LA LIBERTÉ, JANUARY 20, 2003
by PhMR
Imperial Technique and Generous Heart
Irina Chkourindina, a Young Russian Pianist, captivated the Phoenix last Friday Evening.
The young Russian pianist Irina Chkourindina played at the Phoenix on Friday evening and much to the delight of the music lovers in attendance displayed an imperial technique and a generous heart in such grand works as Liszt’s Sonata in B-Minor. The region’s numerous pianists no doubt appreciated this high-level recital. Above all, the pianist demonstrated an accomplished solidity in her execution. There was no showing off or unnecessary mannerisms, but rather a flawless technique straight out of the “Russian school”, something one could call “an iron hand in a velvet glove”. Irina Chkourindina took possession of the Phoenix’s piano and exacted power and nuances which the instrument had hitherto kept hidden.
It all began with Sonata K 330. A Mozart piece of childlike grace, a joyful sonata, more than profound. The clarity and serenity of the melodic design are the most apparent qualities of her interpretation which remains sober and a bit distant in this flowing, songlike music.
Thereafter Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky glide under the pianist’s fingers like some sort of picturesque piano postcards. Chopin’s famous Ballad n° 1 in G-Minor, for example, with its grand soaring arpeggios, its fleshy nuances, its disconcerted movements, excessively expressive and romantic, at each instant conveys the dazzling pianist’s assurance.
The second part of the recital was devoted to Franz Liszt’s boundless Sonata in B-Minor. A hallucinatory voyage in a fantastic country! Irina Chkourindina has the means and talent required to tackle this impressive work without appearing to drown. A veritable piano symphony, this sonata calls for every possible keyboard technique as well as all the nuances of which music is capable. The contrasts are violent from the beginning, between a first theme with abrupt intervals and a second theme with repeated sarcastic notes.
A COMBAT WITHOUT MERCY
The combat is immediately engaged, without mercy, the rejoinders always aggressive and violent. Only slowly does the first theme’s victory become apparent over the smoking remains of the staccato octaves’ fulgurating passes. This first trial obliges the two themes – as well as the pianist – to take a short rest, during an ample slow movement, which is both solemn and warm with sumptuous harmonies. Then the first theme returns, softly with ornaments rendering it suave; yet very quickly, the second theme sarcastically cuts it off. The combat resumes in earnest. All weapons are admissible: augmentations, trill ornaments, diminutions, retrogrades, contrary motions until the final confrontation which is a gigantic fugue “allegro energico”. A Mephistopholean piece under the fingers of an angelic-looking pianist makes for an explosive cocktail.
LE BIEN PUBLIC, BEAUNE, 12 MARCH 2003
Allying Music with a Heart’s Elan
Piano Recital by Irina Chkourinidina
Irina played Works of Mozart, Chopin and Rachmaninov
Irina Chkourindina gave a piano recital in the Saint-Etienne Chapel. The young Russian pianist, a product of the Pyotr Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Moscow, is presently preparing a “Virtuoso Diploma” at the Geneva State Conservatory.
This recital, sponsored by the Zonta Club of Beaune, was given for the benefit of the European Association against Leukodystrophy, a serious disease which destroys the central nervous system in both children and adults. The recital was preceded by the projection of a documentary called “Mets tes baskets et bats la maladie” (roughly translated “Put on your gym shoes to stamp out the illness”); the launching of a national crusade against the disease will take place in Paris on the Champ de Mars, Wednesday March 19 in the presence of Zinédine Zidane.
On the recital’s program were works of such virtuosos as Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Liszt. But this was not Irina’s first appearance. Already as a six-year old, she performed a French song in public in Moscow. Five years later she obtained the Red Diploma, the equivalent of a gold medal, then at age 13 participated in several major competitions and was a member of several musical ensembles, winning her first prize in Moscow as an accompanist.
The Saint-Etienne chapel was filled, charmed by the young virtuoso. A good occasion to ally music with a heart’s .
PARIS-MATCH SUISSE, OCTOBER 2005
by Nicole Kunz
The Cultural Treasures of the Société des Arts
Irina Chkourindina, a young Russian pianist, will be the guest of the Thursday Piano Sessions next February. Founded in 1776, the Société des Arts of Geneva is one of the oldest cultural societies in Switzerland. It consists of three classes: Agriculture and the Art of Living, Industry and Commerce, and the Beaux Arts, which include the Thursday Piano Sessions, organized for several years by a passionate music-lover, the Society’s secretary; Claire Haugrel.
Each class offers its members interesting conferences as well as cultural visits in and out of the region. Wine-lovers will be delighted to learn that the Class of Agriculture and Art of Living will be dedicating this year’s theme to visiting vineyards and other prominent wine-related sites. The Class of Industry and Commerce will host various guests to debate Geneva’s public and private economy. The Class of Beaux Arts will examine the fascinating universe of the portrait with lecturers explaining the different facets of this art form. The Thursday Piano Sessions are the latest innovation of the Société des Arts and have already knitted sturdy links with prestigious institutions while providing participants with interesting exchanges. A new prize is being granted this year, the Jean Clostre Award, named after one of the members of the Société des Arts, and will, in conjunction with the Naef Award, promote young pianist prodigies. Starting this year, a partnership has been concluded with the Festival des Serres of Auteuil, thus permitting the laureate to perform in this magnificent and prestigious Parisian cadre. The Thursday Pianos Sessions are also in contact with the Menuhin Gstaad Festival which will open its doors to the winner for a recital.
One can only rejoice at the opportunities the Société des Arts provides to a Geneva public, whose fondness for quality conferences and concerts is well-known.
GAGARINE TIMES, DECEMBER 2003
By NP
Geneva-Moscow via Caracas or via New Delhi?
[…] The distance traveled by Irina Chkourindina is increasingly common amongst the rising stars of classical Russian music: they first begin studying in Russia and then complete their education in Europe. Her journey began in a rather more exotic fashion since she was born in India 25 years ago.
Familiar with the piano from the age of four, Irina had the option of attending one of several Russian and European musical institutions. She chose the Moscow Conservatory. After receiving the Conservatory’s diploma (classes of professors Pissareff and Dorensky) she is presently following a virtuoso finishing program in Geneva (under the guidance of master Edson Elias). She is of the opinion that it is the Conservatory’s policy of attracting the highest caliber professors from all over the world which makes the Diplôme des Etudes Supérieures (Diploma for Higher Education) so coveted.
She does not regret pursuing her studies in Geneva: the music-loving public is both numerous and enlightened. A profusion of festivals makes Switzerland an agreeable place to live; her engagement agenda is fully booked by the prestigious show in Verbier, the Schubertiade in Martigny and the Geneva Music Festival. The Choir of the Geneva University is directed by a Russian, a soprano hails from Moscow and Irina Chkourindina is at the piano: did anybody mention a Russian Invasion? After the concert in Valais, she was congratulated in her mother tongue and discovered that Russians had come from Geneva to hear their compatriot play, as though this was some banal promenade in Moscow. When she plays solo, she herself selects the program and Russian composers are always among her favorites, Rachmaninoff above all.
Good karma, eternal return or a passion for new horizons? Each February, before the monsoon begins to blow on the sub-continent, Irina goes to perform before a large public in New Delhi, Bombay or Jaipur. The year 2004 will be no exception and she is already looking forward to her trip.
Irina Chkourindina will play on December 18 at the Australia Dream Space, route Taillepied l, Lutry. The show will start at 8:00 p.m. Schubert, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Schumann are on the program.
LA LIBERTÉ, JANUARY 20, 2003
by PhMR
Imperial Technique and Generous Heart
Irina Chkourindina, a Young Russian Pianist, captivated the Phoenix last Friday Evening.
The young Russian pianist Irina Chkourindina played at the Phoenix on Friday evening and much to the delight of the music lovers in attendance displayed an imperial technique and a generous heart in such grand works as Liszt’s Sonata in B-Minor. The region’s numerous pianists no doubt appreciated this high-level recital. Above all, the pianist demonstrated an accomplished solidity in her execution. There was no showing off or unnecessary mannerisms, but rather a flawless technique straight out of the “Russian school”, something one could call “an iron hand in a velvet glove”. Irina Chkourindina took possession of the Phoenix’s piano and exacted power and nuances which the instrument had hitherto kept hidden.
It all began with Sonata K 330. A Mozart piece of childlike grace, a joyful sonata, more than profound. The clarity and serenity of the melodic design are the most apparent qualities of her interpretation which remains sober and a bit distant in this flowing, songlike music.
Thereafter Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky glide under the pianist’s fingers like some sort of picturesque piano postcards. Chopin’s famous Ballad n° 1 in G-Minor, for example, with its grand soaring arpeggios, its fleshy nuances, its disconcerted movements, excessively expressive and romantic, at each instant conveys the dazzling pianist’s assurance.
The second part of the recital was devoted to Franz Liszt’s boundless Sonata in B-Minor. A hallucinatory voyage in a fantastic country! Irina Chkourindina has the means and talent required to tackle this impressive work without appearing to drown. A veritable piano symphony, this sonata calls for every possible keyboard technique as well as all the nuances of which music is capable. The contrasts are violent from the beginning, between a first theme with abrupt intervals and a second theme with repeated sarcastic notes.
A COMBAT WITHOUT MERCY
The combat is immediately engaged, without mercy, the rejoinders always aggressive and violent. Only slowly does the first theme’s victory become apparent over the smoking remains of the staccato octaves’ fulgurating passes. This first trial obliges the two themes – as well as the pianist – to take a short rest, during an ample slow movement, which is both solemn and warm with sumptuous harmonies. Then the first theme returns, softly with ornaments rendering it suave; yet very quickly, the second theme sarcastically cuts it off. The combat resumes in earnest. All weapons are admissible: augmentations, trill ornaments, diminutions, retrogrades, contrary motions until the final confrontation which is a gigantic fugue “allegro energico”. A Mephistopholean piece under the fingers of an angelic-looking pianist makes for an explosive cocktail.
LE BIEN PUBLIC, BEAUNE, 12 MARCH 2003
Allying Music with a Heart’s Elan
Piano Recital by Irina Chkourinidina
Irina played Works of Mozart, Chopin and Rachmaninov
Irina Chkourindina gave a piano recital in the Saint-Etienne Chapel. The young Russian pianist, a product of the Pyotr Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Moscow, is presently preparing a “Virtuoso Diploma” at the Geneva State Conservatory.
This recital, sponsored by the Zonta Club of Beaune, was given for the benefit of the European Association against Leukodystrophy, a serious disease which destroys the central nervous system in both children and adults. The recital was preceded by the projection of a documentary called “Mets tes baskets et bats la maladie” (roughly translated “Put on your gym shoes to stamp out the illness”); the launching of a national crusade against the disease will take place in Paris on the Champ de Mars, Wednesday March 19 in the presence of Zinédine Zidane.
On the recital’s program were works of such virtuosos as Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Liszt. But this was not Irina’s first appearance. Already as a six-year old, she performed a French song in public in Moscow. Five years later she obtained the Red Diploma, the equivalent of a gold medal, then at age 13 participated in several major competitions and was a member of several musical ensembles, winning her first prize in Moscow as an accompanist.
The Saint-Etienne chapel was filled, charmed by the young virtuoso. A good occasion to ally music with a heart’s .
PARIS-MATCH SUISSE, OCTOBER 2005
by Nicole Kunz
The Cultural Treasures of the Société des Arts
Irina Chkourindina, a young Russian pianist, will be the guest of the Thursday Piano Sessions next February. Founded in 1776, the Société des Arts of Geneva is one of the oldest cultural societies in Switzerland. It consists of three classes: Agriculture and the Art of Living, Industry and Commerce, and the Beaux Arts, which include the Thursday Piano Sessions, organized for several years by a passionate music-lover, the Society’s secretary; Claire Haugrel.
Each class offers its members interesting conferences as well as cultural visits in and out of the region. Wine-lovers will be delighted to learn that the Class of Agriculture and Art of Living will be dedicating this year’s theme to visiting vineyards and other prominent wine-related sites. The Class of Industry and Commerce will host various guests to debate Geneva’s public and private economy. The Class of Beaux Arts will examine the fascinating universe of the portrait with lecturers explaining the different facets of this art form. The Thursday Piano Sessions are the latest innovation of the Société des Arts and have already knitted sturdy links with prestigious institutions while providing participants with interesting exchanges. A new prize is being granted this year, the Jean Clostre Award, named after one of the members of the Société des Arts, and will, in conjunction with the Naef Award, promote young pianist prodigies. Starting this year, a partnership has been concluded with the Festival des Serres of Auteuil, thus permitting the laureate to perform in this magnificent and prestigious Parisian cadre. The Thursday Pianos Sessions are also in contact with the Menuhin Gstaad Festival which will open its doors to the winner for a recital.
One can only rejoice at the opportunities the Société des Arts provides to a Geneva public, whose fondness for quality conferences and concerts is well-known.
GAGARINE TIMES, DECEMBER 2003
By NP
Geneva-Moscow via Caracas or via New Delhi?
[…] The distance traveled by Irina Chkourindina is increasingly common amongst the rising stars of classical Russian music: they first begin studying in Russia and then complete their education in Europe. Her journey began in a rather more exotic fashion since she was born in India 25 years ago.
Familiar with the piano from the age of four, Irina had the option of attending one of several Russian and European musical institutions. She chose the Moscow Conservatory. After receiving the Conservatory’s diploma (classes of professors Pissareff and Dorensky) she is presently following a virtuoso finishing program in Geneva (under the guidance of master Edson Elias). She is of the opinion that it is the Conservatory’s policy of attracting the highest caliber professors from all over the world which makes the Diplôme des Etudes Supérieures (Diploma for Higher Education) so coveted.
She does not regret pursuing her studies in Geneva: the music-loving public is both numerous and enlightened. A profusion of festivals makes Switzerland an agreeable place to live; her engagement agenda is fully booked by the prestigious show in Verbier, the Schubertiade in Martigny and the Geneva Music Festival. The Choir of the Geneva University is directed by a Russian, a soprano hails from Moscow and Irina Chkourindina is at the piano: did anybody mention a Russian Invasion? After the concert in Valais, she was congratulated in her mother tongue and discovered that Russians had come from Geneva to hear their compatriot play, as though this was some banal promenade in Moscow. When she plays solo, she herself selects the program and Russian composers are always among her favorites, Rachmaninoff above all.
Good karma, eternal return or a passion for new horizons? Each February, before the monsoon begins to blow on the sub-continent, Irina goes to perform before a large public in New Delhi, Bombay or Jaipur. The year 2004 will be no exception and she is already looking forward to her trip.
Irina Chkourindina will play on December 18 at the Australia Dream Space, route Taillepied l, Lutry. The show will start at 8:00 p.m. Schubert, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Schumann are on the program.