GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
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Pavel Kolesnikov: Goldberg Variations
Outstanding interpretation of a Bach classic
POWERFULLY PASSIONATE: Pavel Kolesnikov
[Eva Vermandel]
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BACH’S Goldberg Variations present a daunting challenge to artists of any calibre. A keyboard legend in the classical repertoire, one of its major tasks is marrying the intimidating intellectual demands of the work with the need for the player to find their own interpretation.
Now London-based, Siberian-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov was a student of Moscow State Conservatory, London’s Royal College of Music and Brussels Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. He was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2014 to 2016 and his albums to date include works by Frederic Chopin, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Louis Couperin.
As well as matching the holy with the worldly, Kolesnikov performs Bach’s masterpiece with all the precision of a luxury Swiss watch, combining a powerful inner passion and heightened meditative power.
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