Grigory Sokolov, piano

The 74-year-old Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov occupies one of the highest places in the pantheon of piano masters, with several critics over the years having proclaimed him the world’s greatest living pianist. His remarkable talent began attracting attention when he was just 12 and at 16 he became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Owing to the political situation at the time, however, he was limited to performances in his homeland. His international breakthrough did not come until the late 1980s, after which he rapidly became one of the world’s most sought-after musicians, performing with all the world’s most prestigious orchestras. After a few years, however, he realised that the easiest way for him to express his musical vision was through piano recitals. Since then he has given no more than around 70 performances a year, taking the time to prepare every recital programme with care and immersing himself in it fully before presenting it to an audience.
The programme of this concert brings together two apparently entirely different musical traditions – Renaissance polyphony and Romantic expressiveness. Despite the historical distance that separates them, William Byrd and Johannes Brahms share a passion for a dense yet elegant interweaving of voices and demand an attentive listener who is able to recognise the profound musicality that lies in the apparent simplicity of their compositions. Both composers call for an interpreter capable of finding, in an echo of the pathos of folk music, their subtle but nonetheless intense musical expression.