Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Cyprien Katsaris in NYC - UPDATED with review, please read.

This Friday, the great French pianist Cyprien Katsaris will be giving a recital in Manhattan at the Yamaha artist center at 689 Fifth. Avenue, 3rd floor. The program is Chopin and Liszt, and the next day he will be giving a series of masterclasses in the same venue, and I will hopefully be a participant. (have'nt got a confirmation yet.)

I hope those of you who live in Manhattan can make it to his recital, because I truly hold him to be one of the greatest artists alive today, and If I do end up playing, I promise to post a report on the experience - it won't be an easy one to forget

He is such a talent!

Thanks for the heads up, Opus_Maximus. I'm going to try to make the recital.

Bernard - you want company? I was thinking about going myself.

Sounds good, jon, the more the merrier!

Opus,

What time will the recital take place and what street? Do you need a ticket and if so what will it cost? I'd like to hear him play.

Thanks

It's 30$ per ticket, and the entrace is on 54th street, right off of 5th ave. You can purchase tickets at the entrance - apparently it's not selling very well.

musdan, I found this on the Yamaha Artist Services web site:

Cyprien Katsaris Recital

Date: Friday, March 10th, 2006
Time:8:00PM
Place:Yamaha Artist Services Inc. 689 Fifth Avenue, NYC 3rd Floor Piano Salon
Admission: $30
Reservations: Please call (212) 252-5336

Hey Opus_Maximus! Looks like we responded in sync! Hee hee.

Opus and Bernard thanks for the info

Actually, he's French-Cypriot. What works are to be played? He did a wonderful Beethoven piano concerto no.3 in Athens this past fall.

It would do better if Yamaha Artist Services advertised these events.

I try to keep up on recitals etc, most are free or have a low ticket price - I wasn't aware of the Yamaha Artist events. Thanks for the information.

Found a website by chance New York City Classical Concerts, list his concert and says that he will announce program from the stage.

I'll be there. Anyone else going?

Hi musdan, yes, I'm planning on being there. So is jon-nyc. How shall we recognize you?

I will be wearing a dark green down coat.

How will know you?

I'll be wearing a brown micro-fiber coat, no hat (it's gorgeous out today isn't it!?), my hair is sort of short.

jon is on the tall side.

It is great out and too warm for a down coat. So it will be my trusty raincoat - the usual khaki color - will have dance pin on the left collar.

I just retured from the Katsaris recital, and returned with dire need to express my feelings for the evening I just lived.

To put it bluntly, the concert was the best I've ever attended in my life. I don't know which other members went, but I went, and there are not enough words to express the genius that I saw tonight. The program was informal. Sadly, only about 50 people showed up to a small piano showcase room - a room far too small than it should have been to exhibit the freak of nature that it did. There was no program, Katsaris simply announced the pieces as he went along. He began with several Unknown Liszt works, then continued to play some Mozart pieces - pieces by Mozart's father, him, and his son, and then a piano transcription of the 40th symphony. He concluded the first half with the "Banjo" by Gottshshalk. His performance was marked by a brilliant technique and a certain Horowitzian "sparkle" that sent chills down the spine of everyone in the audience. But most dominant was his keen ear for the polyphonic nature of the music, everything was played as if it were Bach - with a sudden extra voice just appearing out of nowhere and making everyone feel as if they were hearing a piece for the first time. After intermission, he played a piece by a contemporary composer, and then concluded the concert with several works by Chopin ; some etudes, the Fantasie impromptu, the 9/2 Nocturne and Bercuse. It was in the Chopin that his brilliance shined the most. NEVER in my life, not by Rubeinstein, Horowitz, or Cortot have I heard such Chopin playing. The music simply channeled through him almost as if he were a reincarnation. In the etudes he extended himself and the music to a level I previously didn't think possible. He made instant retards, illuminations of inner voices, and exuded a tone that crushed all possibility of criticism. There were several moments when I felt that this man was greater than Chopin himself, simply because of the naturalness of execution and continuation of line. This wasn't even a concert - it was a testimony to life, death, and everything in between. After the Chopin, he gave a short lecture about how Bach's music portray's the "harmony of the spheres", and how mathematically it is exactly proportional to the universe, exemplified by an extraordinary performance of the first prelude in C major. He concluded with his own arrangement of the Toccata in fugue in D minor, which was the most intense, original, personal, and dramatic thing I have ever heard. After the concert I had a chance to meet and talk to this great man (and will be playing for him tomorrow). He is quite a personality: there was a pretty young girl talking to him, and after a few minutes, he simply asked is he could kiss her! Then I got a chance to have a talk with him, and he is one of the most
generous and sincere people I've ever met, taking time to discuss music and politics.

It will help me sleep better tonight - this concert will - humbled enough as I am to be born into a world where I can co-exist
with a human being of such spiritual stature.

Are Katsaris' recordings equally spell-binding? If they aren't, then perhaps you aren't making a fair comparison between his live performance, and the recordings of the pianists you mentioned in comparison (Horowitz, Cortot, Rubinstein... I assume you haven't heard them live)?

Does anyone know when the Katsaris master class starts today?