Alexandre Kantorow

Described by Fanfare Magazine as ‘Liszt reincarnated’, Alexandre Kantorow is the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal and Grand Prix at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. In his International Festival debut recital, he explores works by four great composer-pianists.

Hungarian music is at the heart of the concert’s first half. Franz Liszt’s pieces Chasse-neige and Vallée d’Obermann summon up a snowstorm and a spectacular landscape. Béla Bartók’s expansive Rhapsody Op 1 pays tribute to Liszt and to Hungarian folk traditions. The programme also includes Johannes Brahms’s Rhapsody in B Minor, another piece that would inspire Bartók.

In the second half, we hear Sergei Rachmaninoff’s monumental First Piano Sonata. Inspired by the story of Faust and his pact with the Devil – and Liszt’s ‘Faust’ Symphony – this passionate piece culminates in an electrifying depiction of a witches’ sabbath.

Presented by Edinburgh International Festival