Alexandre Kantorow: Piano Recital

“Alexandre is Liszt reincarnated. I’ve never heard anyone play…the piano the way he does.”

Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine

Alexandre Kantorow is a pianist that can’t be missed. The first French pianist to win first prize at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, and performing with orchestras like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Nationale de France, Kantorow is a rising star. In 2023, he gained worldwide popularity from his performance of “Jeux d’Eau” in the rain during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, after which he was deemed “heroic and unflappable” by France3. His performances of nearly every iconic work for piano have garnered him acclaim, with Gramophone magazine describing his playing as an “outstanding example of virtuosity and artistry, displaying both skill and sensitivity from start to finish”. 

The program begins with Liszt’s variations on Bach’s BWV 12, a cantata titled Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen . These variations are based on the chromatic bass line from the cantata’s opening chorus, which eventually expands into thirty variations. Liszt composed this work at a crossroads in his life, allowing the translation of  “weeping, plaints, sorrows, fears” to ring specifically true.  One of Medtner’s first compositions follows: his Piano Sonata in F minor , a work that displays as much confidence as it does Romanticism. With nods to Bach’s structures, Liszt’s boisterousness, and Rachmaninoff’s grand writing, this sonata sits as a bridge between two very different and very compelling works.

Also featured is Frédéric Chopin’s dream-like Prelude in C-sharp Minor , with its color and improvisatory nature, followed by Scriabin’s  Sonata No. 10,  known as his “trill sonata” or “insect sonata”. Scriabin commented on this work “My Tenth Sonata is a sonata of insects. Insects are born from the sun… they are the sun’s.” Beethoven’s final piano sonata concludes the program; sitting with only two movements Beethoven toys with majestic, stormy, and dramatic themes throughout the work. 

Alexandre Kantorow has been hailed by critics as the ‘young tsar of the piano’ (Classica) and ‘Liszt reincarnated’ (Fanfare). He is in demand at the highest level across the globe and as such has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony and Budapest Festival orchestras and with conductors including Klaus Mäkelä, Manfred Honeck, Jaap van Zweden, Ivan Fischer, Vasily Petrenko and Sir Antonio Pappano. In 2019, at the age of 22, he was the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition as well as the Grand Prix, awarded only three times before in the competition’s history and in 2024 he was the recipient of the Gilmore Artist Award. Gramophone magazine has described him as “the real deal, a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery”.

In recital, Kantorow appears in all the major concert halls across the globe, such as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Bozar in Brussels and Tokyo Opera City, and festivals such as Edinburgh, Salzburg, La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Verbier, Rheingau and Klavierfest Ruhr. Chamber music is one his great pleasures and he performs regularly with artists such as Janine Jansen, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovick and Matthias Goerne.

Highlights of Kantorow’s 2024/2025 season include his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and in recital at Chicago’s Symphony Center, a European tour with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, performances of Brahms’ Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and a tour of Europe with the Orchestre Metropolitain and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He will also perform solo recitals across Europe and Asia, including performances in Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Kantorow records exclusively with BIS, to great critical acclaim and he has received numerous awards and accolades for his recordings, including several Diapason d’Or and Choc de l’Année (Classica), Trophée Radio Classique and Victoires de la Musique Classique Recording of the Year. His new recording of works by Brahms and Schubert will be released on 1 November 2024.

Kantorow is a laureate of the Safran Foundation and Banque Populaire. In 2020 and 2024 he won the Victoires de la Musique Classique Instrumental Soloist of the Year. In 2022, he received the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and in 2024, he was awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite by the French President, Emmanuel Macron. Born in France and of French-British heritage, Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Franck Braley and Rena Shereshevskaya.