Is Kissin a burnout?

[orlandopiano]

I used to love looking forward to his recordings (as infrequent as they were), but what's with this guy lately? Seems like an eternity since he gave us a truely inspired disc. I'm sure he still has that legendary immaculate technic, but his last few discs have been cold and have had very questionable repertoire.

Come on Kissin, give us a Ravel disc. Or Debussy... if this is out of your range, then shoot how about a Chopin Etudes disc? I'm sure you could put that together in your sleep.

[moon1]

Yeah.... wonder what happened to Kssin lately?  Someone who knows? Keep practising!

[chromatickler]

then shoot how about a Chopin Etudes disc?

U HAFF ZPIRIT 

[stringoverstrung]

i went to a concert of his last year. I was more then 2 hours early and heared some piano sounds coming from the concert hall. I sneaked in and there he was practicing. In the hall it was just him, me and...

his mother.


His mother interrupted him regularly shouting out directions in Russian. Unfortunately I do not understand any Russian.
It has been said that he is in some sense a robot performing the musical ideas of his mother (i know i'm exaggerating). I can hardly imagine this but i must say that this event contributed to this myth/truth(?).

I can imagine that if this were the case even in the slightest degree that it cannot be good for his personal evolution. At some point this must lead to trouble. Of course this is purely hypothetical. I don't want to offend anybody and certainly not Mr. Kissin.   

[zheer]

Am really amazed that his mother still travels with him, he is 34 years old now, was his piano teacher with him.

[orlandopiano]

i went to a concert of his last year. I was more then 2 hours early and heared some piano sounds coming from the concert hall. I sneaked in and there he was practicing. In the hall it was just him, me and...

his mother.


His mother interrupted him regularly shouting out directions in Russian. Unfortunately I do not understand any Russian.
It has been said that he is in some sense a robot performing the musical ideas of his mother (i know i'm exaggerating). I can hardly imagine this but i must say that this event contributed to this myth/truth(?).

I can imagine that if this were the case even in the slightest degree that it cannot be good for his personal evolution. At some point this must lead to trouble. Of course this is purely hypothetical. I don't want to offend anybody and certainly not Mr. Kissin.   

I am pretty sure that was his piano teacher you saw, Anna Pavlovna Kantor. She has remained his only piano teacher and mentor his entire life and follows him to many of his concerts.

[BoliverAllmon]

I concur it was his piano teacher.

[steve jones]

I wonder if she has heard of a wonderful new invention - the hair brush 

[stringoverstrung]

I wonder if she has heard of a wonderful new invention - the hair brush 

you're probably right but still it didn't look healthy on a personal level  to an (ignorant) outsider but of course everyone is different

[librisgeek]

I used to love looking forward to his recordings (as infrequent as they were), but what's with this guy lately? Seems like an eternity since he gave us a truely inspired disc. I'm sure he still has that legendary immaculate technic, but his last few discs have been cold and have had very questionable repertoire.

Come on Kissin, give us a Ravel disc. Or Debussy... if this is out of your range, then shoot how about a Chopin Etudes disc? I'm sure you could put that together in your sleep.

I went to one of his concerts recently... Beethoven concerti.  I had seen this woman in the front row... it seemed to me at the time that she wasn't watching for pleasure.   She was leaning in close... it seemed like she was watching... I don't know what... his fingering???  Well... the way a piano teacher would anyways.  Maybe that was her.    I don't know about an inspired disc, but I would pay to see that concert again any day.  It was the first time I have seen him live and I kept wanting to clap or... giggle... it just filled me with such emotion.  For discs, though, his Carnegie hall Chopin performance is my favorite "classical" cd of all time.  I don't have all of his discs, so I'm not sure about recent ones. 

[cherub_rocker1979]

I used to love looking forward to his recordings (as infrequent as they were), but what's with this guy lately? Seems like an eternity since he gave us a truely inspired disc. I'm sure he still has that legendary immaculate technic, but his last few discs have been cold and have had very questionable repertoire.

Come on Kissin, give us a Ravel disc. Or Debussy... if this is out of your range, then shoot how about a Chopin Etudes disc? I'm sure you could put that together in your sleep.

I don't know what you're talking about.  I've been a big fan of his since the early 90s and I think his recent CDs of Medtner, Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, and Mussorgsky are quite good.  I like them as much as his older stuff like the Rachmaninoff Concerto no. 2/Etudes-Tableaux, Carnegie Hall Chopin Recitals 1 and 2, Liszt Transcendental Etudes, etc.

[quantum]

He just came to my town in October and played all 5 Beethoven concerti in 2 concerts, 2 days apart.  I wouldn't call that burnout.  They were spectacular performances. 

[musicsdarkangel]

Kissin is an excellent pianist, no wonder what people say,

but yes, he can be a burnout.


He still has it within' him... we all have our ups and downs.


I'd love to hear a great Gaspard, Sonatine, Le Tombeau de Couperin or La Valse from him.