’s spiky neoclassicism, lush Romanticism and ironic puff-of-smoke ending, Kolesnikov found pure poetry with Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude.

    • Rebbeca Franks, The Times
    • 12 August 2021

• Bartok, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Schumann recital

  Wigmore Hall

  Jan 2020

  • ***** The young Russian’s recital was breath taking in its finesse and emotion – from eerie Bartok to volatile Beethoven... Kolesnikov’s playing combines great emotional intelligence with understated virtuosity: every shift in sonority and mood speaks volumes in interpretations that are consistently striking... A truly outstanding recital, every second of it.

    • Tim Ashley, The Guardian
    • 05 January 2020

  • ***** It’s a rare sort of pianist who can shed new light on a well-known masterpiece, while keeping all its familiar glories perfectly intact. Pavel Kolesnikov is one of them. At the age of only 30 this Russian-born pianist, educated in Moscow and London, has the kind of ease and authority that normally come with decades of experience.

    • Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
    • 31 January 2020

  • As so often, Pavel Kolesnikov offered a programme that was intelligent, stimulating and frequently revelatory... This was a performance of high integrity, the first movement sculpted to perfection, a model of pedalling excellence: every note was audible, yet the atmosphere was magnificent... A simply superb recital… with a very healthy queue for returns.

    • Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International
    • 05 January 2020