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GLEB IVANOV, pianist

“Eerily like the ghost of Horowitz, Mr. Ivanov engulfed the keyboard, rattling the rafters and thrilling the audience. His talent is larger than life.”

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

— THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"Gleb Ivanov is a cut above the usual: a young super-virtuoso, with musical sensitivity and an appreciation of style to go with the thunder and lightning."

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

—THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Ivanov did the young virtuoso bit in Liszt’s brilliantly evocative fantasia “Apres une Lecture de Dante” and a wild Hungarian dance by Brahms. But elsewhere, in an exquisitely formed Haydn Sonata in E-flat; in the Sonata, Op. 26, by Samuel Barber, played with beautifully distinct contrapuntal lines; and in lilting performances of a waltz and a nocturne by Chopin, he made his instrument sing.”

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

—THE WASHINGTON POST

“In the ‘Polonaise in A-flat Major,’ Op. 53 he fused the unlikely characteristics of dignity and abandon for the grand opening theme, and in the dramatic middle section, it was if the whole cavalry were racing across the stage. For all his bravura, Ivanov lacked neither clarity or line nor precise delineation. He gave winning shape to both ‘Ballade No. 2’ and ‘Ballade No. 4,’ balancing their subtle prologues with the calculated fury of their conclusions. I appreciated the transparency of counterpoint he serenely articulated in the ‘E-flat Major Nocturne.’”

— SAN DIEGO ARTS (La Jolla)

“Ivanov provided a meticulously refined and sparkling account of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major. His clear fingerwork gave the piece unusual delicacy, but its urgent virility came over more forcefully by contrast. The soloist possessed a genuine Ravel sensibility, playing with a fine feeling for the music’s color and moments of gentle rapture.” — THE NAPA VALLEY REGISTER

“Ivanov was in command and in control. He impressed with his pacing within the sensational technical displays and his sensitivity in the poetic, romantic passages. His focus, intensity and probing musical intelligence were unflagging. The crowd sighed, Ivanov wiped his brow, and then he got a standing ovation.” [Liszt’s Sonata in B minor] — THE DAILY GAZETTE (Schenectady, NY)

“These deeply reflected nuances in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 were present in the phrasing and light velvet touch of soloist Ivanov. Clean faster passages were nearly transparent and in the middle Larghetto, a timeless spinning of melody produced a feeling of liquid gold.” — SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE

“Gleb Ivanov is a brilliantly individual pianist with great intuition, superb technical control, delicacy and depth.” —ISVESTIA SAMARSKIE (Russia)

2010 Michaels Award of YCA • Jack Romann Special Artists Fund of YCA

First Prize, 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions • The Peter Marino Debut Prize • The Fergus Prize

The Gulbenkian Foundation Concert Prize • The Slomovic Orchestra Soloist Prize • The Princeton University Concerts Prize

The Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center Prize

The Harold and Helene Schonberg Piano Scholarship, Manhattan School of Music

[Pronounced: Ee-va-NOFF]

______________________________________ NOTE: When editing, please do not delete references to Young Concert Artists. Please do not use previously dated biographies. 06/2015

GLEB IVANOV, pianist

Ever since his auspicious New York debut, pianist Gleb Ivanov has been recognized as an important presence in the music world. The New York Times wrote: Gleb Ivanov “is a cut above the usual, a young super-virtuoso, with musical sensitivity and an appreciation of style to go with the thunder and lightning.” He has been thrilling audiences in recital and orchestra engagements; this season he plays with Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra, the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra, and the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, and performs recitals at University of Florida Performing Arts and on the Summer Stars Series in Ocean Grove. Mr. Ivanov appears in a special program at Bargemusic performing Prokofiev’s War Sonatas. A sought-after soloist, he has performed a wide range of repertoire with orchestras including the Symphony Orchestras of Missouri, Johnstown, West Michigan, Eastern Connecticut, South Bend, Westmoreland, Southwest Florida, Peoria, Knoxville, Dearborn, Las Cruces, Grand Rapids, Charlottesville, Omaha, Fort Smith, Southern Finger Lakes, Springfield and Napa Valley, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and the Colorado Springs and Westchester Philharmonics. Adored in Paris, he has been re-engaged four times by the Louvre Museum for specially requested all-Schubert and all-Chopin concerts. Mr. Ivanov has also been frequently re-engaged by Princeton University, The Paramount Theater in Vermont, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, “Pianofest” in East Hampton, Bargemusic in New York City, and at Fishers Island Concerts. In recognition of impressive career achievement, Ivanov was awarded the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, which brought his Lincoln Center recital debut at Alice Tully Hall and a rave review in The New York Times. His program of Russian repertoire included works by Prokofiev and the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata with New York Philharmonic principal cellist Carter Brey (YCA Alumnus) as his guest. At a young age in Russia, Ivanov was a protégé of Mstislav Rostropovich, appearing as soloist under the famous maestro with the Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic. He also performed with the Moscow State Orchestra, with the Kremlin Orchestra, and at the Pushkin, Glinka, and Scriabin Museums in Moscow. Mr. Ivanov won First Prizes at the 1994 and 1996 International “Classical Legacy” Competition, and the prize for Best Performance of a Beethoven Sonata at the First Vladimir Horowitz Competition in Kiev. Months after arriving in the United States, Mr. Ivanov won First Prize in the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He received an award from the Jack Romann Special Artists Fund of YCA and made his New York debut in 2006 at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and his Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center, to critical acclaim. Mr. Ivanov comes from a family of musicians, and began to accompany his father’s vocal recitals at the age of eight. He has also played the clarinet and the accordion, and holds a diploma in clarinet from Lyardov High School. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 2005, where his teachers included the renowned Lev Naumov. Moving to the United States after winning the YCA Auditions, Mr. Ivanov earned his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, working with Nina Svetlanova. Mr. Ivanov has received Musical Studies Grants from the Bagby Foundation.

GLEB IVANOV, piano

REPERTOIRE WITH ORCHESTRA

BEETHOVEN Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58 Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73

BRAHMS Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83

CHOPIN Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 DOHNÁNYI Variations on a Nursery Song GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 HAYDN Concerto No. 11 in D major LISZT Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major Totentanz MENDELSSOHN Concerto No. 1 in G minor MOZART Concerto No. 13 in C major, K. 415 Concerto No. 14 in E-flat major, K. 449 Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595 PROKOFIEV Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55 RACHMANINOFF Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini RAVEL Concerto in G major TCHAIKOVSKY Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23

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Gleb Ivanov, pianist

Omaha Symphony offers bold, thrilling tribute to Russian music Todd von Kampen | Omaha World-Herald | January 24, 2016

The mysterious contrasts of Russia and its music — sometimes bright, often brooding, usually brash, always big — made for a truly compelling fourth annual Omaha Symphony winter festival. The two-part program illustrated how thoroughly composers of the “Russian school,” such as Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (represented in Friday night’s “Overture to ‘The Tsar’s Bride’ ”), captured their nation’s soul. They embellished Slavic melodies with a full arsenal of instruments, dynamics and musical colors. They loved deep, thrilling orchestrations evoking beauty and horror, ecstasy and despair. Their examples left lasting marks on such later composers as Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, whose Ballet Suite No. 1 led off Saturday’s program. The program also lingered among composers who fled from the 1917 Russian Revolution, as the symphony and guest pianist Gleb Ivanov memorably illustrated in Friday night’s first-act finale. For that slot, Wilkins chose the full version of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s popular “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” written in 1934 during the composer’s permanent U.S. exile. The 18th of its 24 variations played a prominent role in the 1980 Christopher Reeve-Jane Seymour fantasy “Somewhere in Time,” as well as in Bill Murray’s 1993 comedic classic “Groundhog Day.” Ivanov’s execution was breathtaking. His fingers majestically intoned the big chords and rippled across the keyboard, generating sound like breaking waves. When they reached the 18th variation, Ivanov and the orchestra painted a breathtakingly lovely aural scene. At the piece’s end, the audience flooded Ivanov with waves of ovations and cheers, which he rewarded with Alexander Siloti’s haunting arrangement of Prelude No. 10 from the first book of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”

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Russian Masterpieces Dominate Indian Hill Orchestra Opening McLaren Harris | Indian Hill Music | October 20, 2015

If you think that season-opening concerts should begin somewhat gently, even tentatively, you may put that thought away. The Indian Hill Orchestra concert Saturday night (October 17) at the Littleton High School Performing Arts Center again opened under conductor Bruce Hangen with a rush. Last year it was Richard Strauss’s tone poem “Don Juan”; this year, it opened with mid-season verve from the orchestra and from piano soloist Gleb Ivanov, who brought down the house with Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The Rhapsody was part of an all-Russian program comprising Maurice Ravel’s orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, two movements of a symphony by Lera Auerbach, “Icarus”,and the opener, a dashing Concerto No. 1 for orchestra by Rodion Shchedrin. In some after-concert remarks, pianist Gleb Ivanov called Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody “the best set of variations ever written by anyone on any musical theme.” As extreme as that sounds – Rachmaninov was up against stiff competition from Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, among others — he is probably correct. The 24 variations on the last of Paganini’s Caprices for violin explore just about every imaginable expression inherent in the theme, from light, agile, pizzicato-style touches to commanding, fortissimo chordal progressions of the Dies irae to the lush lyricism of the celebrated, “Hit Parade” 18th variation. Ivanov has the physical presence, strength and musical temperament to match Rachmaninov’s all-out pianistic style. He switched from quick marked rhythms to two-fisted bombast almost instantaneously, from sensual, melodic passages to lightning changes of register and dynamics with unerring confidence, sustaining energy and purpose through the final notes. Conductor Hangen and the orchestra worked with him all the way, as they had to do, because neither side was taking any prisoners. The performance earned them a long and boisterous standing ovation. As if the Rhapsody weren’t enough for him, Ivanov graced the audience with an encore, Claude Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau, from Book 1 of his Images – a huge change of mood and musical language, delicately performed.



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Concert Review | Russian Pianist Gleb Ivanov at Artplay Michael Huebner | Arts BHAM | September 26, 2015

Many young pianists have graduated from Russian conservatories and gone on to competition victories and to perform in concert halls worldwide, only to then make their mark on Birmingham in recent years. Though it may be no coincidence that the acclaimed Russian pianist Yakov Kasman is on the UAB faculty, these up-and-coming musicians have spread from the Kasman-organized UAB Piano Series to other presenters. On Friday, Sept. 25, it was the ArtPlay Parlor Series, sponsored by Patty McDonald and UAB’s Alys Stephens Center, that opened its season with Gleb Ivanov, who at 32 is making his global presence known. The “parlor,” nearly filled on this occasion, is the front room of a Victorian mansion turned arts education facility. Performers play on a cramped stage area in front of a bay window, with wooden folding chairs spilling into two adjoining rooms with tall ceilings and chandeliers. It makes for an elegant, if awkward, recital setting, but Ivanov is the kind of musician who could play in a closet and still move you to tears. It didn’t start out that way. He tore into Brahms’ Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79, with fierce abandon, many of the nuances of the B minor Rhapsody overshadowed by quick tempos and angry bass rumblings. With the ensuing G minor Rhapsody – Ivanov settled into a gentler mode, focusing more on the work’s mystery and intrigue, reveling in its long arches and prolonged anticipations. With Mendelssohn’s “Variations Sérieuses,” Op. 74, Ivanov became a quick-change artist, deftly negotiating the unique character of each variation, carefully calculating a gradual build to the work’s conclusion. If any doubt remained as to Ivanov’s sensitivity, they were immediately dispelled in Debussy’s “Images,” Book 1. The watery cascades in “Reflets dans l’eau,” longing reminiscence of “Hommage à Rameau” and atmospheric swashes in “Mouvement” were performed with an immaculate touch, at once sweetly redolent and classically sophisticated. Depending on the performer, Franz Liszt’s piano music can either be repelling or all-consuming. Ivanov understands it less for its bombast than for its sweeping lyricism. For certain, there is plenty of the former in the Sonata in B minor; it can’t be avoided. But Ivanov, by virtue of his insight and technical wizardry, turned it into a multi-layered, almost three-dimensional, orchestral exposition. Gentle melodic strands, together with perfectly executed chromatic runs, helped underscore Liszt’s manic mood shifts more as naturally human emotions rather than manneristic romantic ramblings. Even the pounding chords toward the end of the sonata melded gently into the ghostly ambiance of the final chords and pianississimo low B, just above the piano’s lowest note.





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Gleb Ivanov Review Geraldine Freedman | The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY) | January, 2015

Russian pianist Gleb Ivanov gave a recital Friday night at the Massry Center for the Arts that began in an unassuming way but ended in epic style. Ivanov’s big win came in 2005, the year he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, when he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Although he’s accumulated many rave reviews since then that include Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center debut recitals, most of his solo and concerto appearances have not been with major venues. Based on his Friday showing, that will hopefully change. Ivanov began with two contrasting sonatas by Schubert. The first, Sonata in A Major, Op. 120, was ever tuneful with three fairly short movements. Ivanov used a light touch, subtle nuances, gentle phrasing and good pedaling for the first two movements and more flair and an agile technique in the quick finale. Somewhere in the finale there was a subtle shift of tension as Ivanov’s nerves loosened and he became more comfortable. In the second, Sonata in A minor, the three movements had more drama with heavy chordal passages. But Ivanov kept a mellow, transparent tone, allowed for delicate touches when possible and maintained technical clarity. He was adept in the spirited finale with its shifts in style among frothy, very fast passages, big chords and lyrical rolling sections and added a fiery excitement. The attentive crowd loved it. Resphigi’s Nocturne in G-flat Major was a delicate, sweetly sad song whose melody had cascading and rippling filigree. Ivanov stroked the song with much feeling. But this short piece, which interestingly no one applauded, was to set up the evening’s focal point: Liszt’s Sonata in B minor. A test for any pianist from its menacing beginning to the final notes of glorious acceptance, the work is 30 minutes of non-stop virtuosity with extremely difficult technical demands, broad emotional shifts and physically for the stamina required. Ivanov was in command and in control. He impressed with his pacing within the sensational technical displays and his sensitivity in the poetic, romantic passages. His focus, intensity and probing musical intelligence were unflagging. The crowd sighed, Ivanov wiped his brow, and then he got a standing ovation. As an encore he

played the haunting Bach/Ziloti Prelude in B minor as a subtle meditation.





REVIEW: The Unexpected sends the Phil’s ‘Rachmaninoff’ Soaring David Sckolnik coloradosprings.com April 15, 2012

It's not how the orchestra always does it.

The concert's soloist usually plays in the first half of the program, except when the piece he or she is per-forming is the longest one in the program. It didn't happen that way Saturday night for the Colorado Springs Philharmonic's penultimate Masterworks concert, "Rachmaninoff." The shorter work, featuring pianist Gleb Ivanov, followed the longer one, William Walton's First Symphony. This musical "heresy" proved to be a stroke of genius for had the evening started with Rachmaninoff, large numbers of the audience would probably have passed on the Walton.

It's become a forgone conclusion that the crop of piano soloists emerging on the scene today come armed with mind-boggling technique. So as the imposing figure of the 29-year-old Gleb Ivanov took the stage for one of the greatest challenges in the repertoire, Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, there was little doubt that the quarter of a million or so notes the soloist must render would be executed.

Sublime artistry from such a youthful source? Not really expected. So much for preconceived notions.

Josep and company did a superb job of offering support and sounded luscious. But this evening be-longed to Ivanov.

The Russian pianist surprised with a light and detailed playing at first. But it wasn't too long until the essence of his playing came through: complete facility with an almost innate ability to shape and ex-press the poignant melodies demanded by Rachmaninoff. These only come to life through becoming one with the piano.

A few details deserve some attention. The pianist's recap of the first movement's opening theme was pure poetry. The give and take of Ivanov's conversation with orchestra in the expressive second move-ment was breathtaking. His ability to explode the sound through the ring and pinky fingers of his right hand is something heard only on recordings from legendary pianists.

There was also a very special kind of artistic alchemy here. Both Ivanov and Caballé-Domenech are large men and yet neither resorts to the kind of demonstrative physical gestures that often fill the con-cert stage. Their musical philosophy was completely simpatico.

After all the excitement that can and did generate from a musical experience such as this, Ivanov sent us gently into the evening with an encore of the Bach-Siloti Prelude in B minor. Let us hope this is not the last we will hear from this great artist.





Gleb Ivanov: Colorful Schubert, fiery Rachmaninoff in Birmingham Recital Five Stars out of Five Phillip Ratliff The Birmingham News (AL) November 3, 2011

Russian pianist Gleb Ivanov is an astounding young player.

Inklings of his remarkable ability were apparent from the outset of his performance Thursday night at the Alys Stephens Center. He began the concert with the sec-ond movement of Haydn's Sonata in C major. Ivanov exercised firm control over Haydn's highly ornamented theme, and contrasts were powerful, maybe more powerful than Haydn could have imagined.

Franz Schubert's Sonata in A minor, presented ample opportunity for the brilliant pianist to do something young Russian virtuosos have garnered a reputation for -- playing really fast and really loud.

But it was Ivanov's controlled sense of narrative, his flair for nuance and the transparency of his voicings, that are most memorable. Schubert's sonata presented interpretive challenges that Ivanov was more than ready to meet.

UAB musicologist Howard Irving noted one of these challenges in his program note, the iden-tity crisis piano music was facing in Schubert's day. Schubert projected onto his keyboard the textures and gestures reminiscent of orchestral writing. Ivanov's talent seemed a custom fit to Schubert's sudden outbursts of color and sharp dynamic contrasts. An abrupt ascending scale, beginning fortissimo and finishing at a whisper, produced a palpable gasp from the concert's crowd.

The rapport Ivanov had built with his audience by the end of the first half continued after in-termission. His fiery performance of three Rachmaninoff pieces garnered a standing ovation. Liszt's "Funerailles," by contrast, left the audience in either stunned silence or not wanting to delay the final piece with applause. Ivanov's performance of the closer, Liszt's arrangement of the waltz from Gounod's "Faust," surely did not disappoint those hooked by Ivanov's blend of power and finesse.


Review of Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center Recital




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Another most impressive discovery of Christian Steiner’s, pianist Gleb Ivanov, a twenty-eight-year-old M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music, played a stirring program of Haydn, Chopin, and Proko-fiev at a private benefit concert for Mr. Steiner's Tannery Pond Concerts. Here was a pianist of impeccable—really formidable—technique, powerful intelligence, and marked individuality, playing with a concentration that made the audience hang on every note, putting across his point of view with full conviction. And this point of view was most definitely worth hearing—and that is an understatement. Any musician who can play with such polish, gran-deur, and intelligence has my deep respect.

Joseph Haydn enjoyed a renaissance back in the 1970’s, largely due to recordings. We could finally get ac-quainted—aurally—with all of the symphonies, all of the quartets, all of the trios, all of the keyboard sonatas, and even a good many of his operas. The piano sonatas had never fit into the virtuoso repertoire, because their spare textures made them seem easy. Many of them are actually very difficult, because every note is exposed and there is no direct historical link to the appropriate style of playing. Gleb Ivanov fully realized the grand scale of the C Major Sonata, playing with a tone that would have sounded big in a concert hall, let alone Chris and Lois Herzeca's living room, but he also executed the details with exquisite care and never coming close to affectation. I’ve actually never heard Haydn’s tricky ornaments, in which an irregular number of notes have to be fit into the beat, played in such a fluent and natural way. Every note was clear, but the tone had volume and substance...and great beauty. And this was emotionally fulfilling Haydn as well.

Ivanov played the opening bars of the first Op. 41 Mazurka of Chopin with a plainness that was almost shocking. The phrases were almost devoid of expression, which, with a carefully measured pace unfolded as the exposition progressed. What followed was Chopin of an entirely individual, idiosyncratic kind: big and beautiful in sound, finely rendered in detail, and focused with intense single-mindedness on the harmonic and psychological progres-sions of Chopin’s writing. He was not only courageously going his own way with Chopin, he was doing it with a deep understanding and appreciation of the music. All of us in the room were fascinated—which I’d say is rather unusual in these undeniably important, but familiar works, which suffer, if they are approached merely pianisti-cally and not treated with the utmost love and respect.

Mr. Ivanov’s full, rich sound is entirely in accord with his physique. He is tall and solid in build. Prokofiev’s turbu-lent Sonata No 6 (1939-40), surging with the violence and uncertainty of war time was the only work on the pro-gram that literally called for such physical power. He played the first movement with ripping agitation and drive, the second playfully, but with a native sense of its Russian mood shifts, the dreamy, pensive waltz (Prokofiev’s greatest?) with elegaic resignation, and the last with blazing wit—a magnificent reading of a major work. He did not state this publicly before playing, but afterwards he told me privately that playing the sonata, one of Proko-fiev’s deeply felt wartime works, at this time, two days before Russian Victory Day, was especially important to him, and that all Russians take this very seriously.

The encores were a Prelude and Fugue from the Second Book of the Well-Tempered Clavier in an arrangement by Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov, one of Prokofiev’s teachers. Lyadov reversed the hands and cast it in such a dreamy, romantic mood, that it was almost disguised, although it sounded elusively familiar. The second encore was Chopin’s famous Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op. 53, which he played with urgency, at an animated pace, after a marvelous, explosive treatment of the opening bars. With this, the breadth of his conception, and meticulous execution Ivanov made an old friend sound entirely fresh—which was in itself a remarkable feat, although he ap-proached it as nothing like a feat, only insight into the composers’ thought process and honest musicianship.

The Young Russian Pianist, Gleb Ivanov, triumphs in Haydn, Chopin, and Prokofiev at a Tannery Pond benefit Michael Miller The Berkshire Review May 19, 2011




A Pianist Explores the Smoother Side Allan Kozinn The New York Times December 2, 2010

It was not so long ago that when the Russian piano style was mentioned, what came to mind was a huge, steely, aggressive sound with a dynamic range that ran from fortissimo to quadruple fortissimo. Things are different now. Power remains a hallmark of Russian pianism, but young players have made gracefulness, precision and subtlety parts of the equation too. Gleb Ivanov, a Moscow-trained pianist who won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2005, demonstrated that combination of qualities in his recital at Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday eve-ning. His program was split between Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, almost as if to show that his immu-nity to the old approach could withstand the greatest temptations. Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6, after all, is a piece that would have had an explosive reading a couple of gen-erations ago, and not only from Russian players. Mr. Ivanov’s account was by no means timid. He pro-duced a huge sound without much apparent effort, but even in the work’s most insistent, tension-radiating moments — the passages in the Allegro moderato supported by insistently pounding bass figures, and the sizzling Vivace finale — he kept the music’s energy tightly focused and maintained an impressive clarity of texture. The sonata, which closed the program, was preceded by an evocative rendering of “Romeo and Juliet Before Parting” from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Here, as in Rachmaninoff’s A minor Étude-Tableau (Op. 39, No. 2) in the first half of the program, Mr. Ivanov’s thumbprint was a ringing top line that sounded as if it were floating freely over a dark-hued, often gauzy accompaniment. Mr. Ivanov also brought a charming lightness of touch to Rachmaninoff’s Melodie in E (Op. 3, No. 3), and he empha-sized the almost jazzy chromaticism in the Humoresque (Op. 10, No. 5). Mr. Ivanov was also joined by Carter Brey, the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic — him-self an alumnus of Young Concert Artists, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season — for a beautifully integrated account of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano. Mr. Brey’s tone is luxurious and supple, and he used it to particularly glowing effect in the Andante. But this was a full collaboration, and throughout the four-movement work the interplay between Mr. Brey and Mr. Ivanov had an enlivening conversational free-spiritedness.


Michaels Award recital at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, December 1, 2010




Pianist Plays with Volcanic Grace John Pitcher Omaha World-Herald July 14, 2010

In his authoritative book “The Art of Piano Playing,” legendary piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus wrote that the most difficult thing a pianist could do was play extremely loud and fast at the same time. I suspect pianist Gleb Ivanov –– who presented a Brownville Concert Series recital in Omaha on Tuesday night –– is familiar with Neuhaus’ book for two reasons. First, Ivanov is currently studying under a full scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music with Nina Svetlanova, who is one of Neuhaus’ best-known former students. And sec-ond, Ivanov spent the better part of 90 minutes at Strauss Performing Arts Center playing extremely loud at down-right blistering tempos. The Russian-born Ivanov is a rising star in the world of classical music. In 2005, he won first prize in New York City’s Young Concert Artists Auditions and was also a prize winner in the First International Vladimir Horowitz Competition in Kiev. Ivanov’s playing has been compared to Horowitz’s –– and for good reason. Like the late great Russian master, Ivanov has a spectacular piano technique. During Tuesday’s recital, his fingers raced up and down the full length of the keyboard, creating veritable sonic tsunamis along the way. It was the kind of electric playing that Horowitz was famous for –– playing that always kept audience members on the edge of their seats. Yet Ivanov’s recital was not just a pyrotechnical spectacle. This young pianist also played with considerable grace and taste. His recital opened with an elegant reading of Haydn’s Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:48. This is an unusually virtu-osic piece for the usually staid and polite Haydn. Ivanov, of course, was more than equal to the work’s technical demands and had little trouble tossing off its sparkling passagework. Still, his polished interpretation rightly em-phasized the sonata’s classical structure and lyrical appeal. The recital continued with two of Liszt’s transcriptions of Schubert lieder. “Gute Nacht” is all hyper-romantic melodrama, and Ivanov’s reading brought out all of the music’s dark melancholy. In “Ave Maria,” Ivanov had the good sense to downplay Liszt’s gratuitous razzle-dazzle accompaniment. His performance, consequently, was lu-minous. Johannes Brahms’ Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39, which came next, are hardly dance hall ditties. They are propulsive con-cert pieces that more often than not push a pianist’s technique to the limit. Ivanov made each of these piano minia-tures sound like orchestral tone poems, works brimming with color, rhythmic drive and melodic interest. He played the Waltz No. 15 in A-flat, often misidentified as Brahms’ “Lullaby,” with intimacy and simplicity. Ivanov devoted the second half of his program to music of the great 20th-century Russian composer Sergei Proko-fiev. He began with a beautifully understated rendition of “Romeo and Juliet before parting.” His playing was re-markable for its long, lyrical lines. He concluded with a take-no-prisoners account of the Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82, a performance that was both volcanic and voluptuous.





Gleb Ivanov Playful, Riveting Thomas Bohlert The East Hampton Star June 10, 2010

Gleb Ivanov, a Russian-born pianist, chose a program of mostly serious and passionate music for his ap-pearance in the Rising Stars Piano Recital Series at the Southampton Cultural Center on Saturday, and he delivered a compelling performance.

Mr. Ivanov won first prize in the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and during the 2005-6 season made his recital debuts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and the Kennedy Center. He has also been a participant in Pianofest and has performed at Island Concerts on Fishers Island. This past season he made return engagements at the Louvre in Paris and at Princeton University, and he has just completed a master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music.

Gleb Ivanov was greeted by thunderous bravos at Saturday’s final concert of the season n the Rising Stars Piano Recital series.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in C (Hob. 48) is among the composer’s later and great piano compositions. It shows great steps forward in his musical language and in what he asks of the instrument. It is a two-movement sonata, beginning not with the usual allegro, but with an Andante con Espressione, and from the beginning Mr. Ivanov gave the movement an authoritative and beautifully sober reading. The melodic runs and ornaments were handled with ease, and a sense of subtle shading was very apparent.

The second movement, a rondo, was exquisitely phrased and shaped, and although it is not as cheery as many rondos, Mr. Ivanov showed a sophisticated playfulness.

Next were two songs (lieder) by Franz Schubert, transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt. They are called tran-scriptions but are really arrangements, even quasi-orchestrations. These two were originally art songs, and Mr. Ivanov succeeded in making one think that the piano was more of a vocal instrument rather than a percussive one. They served nicely as a soothing respite between the Haydn and the masterwork to come.

Three of Sergei Prokofiev’s piano sonatas are commonly known as the War Sonatas, because they were written around the time of conflict between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Sonata No. 6 in A major (Op. 82), written in 1939, is the first of these and was the main work on the program. It is full of stormy struggle, conflict, poignancy, and stridency, and is as taxing on the performer as can be. Mr. Ivanov handled it with technique to spare and great maturity.

It opens with an insistent, repeated-note figure, and tension between the major and minor. There are mo-ments of a kind of serenity, but more moments of terror, with powerful, smashing chords, heavy use of the sustain pedal, and fortissimos on both ends of the keyboard. The second movement, Allegretto, is a bit lighter. The follow-ing Tempo di Valtzer Lentissimo is a waltz of delicate, longing beauty, with a turbulent middle section.

The closing Vivace has many striking and contrasting themes, running a wide range of emotions. Mr. Ivanov’s hands were racing with untiring technique, and, as throughout, one could see the intensity of the passion on his face. The hammering ending brought bravos from the audience, and Mr. Ivanov’s expression showed that he was still in the music and had not quite returned to the present moment.

As an encore, he played a Bach prelude as transcribed by Alexander Siloti. It was limpid and calming, bringing the listeners and the performer back to center.

Comments heard from the audience afterward included the words magnificent, enthralling, and riveting.


Gleb Ivanov was greeted

by thunderous bravos at

Saturday’s final concert of

the season in the Rising

Stars Piano Series.




Young Pianist Ignites Rutland Audience Jim Lowe Rutland Herald November 16, 2008

Young Russian pianist Gleb Ivanov delivered a brilliant performance of Mussorgsky's virtuosic "Pictures at an Exhibition," Friday at the Paramount Center, to a wildly enthusiastic ovation — and it was Vladimir Horowitz's even more difficult version. Ivanov's solo recital was the second in the Paramount's classical series, "Passages at the Paramount," which, in partnership with New York's Young Concert Artists, brings young up-and-coming musicians here. Born in Moscow to a family of musicians, Ivanov, now 26, had a prodigious musical experience in Russia before coming to the United States, where he now studies at New York's Manhattan School of Music. But Ivanov's performances are way beyond student level: He already possesses a powerful technique and a distinct and convincing musical personality. Ivanov delivered "Pictures at an Exhibition" with confidence, color and passion. Most know this piece in its orchestrated version by French composer Maurice Ravel, but Mussorgsky wrote it for solo piano.

He chose to perform an adaptation by Horowitz, the greatest of Russian-American pianists, which adds pianistic touches to Mussorgsky's original score. While this is certainly a questionable idea, Ivanov delivered those pianistic touches with panache. Ivanov plays with an ease and a technique that opens all sorts of musical possibilities. His articulation is wonderfully clean, his sound slender yet powerful. Save for missing some of the grandeur of the "Pictures," he played with color and unbridled passion. Another success was Mozart's Sonata in a minor, K. 310. Surprisingly, Ivanov adapted well to the classical elegance of Mozart. Although he could have breathed a bit more between phrases in the two fast movements, Ivanov played evenly and expressively. The slow movement, an andante, was performed with a very personal touch. Ivanov didn't seem to see the rhapsodic side of Brahms' Three Intermezzi, Opus 117, but he played them with a quiet beauty. He presented some idiosyncratic ideas in Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in g minor, but it was largely convincing, and Ivanov seemed to enjoy its virtuosity. Ivanov is an excellent young pianist, with lots of character, who is likely on the cusp of a real career.





Gayle Williams Herald Tribune (Sarasota, FL) January 14, 2008

This past weekend's Masterworks concerts by the Florida West Coast Symphony served as a community learning experience.

Artistic director and conductor Leif Bjaland served up a brilliant program illustrating the unstoppable life force which we can allow to give us hope in tough times.

The principal message was communicated by a sheerly electrifying performance of Carl Nielsen's Sym-phony No. 4, Op. 29, "The Inextinguishable." In response to the ravages of World War I, Nielsen illus-trated the struggle between good and evil -- with evil sounding much like threatening timpani and sharp biting violas. There are beautifully crafted songs of hope and hymns of redemption and a final struggle which results in the triumph of life -- the inextinguishable good.

Bjaland and the entire orchestra were forceful and convincing, but this was not the first time they had told this story. Bjaland first programmed "The Inextinguishable" nearly eight seasons ago. Now the or-chestra has an astounding agility, range of expression, and rock-solid control.

Richard Strauss' tone poem "Don Juan" opened this concert with brash bravura in the winds, assured virility in the strings and full-bodied muscle in the brass. The Don's amorous adventures, filled with technical musical challenges, take him from colorful, confident flourishes in winds, to a despairing, yet lovely oboe solo, and back again to a wow-factor fanfare statement from the brass.

As breathtaking as the Strauss and Nielsen works were, the orchestra really proved its mettle when, with pianist Gleb Ivanov, it threw brash romanticism aside and settled into a perfectly controlled clas-sical style for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595.

Composed in the last year of his life, Mozart shared a mature simplicity in this music, and without read-ing too much into it, one can imagine a sense of resignation without bitterness regarding his personal and financial struggles at this time. The music is often upbeat, but certainly not joyful. These deeply reflected nuances were present in the phrasing and light velvet touch of soloist Ivanov. Clean faster passages were nearly transparent and in the middle Larghetto, a timeless spinning of melody pro-duced a feeling of liquid gold.

Unless one was yearning for the pounding technique of a concerto of another time, this performance

was lacking nothing.





Pianist Ivanov Shows Star Quality in Recital Richard Storm Herald Tribune (Sarasota, FL) October 31, 2006

Something unnerving happened during Gleb Ivanov's concert at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center on Sat-urday evening: His performance was so good that clichés came, unwanted, to the listener's mind, phrases such as "a star is born" and "Horowitz lives again." Superficially accurate (and regrettably corny), neither of these slick labels does justice to the powerful musical explosion touched off by the young Russian pianist, whose impressive technical gifts very nearly match his in-terpretive ambition and fierce involvement with the music, unusual so early in a career. The well-planned program began with a crisp, almost brittle romp through Franz Joseph Haydn's Sonata in E Flat Major (Hob. XVI: 52), in which Ivanov's percussive touch created a sonority similar to that of the fortepiano on which this piece might have been played in its time. Haydn's sly adventures in key changes and major to minor tonality shifts were beautifully realized, as was the re-laxed lyricism of the middle movement, despite the performer's stern visage. Intensity ruled the rest of the evening, starting with a deeply moving performance of Beethoven's Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor (Op. 27), the "Moonlight." Ironically, this magnificent and highly unconventional composition is seldom programmed these days, possibly because of its overfamiliarity. Go figure. I cannot recall hearing this glorious sonata played with a beauty so close to unbearable. The audience seemed to stop breathing as the perfectly articulated theme of the first movement sang out over the undulating accompani-ment, each voice clear and lyrical. The wistful dance of the second movement, never rushed, provided the repose we all needed to handle the an-guished fireworks of the final movement, a ferocious torrent of music. Fortunately, the intermission provided an opportunity to pull ourselves together before Ivanov once again disman-tled our composure in a near-nuclear version of Franz Liszt's visionary Sonata in B Minor (S. 178). This is music that, in many respects, could have been written yesterday, so powerfully does it surge beyond the conventions of its time. Set in one enormous movement, the piece explores both immense sonorities and sensuous intimacy, testing the lim-its of both performer and instrument. Here, admittedly, the "channeling Horowitz" cliché came to mind more than once, especially when the occasional technical slip made little difference to the music's impact. But as the sonata neared a heart-stopping conclusion, it became clear that Ivanov is his own man, a shooting star in his own right.





Another Young Russian With a Sense of Style Bernard Holland The New York Times February 2, 2006

Despite the turmoil of post-Soviet Russia, music teachers in Moscow, like the Steinway piano factory in Astoria, keep turning out consistent, high-quality, well-constructed products. Gleb Ivanov, last year's winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions, is a cut above the usual, with a certain musical sensitivity and an appreciation of style to go with the thunder and light-ning.

Haydn's last piano sonata, in E flat, was first on his program at Zankel Hall on Tuesday night. Though evidently a finger-warmer for the heavy Romantic music to come, it made sense to young Mr. Ivanov. He gets the jokes, the misdirections, the silences and the subtle conversa-tions between the hands. Liszt's transcription of the Schubert "Ständchen" minimized rhetori-cal flourishes, handled Liszt's echo effects elegantly and sang with simplicity. Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise," another transcription, was lovingly done.

There was lots more Liszt: another Schubert song "Auf dem Wasser zu Singen" and "Après une Lecture du Dante." The calmer, more lyrical sections were well understood by Mr. Ivanov, but like almost all young super-virtuosos he gets spiritually lost in Liszt's pounding octaves, ar-peggios and scales, divorcing them from the piece and turning them into isolated advertise-ments for his own physical prowess. (Liszt is not guiltless in these matters.)

Earlier, Mr. Ivanov rippled through Chopin's "Two-Four" Waltz in A flat and played the C mi-nor Nocturne (Op. 48). In the loud and fast department, Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata was his principal exhibition for display. Barber's piece is a tough customer — tougher perhaps than it has to be — and with a viciously difficult finale; Mr. Ivanov was impressively loud and fast. He is one more very good young pianist. One wonders where the music world is going to put them all.


Hiroyuki Ito for the New York Times Gleb Ivanov performing in a recital at Zankel Hall on Tuesday night





Gleb Ivanov, pianist Jazzy Ravel by Classy Russian Pianist, Stirring War-horse Combine for Exciting Symphony Opener L. Pierce Carson The Napa Valley Register November 7, 2005

The Napa Valley Symphony Orchestra kicked off its 2005-06 concert season Sunday afternoon with a spine-tingling, soul-stirring program that spotlighted a gifted young Russian pianist delivering sophisticated Ravel and an emotionally-charged en-semble working up a respectable sweat.

Not only did 22-year-old Gleb Ivanov dazzle a full house with an elegant, jazzy interpretation of Ravel's provocative "Concerto in G for Piano and Orchestra," but maestro Asher Raboy rode an old war-horse -- Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" -- into the winner's circle, earning both conductor and orchestra a well-deserved standing ovation and collateral huzzahs.

Maurice Ravel was a man of culture and taste, his music sophisticated and urbane. He was not a prolific composer, but his dazzling best displays French refinement and sensitivity surpassed only by Claude Debussy.

His famous piano concerto in G major is a marvelous fusion of old and new, impressionism, jazz, French classicism -- all rolled into one. The sublime second movement, a melancholy waltz, is one of the great pieces of musical composition. This work was composed in 1932 and has been a classic since its premiere by pianist Marguerite Long. It took Ravel two years to write the work, sometimes keeping him at his desk 10 hours a day. He maintained it was written in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Sans.

The concerto's opening whip crack introduces the piece, which leads into accented jazz-inspired melodies, in part recalling the composer's American travels. It has the feel of the 1920s, at times reminiscent of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

The first and last movements are heavily imbued with exciting jazz melodies, while the beautiful, contemplative second movement represents the impressionist Ravel at some of his very best.

A tall, strapping soloist — winner of this year's Young Concert Artists International Auditions — Ivanov has been mentored for the past year by Mstislav Rostropovich, having participated in a tour and several performances with the renowned maestro.

Ivanov provided a meticulously refined and sparkling account of the Ravel concerto. His clear fingerwork gave the piece unusual delicacy, but its urgent virility — with jazz an important element — came over more forcefully by contrast.

A compromise between coolness and expressiveness in the slow minuet of the middle movement proved tantalizingly sen-sual.

Ivanov's interpretation — ably assisted by maestro Raboy and an electrifying orchestra — was most attractive in the way the collaboration brought out the jazzy side of Ravel's inspired work. One felt that the soloist — even at his young age — possessed a genuine Ravel sensibility, playing with a fine feeling for the music's color and moments of gentle rapture.

This listener can't recall such a stunning performance of this particular work since a definitive recording many, many moons ago by Philippe Entremont, who, by the way, studied with Marguerite Long, pianist who premiered the work at hand and was a favored interpreter of the music of Ravel.

I heard more than one audience member Sunday afternoon expressing an interest in returning to Lincoln Theater Tuesday night when Ivanov and orchestra give a repeat performance.

The concert opened with a full-spirited reading of the "Danse Bacchanale" from the third act of Saint-Sans' opera, "Samson et Dalila." The orchestral playing was exhilarating in its sheer energy, with Raboy drawing a well-disciplined and exuberant re-sponse from all sections of the orchestra. A grand finale

Celebrated Russian composer and music teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite, "Scheherazade," is one of the most popular orchestral works ever written.

Composer of symphonies, choral music, songs and works for piano, his main claim to fame lay in his 15 operas and numer-ous orchestral pieces, where his vivid imagination — often fueled by the exotic experiences of his naval career — could roam free.

This work's specific inspiration was "The Tales of the Arabian Nights." The scenario, inscribed on the score, concerns a mighty and misogynous sultan who enjoyed his nuptial pleasures without the risk of acquiring a life-long nag by the politically incorrect expedient of having each wife executed the morning after.

However, a wily woman named Scheherazade enchanted him with wondrous tales, each of which she craftily left unfinished at the night's end. Left wanting more, the sultan repeatedly had to stay the execution, finally admitting defeat.

Rimsky-Korsakov set four of those tales to music, and thrilling music it is. The performance by Raboy and the Napa Valley Symphony Orchestra was an exciting, red-blooded account. It combined gripping drama with romantic ardor, subtlety of color with voluptuousness.

After a tentative beginning, the ensemble gained momentum. Concertmaster Yasushi Ogura played violin solos seductively, with the orchestra's harpist (no name is given in the program) providing celestial glissandos. Principals in brass and woodwind sections contributed mightily, while the percussion nearly raised the dead.

In the key second movement, lilting wind solos proved a constant pleasure. The finale, with its spectacular storm and shipwreck, had rip-roaring animation and bite. In short, this "Scheherazade" was a thrilling conclusion to a stunning season opener. A repeat performance is scheduled at 8

p.m. Tuesday in Yountville's acoustically marvelous Lincoln Theater.

If you weren't part of the excitement Sunday, my advice is to snap up one of the remaining tickets.






YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 1776 Broadway, Suite 1500, New York, NY 10019www.yca.org Telephone: (212) 307-6655 Fax: (212) 581-8894 [email protected]


Ivanov Rattles Rafters to Audience’s Delight Terry L. Ponick The Washington Times October 13, 2005

The Young Concert Artists Series opened its 27th season in the nation's capital Tuesday with a swashbuckling recital by young Russian pianist Gleb Ivanov. The boyishly handsome 22-year-old phe-nom nearly overwhelmed the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater -- and its Steinway concert grand -- with a pianistic assault calling to mind the 20th century's legendary cadre of popular Romantic pianists. Today's young pianists are almost universally acknowledged to be technically superior to their fore-bears, but many of these accomplished musicians are faulted by critics for bloodless interpretations of the masters that elevate pristine technique over that always elusive emotional connection with the audi-ence. Mr. Ivanov can't be numbered among them. After opening his program with a workmanlike reading of Haydn's Sonata in E-flat major (Hob. XVI: 52) and a somewhat overpedaled pair of Chopin minia-tures -- the Waltz in A-flat major (Op. 42) and the Nocturne in C minor (Op. 48, No. 1) -- he attacked the piano, heartily performing stuff that really interested him, such as Samuel Barber's Sonata, Op. 26. Writ-ten for Vladimir Horowitz, this mid-20th-century work is loaded with massive, spiky energy that, while retaining a discernible tonal base, forays frequently into savage atonality. Eerily like the ghost of Mr. Horowitz, Mr. Ivanov engulfed the keyboard and the Barber, rattling the Terrace's rafters -- particularly in the wicked final "Fuga" -- and thrilling an audience generally not ac-customed to embracing such thorny music. After a brief and welcome pause for a tastefully executed transcription of Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise," Mr. Ivanov gave a hearty reading to a trio of Schubert lieders as transcribed by Franz Liszt. This was only a warmup for Liszt's ridiculously challenging "Fantasia quasi sonata" after Dante, taken from the composer's "Annees de pelerinage" Book II. This galumphing showpiece is the ultimate Liszt -- threatening, stirring, at times heroic, veering from Romantic richness to harmonic weirdness prefiguring the mysticism of Alexander Scriabin. Above all, it requires the pianist-athlete to produce nearly con-stant, room-filling volume, which Mr. Ivanov accomplished magnificently, although he occasionally dropped or buried inconvenient notes as Mr. Horowitz was wont to do. Liszt himself would have been astounded at Mr. Ivanov's ferocious attack. The rapturous crowd demanded encores and got them, including a palate-cleansing Bach transcrip-tion and an impressively frenetic attack on Brahms' vigorous Hungarian Dance No. 6. While Mr. Ivanov should devote more care and feeding to the less showy parts of the repertoire, the big keyboard nukes capture his attention the most -- apropos, perhaps, for a talent that seems bigger than life and one that calls to mind a time not long ago when barnstorming lions such as Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, Paderewsky, Josef Hoffmann and Artur Rubinstein made classical pianists almost as well-known as the movie stars of Hollywood's golden age.


SYMPHONYT H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E A M E R I C A N S Y M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A L E A G U E T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E A M E R I C A N S Y M P H O N Y O R C H E S T R A L E A G U E

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Young Artists Make Their

Moves

j a n u a r y – f e b r u a r y 2 0 0 828 s y m p h o n y 29

6Young artists to watchPe

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With each new season, reports about the talented crop of young new comers arrive at SYMPHONY’s doorstep. Differences in

taste and the sheer heft of each year’s class make it impossible to choose

the absolute “best” up-and-coming orchestral artists. But if, as New Yorker

critic Alex Ross recently stated, “classical music is saving itself,” then these

are six who lend a much-needed personal voice to the process. Unwilling

to sit around and wait for orchestra gigs and big contracts to come in, these

highly committed music ians are out there commissioning new music, self-

producing recordings, organ izing their own ensembles, and engaging with

music-education programs as they carve a niche among classical music’s

elite. On the following pages they share their dis coveries, successes, pet

peeves, and hopes for the future.

Gleb Ivanov is a sternly serious pian ist of the classic Russian school

whose mentors include the late Mstislav Rostro povich. His playing is steeped in his Russian heritage, prompting a Washington Times critic to marvel at pian ism that seemed to recall “the ghost of Horo witz.” Ivanov’s pure, limpid tone, grace ful phrasing, and careful articulation helped him win the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and he was also awarded a grant from YCA’s Jack Romann Special Artists Fund. In the 2005-06 season, he gave his recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. Despite linger ing difficulties with English, the Moscow native speaks forcefully about the importance of not overextending one’s career and his misgivings about contem-porary music—though not with-out dis play ing an adventurous and ambitious side as well. “There is so much music that no one plays that is fantastic,” he says. “I want to play the music that nobody else is playing.”

Favorite musical milestones:I have several moments. First one was when I was a kid, seven or eight. It was the first time I heard Rostropovich conducting Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. It gave me memories for my whole life. I was almost crying. He puts so much passion in the playing.

Another was Claudio Abbado conduc ting Dvorák’s Symphony No. 4. I just admire his way of thinking. He puts so little emphasis on himself in his music-making. He’s from an older generation like Karajan and Kleiber, where this was the norm. Unfortunately today there are very few conductors like that. For those people, the most important thing was music. Now commercialism takes everything. There are a lot of conductors who play more gigs than they should, overextending them selves; quality is the second

point, not the first point. The great Italian tenor Franco Corelli was always keeping [in good] condition. He was fresh because he would sing today one opera and then the day after tomorrow, he would not even speak. Most musicians today are losing that quality control.

Does that apply to your own career?My career just started, but when I play a solo concert it’s nice to have a few days to get back to the right condition, because it’s a very big stress. To play music, it has to take its time. I’d honestly prefer not to play one concert after another, but I know that I will have to do it soon, because the modern world demands it.

Favorite performance:I think it would have to be my Lincoln Center performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in April 2007. We performed Prokofiev [Piano Concerto] No. 3. I don’t think I have ever had such a deep inspir ation as that even ing. The orchestra is an amazing ensemble, and I also felt I was in the best condition of my life.

Favorite classical works:My two favorite works for piano are Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor and Rachmaninoff ’s First Concerto. I care about these pieces like people, and they are hardly played. Rachmaninoff ’s First deserves attention, because it is

a wonderful piece—so fresh for the ear.

Favorite contemporary composer:Lots of people ask me about that. I don’t think about contemporary music as music. It’s something else to me. Most con tempor ary composers have one prin ciple: to make something new—new in-stru ments, new forms—without regard to what is lasting. My [most recent] fav orite was Alfred Schnittke. Even for me it’s very difficult to listen to Shosta-kovich.

Favorite non-classical artist:My hobby is flamenco-style piano because of one musician: [guitarist] Paco De Lucia. He is a hugely important musician for me. He didn’t record only flamenco but also works like Concierto de Aranjuez. I can com pare him with great pianists for sure.

Musical role models:I have two favorite pianists: Evgeny Kissin and Barry Douglas. These people like music first, and themselves only after. With so many conductors and soloists, it’s just, “Only me

first. I am the greatest and you are nobody.” And if they didn’t like somebody they just crush them. Kissin and Douglas have a completely different way of dealing with people and with music. They are so humble.

If you weren’t a pianist:I always have this fantasy that something will happen to the conductor during the concert and I will have to finish the concert for them!

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?All artists have only one thing on their minds, and that is to play more and more and more and to have the opportunity to work. I really want to have a family, actually. I am 25 and I feel it’s time. I want to live my own life and stand on my own two legs.

If you weren’t a musician, what would you do?I would be involved in the Russian Ortho dox Church, as a seminary student. I think I would be a deacon or something. It’s not enough to live without the church. One needs something to keep rules of life, to know what is good.

on the RiseGleb IvanovAge: 25 Piano

Ivanov

“I have two favorite pianists: Evgeny Kissin

and Barry Douglas. These people like music first, and themselves only after. With so many

conductors and soloists, it’s just, ‘Only me first. I am the greatest and you

are nobody.’”

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Chris

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by Jayson Greene

j a n u a r y – f e b r u a r y 2 0 0 828 s y m p h o n y 29

6Young artists to watch

Pete

r Sch

aaf

With each new season, reports about the talented crop of young new comers arrive at SYMPHONY’s doorstep. Differences in

taste and the sheer heft of each year’s class make it impossible to choose

the absolute “best” up-and-coming orchestral artists. But if, as New Yorker

critic Alex Ross recently stated, “classical music is saving itself,” then these

are six who lend a much-needed personal voice to the process. Unwilling

to sit around and wait for orchestra gigs and big contracts to come in, these

highly committed music ians are out there commissioning new music, self-

producing recordings, organ izing their own ensembles, and engaging with

music-education programs as they carve a niche among classical music’s

elite. On the following pages they share their dis coveries, successes, pet

peeves, and hopes for the future.

Gleb Ivanov is a sternly serious pian ist of the classic Russian school

whose mentors include the late Mstislav Rostro povich. His playing is steeped in his Russian heritage, prompting a Washington Times critic to marvel at pian ism that seemed to recall “the ghost of Horo witz.” Ivanov’s pure, limpid tone, grace ful phrasing, and careful articulation helped him win the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and he was also awarded a grant from YCA’s Jack Romann Special Artists Fund. In the 2005-06 season, he gave his recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. Despite linger ing difficulties with English, the Moscow native speaks forcefully about the importance of not overextending one’s career and his misgivings about contem-porary music—though not with-out dis play ing an adventurous and ambitious side as well. “There is so much music that no one plays that is fantastic,” he says. “I want to play the music that nobody else is playing.”

Favorite musical milestones:I have several moments. First one was when I was a kid, seven or eight. It was the first time I heard Rostropovich conducting Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. It gave me memories for my whole life. I was almost crying. He puts so much passion in the playing.

Another was Claudio Abbado conduc ting Dvorák’s Symphony No. 4. I just admire his way of thinking. He puts so little emphasis on himself in his music-making. He’s from an older generation like Karajan and Kleiber, where this was the norm. Unfortunately today there are very few conductors like that. For those people, the most important thing was music. Now commercialism takes everything. There are a lot of conductors who play more gigs than they should, overextending them selves; quality is the second

point, not the first point. The great Italian tenor Franco Corelli was always keeping [in good] condition. He was fresh because he would sing today one opera and then the day after tomorrow, he would not even speak. Most musicians today are losing that quality control.

Does that apply to your own career?My career just started, but when I play a solo concert it’s nice to have a few days to get back to the right condition, because it’s a very big stress. To play music, it has to take its time. I’d honestly prefer not to play one concert after another, but I know that I will have to do it soon, because the modern world demands it.

Favorite performance:I think it would have to be my Lincoln Center performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in April 2007. We performed Prokofiev [Piano Concerto] No. 3. I don’t think I have ever had such a deep inspir ation as that even ing. The orchestra is an amazing ensemble, and I also felt I was in the best condition of my life.

Favorite classical works:My two favorite works for piano are Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor and Rachmaninoff ’s First Concerto. I care about these pieces like people, and they are hardly played. Rachmaninoff ’s First deserves attention, because it is

a wonderful piece—so fresh for the ear.

Favorite contemporary composer:Lots of people ask me about that. I don’t think about contemporary music as music. It’s something else to me. Most con tempor ary composers have one prin ciple: to make something new—new in-stru ments, new forms—without regard to what is lasting. My [most recent] fav orite was Alfred Schnittke. Even for me it’s very difficult to listen to Shosta-kovich.

Favorite non-classical artist:My hobby is flamenco-style piano because of one musician: [guitarist] Paco De Lucia. He is a hugely important musician for me. He didn’t record only flamenco but also works like Concierto de Aranjuez. I can com pare him with great pianists for sure.

Musical role models:I have two favorite pianists: Evgeny Kissin and Barry Douglas. These people like music first, and themselves only after. With so many conductors and soloists, it’s just, “Only me

first. I am the greatest and you are nobody.” And if they didn’t like somebody they just crush them. Kissin and Douglas have a completely different way of dealing with people and with music. They are so humble.

If you weren’t a pianist:I always have this fantasy that something will happen to the conductor during the concert and I will have to finish the concert for them!

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?All artists have only one thing on their minds, and that is to play more and more and more and to have the opportunity to work. I really want to have a family, actually. I am 25 and I feel it’s time. I want to live my own life and stand on my own two legs.

If you weren’t a musician, what would you do?I would be involved in the Russian Ortho dox Church, as a seminary student. I think I would be a deacon or something. It’s not enough to live without the church. One needs something to keep rules of life, to know what is good.

on the RiseGleb IvanovAge: 25 Piano

Ivanov

“I have two favorite pianists: Evgeny Kissin

and Barry Douglas. These people like music first, and themselves only after. With so many

conductors and soloists, it’s just, ‘Only me first. I am the greatest and you

are nobody.’”

Urioste

Newman

de la Parra

KolkayRoe

Chris

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Stei

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by Jayson Greene

gleb ivanov, pianist - young concert · pdf filegleb ivanov, pianist ... for that slot,...

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