Joaquín Achúcarro - Recital at the Guggenheim, Bilbao

On occasion of this 90th birthday, internationally acclaimed pianist Joaquín Achúcarro delivers a magnificent performance, brimming with warmth, colour, and a full display of his unpaired technique, of some of his signature pieces by favourite composers such as Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Liszt. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is the perfect setting for this exuberant celebration of his extraordinary art and timeless musicianship. 
 
Achúcarro has performed in over 60 countries with the world’s most highly regarded orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Scala of Milan, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra or Tokyo Philharmonic - to name just a few - under the baton of many of the world’s finest conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, Zubin Mehta or Sir Simon Rattle. His “kaleidoscopic sound” and expressive legato have often been compared to the magic sonority of the greatest artists of times past, such as Rubinstein or Cortot.

“Achúcarro is the consummate artist. The man is the music, and the music is the man.” Chicago Sun Times

"I am old enough to remember the generation of pianists who had a different type of sound, a different type of legato, compared with the great pianists now, and there are very few of them left. The piano is a very recalcitrant instrument – it is an aural illusion; the piano is a percussive instrument: you should hear an attack and the death of the sound, and then the next attack. Some extraordinary pianists, and Joaquin is one of them, can make it appear that the piano goes legato and that the notes grow into each other... There is a very particular sound that he can make that now very, very few pianists can make. It's a very rare thing and it's instantly recognizable" Sir Simon Rattle