Well, well, well 2019 kicks off with something fabulous: very much the maestro of the moment, Freddy Kempf performing Prokofiev (Piano Sonatı Nos 1 and 8), Études by Nikolai Kapustin and Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonata No 2. In his preview of this season’s Istanbul Recitals, John Shakespeare Dyson (Musical Shares describes Kempf’s Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 with the Moscow Philharmonic as ‘riveting’. The audience might also hope for a dash of Chopin as an encore. ‘In Etude No 10’ Dyson writes. ‘He demonstrates his ability to withstand Chopin’s merciless, tendon-trouncing treatment of the right hand’. In short, ‘Freddy is a speed bomb’.
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
