Waltzes, Nocturnes, Mazurkas: Chopin at its best at Portico

15th January 2024

Another wintery, bleak February Sunday afternoon but, yet again, Portico has the antidote – Pavel Kolesnikov, the greatest Chopin exponent of his all too youthful generation, will be playing Waltzes, Nocturnes and Mazurkas by Chopin and Schubert’s Sonata No21: could there be any reason not to attend for this sublime, winter-blues therapy? 

If you doubt our hyperbole, Gramophone said: ‘…an abundance of sensitivity, musicality, imagination and sheer instrumental mastery’; Bachtrack: ‘★ ★ ★ ★ ★ A poet of the piano; The Sunday Times: ‘★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ….has the Midas touch in whatever music he tackles’; The Guardian: ‘★ ★ ★ ★ ★Outstanding pianist in every degree’; The Telegraph: ‘★ ★ ★ ★ one of the most memorable of such occasions London has witnessed for a while’ – the accolades go on….   If that isn’t enough, his Hyperion “Chopin Mazurkas” album won the Diapason d'Or de l'annee, probably the world's most prestigious award for recordings.

In 2012 Pavel became an overnight sensation at the Honens International Piano Competition, winning the world’s largest piano prize.  Born in Siberia, but now based in London, he has given recitals at the Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, as part of the international Piano Series; Carnegie Hall NY; Berlin's Konzerthaus; Louvre and Salle Gaveau, Paris; Suntory Hall, Tokyo; Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; and at the La Roque d’Antheron festival, the Musiq3 Festival in Brussels, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, and the Aldeburgh Festival.  In 2019 he was awarded the Critics’ Circle Young Talent Award for Piano, praised for his ‘…intensely personal interpretations, often daring in their originality” and his “crusading vision’.  In 2020/21 he was Artist in Residence at the Wigmore Hall.

And so, in a fitting accolade to a stellar career, on Sunday 5^th February at 3pm, with support from National Lottery Good Causes through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Pavel will arrive at Portico for a recital of Chopin and Schubert, as magical as it will be unforgettable (the paraphrased words of The International Piano Magazine, not us).  But, back to Gramophone again - for more adulation in a review of his recent Chopin CD: ‘At last, here we have 18 pieces of Chopin by a pianist whose name is rapidly becoming synonymous with searching originality, rhetorical aptness and kinaesthetic authority…Kolesnikov, always eager for the deep dive, here resurfaces with rare pearls of perfect proportion and lustre from the long-picked-over beds of Chopin interpretation’.  Finally, a few words from Le Devoir, (just in case you are still in doubt): ‘Kolesnikov is the fascinator who, in a calculated sound environment and on a piano without faults, comes to hypnotize you and draw you into his universe…Kolesnikov materializes what one couldn't even imagine’.

The Portico of Ards, Meeting House Steet, Portaferry BT22 1LE

Sunday 5 February 2024.  Tickets £20 - Book now or pay on the door.

Photo: Pavel-Kolesnikov-©Eva-Vermandel