Arizona Friends of Chamber Music opens its Sunday matinee Piano and Friends series on Sunday, Nov. 1, with a Russian pianist that’s gaining a lot of buzz internationally.
Denis Kozhukhin is exciting people beyond what you read in his bio — the prestigious international competition finishes include a first place finish in the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels; and the Prix d’Honneur at 2003’s Verbier Festival.
He’s impressing audiences and critics with performances that showcase his piano chops alongside a musical maturity that belies his 29 years.
The Berlin radio station BR Klassik called Kozhukhin “a wonderfully empathetic and intelligent ‘piano whisperer’. … His touch, his articulation – all is sensitively balanced and displays an almost crystalline precision.”
“Kozhukhin shows that he is rightly being counted amongst the most promising talents… It’s all about the music for him. ... The young musician has the notes and the phrasing not only in his fingers, but also in his heart and mind. If he continues on this path, he’ll be a star,” chimed in the German cultural magazin Der Neue Merker.
The Seattle Times said Kozhukhin’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concert showed “an absolute free-ranging authority. ... The sway, sparkle and jeweled caprice he brought to the quieter passages were seductive. His thunder, when thunder was called for, was both potent and lush. Result: an instant and prolonged standing ovation.”
