Evgeny Kissin at Orange: Mussorgski & Encores
On 9th of July 2001, Evgeny Kissin played a truly memorable piano recital in the old Roman theatre at Orange in the south of France, as part of the Chorégies d'Orange Summer Festival and although it rained, twice, in the two hours before it began, he nevertheless drew an audience of more than 4000 people and generated an extraordinary public enthusiasm.
Perhaps it had something to do with the antique Roman stones, which have been attracting the public for 2000 years, or the Mediterranean spirit of the French summer festivals. It certainly had to do with the fact that Kissin’s interpretations are becoming more and more penetrating. It is difficult to imagine a more telling performance of the Mussorgski Pictures.
Modest Mussorgski: Pictures at an Exhibition; Glinka, Balakirev: The Lark; Rimsky Korsakov, Rachmaninoff: The Flight of the Bumblebee; Alfred Grünfeld: Fantasy on themes from Strauss Waltzes; Alexander Scriabin: Etude, Op. 8 No. 12; Franz Liszt: Paraphrase de concert - Rigoletto, (Bella figlia dell'amore)