Evgeny Kissin

A documentary about the relation between music and war.

Oscar is the story of the life of the famous artist Oscar Rabin against the background of three decades of Soviet history; it is a story about a successful experience of standing up against a regime with the help of paint and brushes. It is the story of non-violent resistance against evil, of the boundaries of compromise, about how people try to maintain their inner freedom when they are living in a country that is not very free. The film uses many unique newsreels and other archival materials being shown for the first time. Along with Oscar Rabin, featured in the fim are Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Vladimir Sorokin, Evgeny Kisin, Boris Akunin, Maya Turovskaya, Vladimir Paperny, Erik Bulatov, Oleg Tselkov, Vitaly Komar, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Mihail Chemiakin, Igor Guberman, Donald Rayfield, and Adam Michnik.

The Italian Character: a film within music and about music. The Italian character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous rostrum in Rome.

The New Year’s Gala Concert is a tradition for the Berliner Philharmoniker and its music director, Sir Simon Rattle. This 2011 concert, Dances and Dreams, has a theme of dances (two Dvorak Slavonic Dances, Stravinksy’s Firebird Suite, Grieg’s Symphonic Dance, Richard Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils, and Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1) and dreams (Ravel’s Alborado del Gracisoso and the famous Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor). This generous mix of romantic and impressionistic music shows off the magnificent Berlin ensemble at its best. It is also great to see star pianist Evgeny Kissin at the keyboards.

The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2011 concert was conducted by Simon Rattle and featured Evgeny Kissin on piano. On the programme: Antonín Dvořák: Slavonic Dance No. 1, Op. 46 in C Major, Edvard Grieg: Symphonic Dance No. 2, Op. 64, Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, Maurice Ravel: Alborada del gracioso, Richard Strauss: Salome’s dance from “Salome”, Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird, Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor, Antonín Dvořák: Slavonic Dance No. 7, Op. 72 in C Major.

To mark the bicentenary of Chopins birth, two leading Russian pianists tackle the great Romantic composers two piano concertos: Evgeny Kissin plays the F minor Concerto op. 21, a key work in Chopins output, while Nikolai Demidenko performs the E minor Concerto op. 11, a virtuoso display vehicle of the first rank. They are accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic under the direction of Antoni Wit. Enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience at Warsaws Philharmonic Hall on 27 February 2010, this memorable concert has been captured in first-class sound and picture quality.

With a career that includes a 35-year tenure as composer of the Berlin Philharmonic and record sales topping 200 million, Herbert von Karajan is one of the most legendary figures in 20th-century classical music. Comprised of archival footage, performance highlights and interviews with the likes of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Christa Ludwig and Seiji Ozawa, this retrospective chronicles the life and times of the iconic Austrian maestro.

The struggles of the world’s Jewish people over the course of several centuries are expressed and explored through the music they inspired in this documentary from the BBC and Opus Arte. We Want the Light brings together harrowing tales from Holocaust survivors with performances of music by such legendary composers as Mahler, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Interviews with: Alice Sommer Herz, Jacques Stroumsa, Evgeny Kissin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Toby Perlman, Michael Haas, Elyakim Ha’etzni, Norman Lebrecht, Margaret Brearley, Paul Lawrence Rose, Daniel Barenboim, Yirmiyahu Yovel, Uri Toeplitz & Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Featuring: Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Cologne Cathedral Children’s Choir & Cologne Opera Chorus.

Evgeny Igorevich Kissin was born in Moscow on the 10th of October 1971. He started to play the piano at the age of two, as soon as he was tall enough to reach the keyboard and he has not looked back from that day to this. His is a very rare story of continued success that has had the simultaneous blessing of critics, the public and musicians alike. This film by Christopher Nupen shows Kissin in preparation, interview, rehearsal and performance, with several dazzling performances shot live on stage, in true concert conditions. It also contains all the encores from Kissin's memorable Promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in August, 1997—the first Prom concert by a soloist, it attracted the biggest audience in all the 103 year history, very nearly six thousand people. The music is by Liszt, Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Paganini, Kissin himself and Chopin, the composer for whom Kissin feels the closest affinity.

This is a film that encapsulates the essence of a great pianistic age that married virtuosity and musicianship with the most thrilling aspect of individual showmanship.

Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin delivers a virtuoso performance of remarkable depth and artistry in this 1990 concert recorded live in Munich at Bavaria Musikstudios. Selections include Franz Schubert's Fantasy in C Major, D 760 ("Wanderer"), Johannes Brahms's Fantasies, op. 116, Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 12, J.S. Bach's "Siciliana" and Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Melody Dance of the Blessed Spirits."

Pianist Yevgeny Kissin brings his inimitable touch to Tokyo's Suntory Hall in this 1987 concert, when the virtuoso was only 16. A stirring version of composer Sergey Prokofiev's Sonata no. 6 in A Major marks Kissin's longest contribution of the evening. Other selections include Sergey Rachmaninoff's Études Tableaux op. 39, no. 5 in E-flat Minor; Frédéric Chopin's Polonaise in F-sharp Minor; and Franz Liszt's Trois Études de Concert no. 2 in F Minor.