Pavel Kolesnikov

Named a BBC Radio New Generation Artist in 2014, pianist Pavel Kolesnikov is among the boldest of the young Russian and Eastern European artists who have made their marks on London's vibrant piano scene. He has become a staple of the major Hyperion label. Kolesnikov has performed and recorded with his musical and personal partner, pianist Samson Tsoy. In 2024, they released an album of four-hand piano works by Schubert and Leonid Desyatnikov. Kolesnikov was born in Novosibirsk, Russia, then part of the Soviet Union, on February 25, 1989. The remote Central Asian city had a strong classical music culture to which he was exposed as a child. Kolesnikov studied both piano and violin, settling definitively on the former instrument only in his mid-teens. In 2007, he enrolled at the Moscow State Conservatory after traveling to the city to witness the Tchaikovsky Competition; there, he met Tsoy, and the pair formed a relationship. He quickly stood out, winning designation as a President's Order Young Talent of Russia in his first year. By 2011, Kolesnikov had entered the Tchaikovsky Competition himself, coming away with a Special Jury Prize. The following year, he won Canada's Honens Prize for piano, an honor that spread his name among concert bookers, as did his designation as a BBC New Generation Artist from 2014 to 2016. In 2012, Kolesnikov moved to London. His reasons were musical-philosophical: he found the Russian school overly romantic in its orientation and hoped to add external influences to his style. Continuing his studies with Maria João Pires in Belgium, he began to find recital and chamber music opportunities in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. He gave a critically lauded debut recital at London's Wigmore Hall in 2014 and has gone on to appear at major venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Louvre in Paris, and Seoul's Kumho Art Hall. Kolesnikov's Honens performances were recorded and issued as the pianist's recording debut in 2013. He was signed to the Hyperion label the following year and released an album featuring Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. His real critical breakthrough came with his sophomore Hyperion release, a set of Chopin mazurkas issued in 2016. With bold, highly atmospheric readings of such familiar pieces as the Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4, the album won the prestigious Diapason d'Or award in late 2016. Beginning in the late 2010s, Kolesnikov has issued annual albums on Hyperion, including, in 2020, one of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. His repertory ranges far beyond Russian music, both on recordings and in performance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kolesnikov and Tsoy made online broadcasts together and resolved to devote themselves to duo piano music. In 2024, they issued an album of works by Schubert and Leonid Desyatnikov on the Harmonia Mundi label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi