Wednesday 5 July Chamber Music Residency Gala with students of
Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence
Friday 7 July Weill, Eisler and Zemlinsky
HK Gruber, singer; Emily Wilson, Fiamma Benett,
Guy-Loup Boisneau, actors
Thursday 20 July Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3
London Symphony Orchestra & Susanna Mälkki
General Director of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Pierre Audi today announced
Kirill Gerstein as Artist-in-Focus 2023 alongside George Benjamin and Betsy Jolas.
The announcement, which was made in Paris, completes a hat trick of titles which
see Gerstein resident at a festival, a concert hall and an orchestra in France, the UK
and Germany respectively. He is Artist-in-Residence 2022-23 with the
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (BRSO) and tonight gives the first
concert in his Busoni and his World residency series at Wigmore Hall.
Launching on 5 July 2023, Gerstein’s Aix residency begins with a chamber music
gala featuring students of the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence with whom
he will be working the previous week. Gerstein is currently Professor of Piano at
Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule and through his relationship with the Kronberg
Academy, runs the online seminar series Kirill Gerstein invites. Two days later, on 7
July, Kirill Gerstein will be reunited with HK Gruber to perform music by Kurt Weill
and Hanns Eisler plus a rare performance of Zemlinsky’s Eine Lichtstrachl for piano
and 3 mimes devised with comedian and physical theatre actor Jos Hauben. For the
final concert of his residency, Gerstein celebrates Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary
with a performance of the Third Piano Concerto with London Symphony Orchestra
and Susanna Mälkki.
For the launch tonight of Busoni and his World in London, Kirill Gerstein pairs five
works for solo piano by Busoni with Liszt’s complete Transcendental Études.
Streamed live via Wigmore Hall’s YouTube, this series is the first at the Hall to take
an in-depth look at Busoni’s musical world exploring the life and legacy of the Italian
musician who performed at Wigmore Hall’s inaugural concert in 1901. Gerstein’s
fascination with the ‘James Joyce of the piano’ began at the age of 10 and this
homage to Busoni aims to be as multi-faceted as the musician he is celebrating. The
next concert in the series takes place on Sunday 5 March 2023 for which Gerstein
will be joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos and bass-baritone Gordon Bintner.
Music by Beethoven – a figure central to Busoni’s world – sits alongside works by
Vogel and Schoenberg for whom Busoni was a great influence.
Curation and exploration have long been at the heart of Kirill Gerstein’s music-
making, and his BRSO residency to date has reflected his many musical interests.
Starting in September with the original-jazz and version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in
Blue, performed with members of the BRSO and Erina Yashima, a month later,
Gerstein played Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Strauss’s
Burlekse with Alan Gilbert. The residency continues in the New Year with Brahms’s
Second Piano Concerto on 9-10 March 2023 with Daniel Harding, and Ravel’s Two
Piano Concertos on 4-5 May 2023 with Antonello Manacorda.
“One of today’s smartest musical thinkers, pianist Kirill Gerstein can always be relied on
to come up with something interesting in the way of a programme… “ Limelight