August 8th, 2011
“The audience was blown away by the Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin. He is the ridiculously talented winner of the Queen Elizabeth Competition, one of the most prestigious in the world. The audience, hearing his virtuosity, the brilliance with which he interpreted his program and three encores without a score, was dazzled by his talent.”
— La Voix du Nord
Brahms: Fantasies No. 1 in D minor
“In Beethoven anniversary year, there will probably be many more “Moonlight”s, meaning the Sonata, than the real thing (though we’ve been lucky to see the crescent in close conjunction with Venus these past two nights). Not many pianists would dare to place it at the beginning of a programme. Denis Kozhukhin’s paradoxically no-nonsense poetry meant that a constant sense of motion culminated in the whirlwind of the finale, a steady move towards implosion mirrored in the piano transcription of Ravel’s La Valse at the end of the programme. In between came perfection in the form of pure song from Schubert and Grieg.”
