Denis Kozhukhin

NRD Kultur: album review of “Ravel & Gershwin Concertos”

“Unbelievable how that works“

„[…] playful, humerous, fanciful and unrestrainedly solemn“

„The Old and the New World around 1930: stylistically confidently captured – virtuosically performed!”

Portland Piano International preview: Denis Kozhukhin

Denis Kozhukhin makes his debut in Portland Sunday and Monday, January 25-26, as part of Portland Piano International’s 2014-2015 season. He talked with ArtsWatch about how he searches for good sounds, how Prokofiev relates to Haydn, and how pianists enter into the struggle of Prokofiev’s war sonatas.

On the piano it’s very much just imagining what you want. The problem is knowing exactly what you want. The piano is a percussive instrument: the hammer hits the strings. But the piano is also a magic instrument. When one knows what one can get from the piano, the piano has absolutely no limits whatsoever. This is what a real musician, a real piano master, does in his own life: he’s always searching for this better sound. And sound is a really relative thing. While it takes years of practice and good teachers, the piano has everything to do with imagination. It would be nice if one note in and of itself meant something, but it’s imagining how the notes fit together into one cohesive line. And then also the pedal, which is the lungs of the piano helping the music to breathe.

→ read more

Chicago Classical Review: Pianist Denis Kozhukhin searches for harmony in a wide range of music

Career paths are different for every pianist. Some focus on giving recitals while others eschew chamber music altogether for the spectacle of the concert hall, the sound of an orchestra enveloping their playing of a concerto.

But for pianist Denis Kozhukhin, they are all just different but equally important parts in a single multifaceted career.

“I have to say that the aspects of my playing, the chamber music, solo recital, and concertos with orchestras are at the same level of importance to me,” the Russian pianist said from his home in Berlin. “I am trying to combine them in such a way that there is a higher kind of harmony.”

read more

Reichel Recommends: Young Russian Pianist to Debut with the Utah Symphony this Weekend

This weekend the Utah Symphony will take a break from the Beethoven symphony cycle to perform a concert of early works by Russian composers. The concert will feature two young guest artists performing in Utah for the first time: Scottish conductor Garry Walker and Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin. The program will include Stravinsky’s rarely performed Symphony No. 1, op. 1, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1, op. 10, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2, op. 17.

“What I like in the U.S. public is their freshness of the perception of music, great attention to what is happening on stage and huge love and respect for music and arts in general. I am really looking forward to playing in Utah, which for me is a big step to discover many new things about U.S. and its public.”

read more

Jerusalem Post: Music Festival – Pride at the piano

With his love for music, pianist Denis Kozhukhin is constantly widening his repertoire.

’When I approach a new piece, it is important for me do it justice and to strike the right balance between the emotional and the intellectual, but this is just me; others will see in the same music different ideas, and this is the beauty that is in the art,” says pianist Denis Kozhukhin, who will be performing at the International Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem next week.

“You can never say, ‘Okay, now I’ve understood it all. And at the end of the day, I want not to be ashamed of what I have done.”

read more