Mikhail Pletnev
“Piano playing at its best . . . this performance alone would be enough to earn Pletnev a place among the very greatest pianists who have ever lived.” – BBC Music Magazine

 

The brilliant pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, winner of the 1978 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, is not only one of the best representatives of the Russian piano tradition, but is also a stunning and idiosyncratic interpreter of the standard repertoire. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of our time.

 

In 1990 Pletnev formed the first independent orchestra in Russia’s history. Sharing his vision for a new model for the performing arts, many of the country’s finest musicians joined Pletnev in launching the Russian National Orchestra. Under his leadership, the RNO achieved in a few short years a towering stature among the world’s orchestras. In 2006, he launched the Mikhail Pletnev Fund for the Support of National Culture, a non-profit organization that supports major cultural initiatives and projects, including the RNO’s annual Volga Tour and, in collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon, the Mikhail Pletnev Beethoven Project.

 

His recordings and live performances have proved him to be an outstanding interpreter of an extensive repertoire. The London Telegraph noted: ‘From Pletnev’s fingers and mind come ideas that vitalize the music and make it teem with freshness and humor. [He] made the music leap with joy.’ The Times described his playing as ‘born of a miraculous virtuosity of imagination that is outrageous in its beauty.’

 

Pletnev’s recordings have earned numerous prizes, including a 2005 Grammy Award for the CD of his own arrangement, for two pianos, of Prokofiev’s Cinderella, recorded with Martha Argerich and Pletnev at the keyboards. He received Grammy nominations for a CD of Schumann Symphonic Etudes (2004) and for his recording of Rachmaninov and Prokofiev Piano Concertos No. 3 with the RNO and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (2003). His album of Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonatas (Virgin/EMI) received a Gramophone Award in 1996. BBC Music Magazine called the recording “piano playing at its greatest… this performance alone would be enough to secure Pletnev a place among the greatest pianists ever known.” In 2007 he recorded all of Beethoven’s piano concertos with Deutsche Grammophon, and the recording of concertos 2 and 4 was named “The Best Concerto Recording of 2007” by the Tokyo Record Academy.

 

As a composer, Pletnev’s works include Classical Symphony, Triptych for Symphony Orchestra, Fantasy on Kazakh Themes and Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. His unrivalled transcriptions for piano of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Sleeping Beauty were selected, along with his performance of Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto and The Seasons, for the 1998 anthology “Great Pianists of the 20th Century” (Philips Classics).

 

The son of musician parents, Pletnev was conducting and learning multiple instruments as a young child and entered the Moscow Conservatory as a teenager. Today he is one of Russia’s most respected and influential artists. An advisor on Russia’s Cultural Council, in 2007 and 2019 Pletnev was awarded a Presidential Prize, as well als the Platonov Award in 2014, for his contributions to the artistic life of the country. Pianist, conductor, composer and cultural leader — all are significant facets of Mikhail Pletnev’s life as an artist. Yet he considers himself, simply, a musician.