Evgeny Kissin / Emerson String Quartet THE NEW YORK CONCERT

Grammy-winning musicians Evgeny Kissin and the Emerson String Quartet join forces for their debut collaborative album, captured live at a sold out Carnegie Hall concert, to be released on Deutsche Grammophon this Friday, April 12.

Capturing a rare performance of one of the world’s most acclaimed pianists as a chamber musician, this live album is a new gem in DG’s vast catalogue.

The rehearsal and preparation process for the recording created space for a true meeting of minds, allowing Kissin and the Emersons to preserve their individual characteristics while revealing qualities unique to their collaboration. Ideas tested in the rehearsal room were subsequently forged in the heat of performance, unleashing elemental shifts between Classical heroism and Romantic introspection, and drawing out points of dramatic tension and release. Everything flowed, nothing became fixed as Kissin and the Emersons moved from one concert to the next. Last year’s performances “were the highlights of [their] season,” notes ESQ’s Eugene Drucker.

All of the musicians worked enthusiastically together to achieve a synthesis of views, from which emerged their dynamic interpretations of Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor K 478, Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor op. 15 and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major op. 81. Their choice of repertoire also comprised two encore pieces, including the Scherzo from Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor op. 57.

The close mutual understanding established between the “ideally matched” (New York Times) pianist and quartet was apparent to all who witnessed it. Reviewing the Carnegie Hall concert, Bachtrack underlined the “palpable sense of communion.”