-[people speaking French] -[background chatter] [Christopher] This man has a gift.

Of its kind, one of the finest and one of the rarest.

His name is Evgeny Kissin, and his gift is the gift of music.

[frantic classical piano playing] His success with his public is extraordinary, and off stage he is relaxed and informal.

But give him a good piano and a large audience, and he will be possessed by his gift, and, with a glittering cascade of notes, will dazzle and lift the spirits of thousands of people.

Not now and again, but again and again and again and again and again.

[upbeat violin concerto] [audience cheering and applauding fervently] [frantic piano playing] [music transitions to sweeter tones] [music swells] [rapid staccato playing] [climaxes triumphant] [cheers and applause] [melancholic classical piano playing] [Christopher] His music has a quality which neither he nor anyone else can explain.

But more than that, it is a quality which touches the imagination and, without words, seems to speak directly to the senses.

[pensive piano music] Gifts of this kind are inborn, but they flower only with years of the most uncompromising hard work from both pupil and teacher... and Evgeny Kissin's teacher is Anna Pavlovna Kantor.

She has been his mentor since he was six years old.

They are preparing for a recital at the Festival of La Roque d'Anthéron in the south of France, and Kissin is an artist who prepares with a diligence and a commitment that are quite remarkable.

And for the very best of reasons.

In this evening's recital, he will play more than 30,000 musical notes, all in perfect sequence, all in the most delicate balance... and all from memory.

That is a feat that is beyond the imagination of most people.

And moreover, he will do it with a limpid clarity that is given to very, very few.

But even these astonishing things are not what matter most.

There is something else, something between the notes or behind the notes, or contained within the notes that generates in his audiences an extraordinary enthusiasm, a deep response which is just as indefinable as his gift.

[pensive piano playing] In short, he is already, even in his youth, a master musician in the tradition of the great virtuosi of the past, whose names have remained alive long after they themselves are gone.

[music swells] [tender playing] [background laughter] [applause] Thank you.

[Christopher] Evgeny Igorevich Kissin was born in Moscow on the 10th of October, 1971.

His father, Igor Borisovich, an engineer, and his mother, Emilia Aronovna a piano teacher.

At the age of six, his parents took him to the Moscow Gnessin School of Music for Gifted Children, and that is where he met Anna Pavlovna Kantor.

Under her guidance, he made his concert debut at the age of 10 at Ulyanovsk, where Lenin was born in Mozart's D Minor Piano Concerto.

He gave his recital debut at the age of 11 in the concert hall of the House of Composers in Moscow, and he has been playing regularly in public ever since.

[up-tempo jolly piano playing] And so, at the age of 24, he is an international concert pianist at the highest level, and with 14 years of experience already behind him.

[power climax] [speaking Russian] [Christopher] He still seeks the guidance of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, and she is still willing to give it: an arrangement that might seem surprising until one knows how well the relationship works, how long it has lasted, and how it all started.

[down-tempo sentimental piano playing] [Evgeny] I do remember how we entered the school and how Anna Pavlovna Kantor came in the lobby.

She was dressed in green.

But what happened afterwards?

I don't remember.

Uh, but Anna Pavlovna told me a lot about that later on.

She said... I was doing many interesting things, playing The Nutcracker, the third Chopin ballade, improvising.

She would ask me to improvise about... the dark forest, and then about the bright sun.

And then she would ask me to repeat what I had just played and I wouldn't be able to, I wouldn't remember anything.

She wouldn't believe this and would ask me to play another waltz or another march, and I would play something completely different.

And she invited a couple of other teachers, and I was accepted... to the Gnessin School, where I... was to study for 12 years.

[jolly staccato piano music] From what my mother and Anna Pavlovna tell me, during my first year of studying, I simply could not practice more than 20-minutes a day.

During the rest of the day, I would be sitting and playing for pleasure.

[chuckles] Uh... In my second year, uh, the amount of working time went up to one hour.

Three years later, I think up to four hours I could manage.

[Christopher] So there was already a distinction of a sort -between playing for pleasure... -Oh, yes.

[Christopher] ...and the obligation to practice.

I was always lazy.

[chuckles] [piano music continues] I've had one teacher, the same Anna Pavlovna Kantor, for 20 years already.

It so happened that we matched extremely well, unbelievably well, both musically and personally, and, uh, in course of the years that I was studying with Anna Pavlovna, she gradually became a member of our family because she never had a family of her own.

When I was about to graduate from the Gnessin School, it was assumed... that I would go to the famous Moscow Conservatoire.

But the administration of the then Gnessin Institute offered to Anna Pavlovna to continue to teach me at the Gnessin Institute.

We both accepted the offer, and I stayed with her.

Yeah, why fix what's not broken?

[interviewer chuckles] [Christopher] And so the close relationship continues in a life now of almost constant traveling.

It has become a restless life with everchanging needs, and some of them, not a little surprising.

A life of perpetual movement in almost every part of the world, but always revolving around the music as focus, as solace, and as reward.

[peppy piano music] [music swells] [music softens and ends] [fervent cheers and applause] [Christopher] Tell us how all this started.

[Evgeny] My older sister, who is 10-and-a-half years older than me... studied piano at the time when I was born, and my parents were absolutely delighted that I was such a quiet child.

I would stand all day long in my cot, quietly.

All of a sudden, on one fine day, when I was 11 months old, I sang the theme of the Bach's Fugue.

My sister was studying at the time.

[plays melody from Fugue ] And only then did my parents realize that I had been listening to my sister's playing all the time.

And from that moment on, according to what my parents tell me, I started singing practically everything I heard from my sister, from the radio, from the records.

And then... uh, at the age of two, when I grew up tall enough to reach the keyboard, I started playing first with one finger, then with all the fingers.

Again... everything I heard from wherever.

[Christopher] If I remember correctly, one of the pieces that you began to sing that you heard your sister play was a Beethoven piece.

Is that right?

Rage Over the Lost Penny.

That's right.

[Christopher] How old were you then?

One year, a year and a half, something like that.

[chuckles] [Christopher] What's the theme of it?

[plays melody from Rage Over a Lost Penny] Yeah, but I would, uh, sing it-- [chuckles] We've got a recording of me singing it-- Uh... [continues playing melody] I would sing it with, uh, the following rhythm... [adds swing to melody] ...instead of... [reverts to original rhythm] Yeah.

[Christopher] So you were improvising already?

[chuckles] Yeah, I mean, I started improvising very early, I believe, as early as I started playing.

[Christopher] But was this a pleasure?

Was it an attraction?

How did it feel inside this this movement towards music all the time?

I don't really remember.

I believe that... it was something... completely and totally natural, something I couldn't possibly live, uh, without.

That was the thing I liked to do most far more than anything else in the world: sitting at the piano and playing for my own pleasure, all day long, or listening to music, listening to records, LPs.

Even in my early school years, when I would come home from school, I would, without even taking my coat and hat off, I would rush to the piano, sit down, and play for a while, and my mother wouldn't stop me because, uh, she realized that was something I needed.

An urge which wasn't to be stopped, wasn't to be disturbed.

[ Rage Over a Lost Penny music] In my very first public performances, I played my own compositions.

Yeah, uh... [nervous chuckle] The program would say, "Kissin Four Pieces performed by the author."

And I remember... at one of those concerts, having played... I went into the audience, and I remember when I was walking between the rows towards my seat... a man I was passing by said to someone, "Here he is, the author," as I was that tall.

[chuckles] [Christopher] Do you remember any of those pieces?

-Yes, I do, yeah.

I-- -[Christopher chuckles] [Christopher] What's your, what's your favorite theme from, from one of your early pieces?

I don't know.

I could show you some.

I would, uh... and I think that was the first, the very first piece I wrote down.

Uh, it's called Morning Song.

[tender piano playing] Etc.. Uh... Or there was a New Year March.

[upbeat rhythmic piano playing] [chuckles] Has been a long time since I played those.

I was often ill with pneumonia in those years.

Lying in bed and composing all day long.

[ Morning Song music] When I was already 17, one of the leading music critics in Russia wrote an article about me, and he said many wonderful things about me in the article.

But at the end of it, he criticized... some things in my playing.

And the added passage read as follows.

"In general, one gets an impression that, "up till now, "everything has been easy for Kissin in piano playing, "sometimes even too easy.

"Both pluses and minuses of his art "come from that fact.

"Now, uh, we only hear in his playing "what comes from his great natural gift.

"This is, of course, wonderful, "but, in future, something definitely has to change.

"What?

When?

In which way?

Everything will depend on that."

Uh, as you see, I remembered those words.

[church bell tolling] [cheerful piano music] [Christopher] Saanenland in Switzerland.

To play Schubert's Trout Quintet with Gidon Kremer in the Old Church at Saanen as part of the Gstaad Summer Music Festival, with Clemens and Veronika Hagen playing cello and viola, and Alois Posch playing the double bass.

[upbeat peppy classical music] [indistinct chatter] [Christopher] This is to be their first read-through of the music and Evgeny Kissin's first musical encounter with Veronika Hagen.

It is also his first visit to the Gstaad Festival and Gidon Kremer's first year as artistic director.

[music continues] [music swells] [music crescendos and transitions to tender tones] [crescendos to climax dramatically] [speaking foreign language] [Alois chuckles] Um, which language should we talk?

[chuckles] English, I guess English.

-English, in English, yeah.

-In English.

Let's play Trout in English.

[chuckles] Um... anything?

Um, I have just one, one little thought, uh, about diminuendo in bar 179, for example, and 203.

As the latest research goes, if it's original... [Alois] Yeah.

...it should be also, uh, a bit slowing down.

-[Alois] Slowing down.

-Right.

-[Gidon] Yeah?

-[Veronika] Yeah.

So I don't feel like we did it quite consciously, everyone.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

So I wouldn't mind to play it once more.

I feel a bit tense still, so without-- It's also a little bit fast.

-It's a bit fast.

-Definitely.

It's on the edge of being fast.

We feel that it's on the edge of being a bit fast, but if you feel comfortable-- Yeah, I mean, just a little bit tense because of that.

But, uh, we, of course, we can play in this tempo.

It's just, let's feel it a little bit more freely.

Yeah, that's right.

157, we were too loud?

Uh-huh.

Oh, yeah, that could be.

Yeah, we should.

That's real pianissimo, yeah.

-[mouths stomping rhythm] -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's do it once more without a beat now, -but only for now.

Okay?

-[Alois] Mm-hmm.

[all strike harmonically] [Veronika speaks German] Uh-huh, okay.

[all strike harmonically] [Alois] [chuckles softly] [soothing legato playing] [music transitions to melodic rumble] [dramatic crescendo] [tender playing] [melodic rumble to dramatic climax] [Christopher] Do you ever suffer from that terrible malady called stage fright?

Well, sometimes on special occasions.

For instance, uh, a few weeks ago, I returned to Moscow for the first time in five and a half years, and before the first concert, I gave two recitals there.

I was terribly nervous.

I started with the Bach-Busoni Chaconne and, uh... No, why?

It's a good piece to start with, but, uh, throughout the first half of it, I was... very nervous.

I was indeed suffering.

Uh, [chuckles] but then I arrived to a very difficult spot, technically not a spot.

A few bars, which I had prepared well and which I played well, and from then on, my nervousness started fading away.

Also, when I played my very first recital, at Carnegie Hall on September 30th, 1990, also a very special occasion.

And throughout the first half I was very nervous and, uh... I did suffer.

But, again, the performance didn't suffer too much because I had prepared well.

[ceremonial piano music] Thank you so much.

Can I shake your hand?

Thank you so much.

Pa!

[Christopher] London, in the second-hottest August since records began, to play what promises to be one of the most important recitals of his career so far.

He's now 25.

He's been invited by BBC Radio 3 to play the first solo recital in the 103-year-history of the Promenade concerts.

And he knows that they're hoping for the biggest audience in all of those years.

[up-tempo ceremonial piano playing] To make the most of the occasion, the BBC has placed the piano in the arena where it will be surrounded by the promenade.

[playing continues] The Promenaders are probably the most vocal audience for classical music in the world, and one of the most enthusiastic, but they are not uncritical and they are extremely well informed.

And so this is to be a major test.

And as always, Evgeny Kissin puts his faith in scrupulous and seemingly tireless preparation.

[applause] [cheering] [peppy staccato piano music] [transitions to somber tones] [reverts to up-tempo ceremonial tones] [applause] [Christopher] Spontaneous applause from the Promenaders at the end of the first movement of Haydn's last great sonata, number 52 in E flat.

[pleasant piano playing with increasing tempo] [music swells] [tempo increases further] [music swells] [reverts to original tempo] [transitions to dramatic tones] [triumphant climax] [fervent cheers and applause] [Christopher] On a Sunday afternoon in August, they have the biggest Prom audience ever, very nearly 6,000 people, and it is already clear that this is an historic occasion, with a public response probably unequaled by any other piano recital in London during the past 50 years.

[cheers] In the first half, Evgeny Kissin has played late Haydn and virtuoso Liszt.

The second half will be given entirely to Chopin, a composer for whom he has felt a particular affinity since his early childhood.

[dramatic piano playing] [transitions to pensive tones] [music swells] [tender piano playing] [music swells gradually] [dramatic piano playing] [music swells] [climaxes triumphant] [ecstatic applause and cheers] [Christopher] The occasion has been an extraordinary time for the Promenade concert, and, above all, for Evgeny Igorevich Kissin who has played to the biggest audience in his career so far and generated an enthusiasm that may make this one of the most remembered of all Promenade concerts.

And the feast is not yet over.

He is about to embark on the longest succession writing in the history of the company.

He begins with Anton Rubinstein's arrangement of the Turkish March and The Ruins of Athens by Beethoven.

[individual woman cheering indistinctly] [laughter, shushes] Beethoven.

The Turkish March.

[applause] Piano arrangement by Anton Rubinstein.

[mild excited murmurs] [pleasant staccato piano playing] [music swells] [music softens] [closes pleasantly] [fervent cheers and applause] [Christopher] Evgeny Kissin is not alone among pianists in feeling a close affinity with the music and the spirit of Frédéric Chopin.

In many ways, Chopin is his preferred composer, and there will be no less than three Chopin pieces in this extraordinary succession of encore.

The first of them will be the Grande Valse in A-flat, opus 34, number one.

A Grand Waltz by Chopin.

[dramatic piano playing] [pleasant waltz rhythm playing] [music swells] [music transitions to sentimental tones] [music swells] [reverts to sentimental tones] [music swells and softens] [reverts to original waltz rhythm and swells dramatically] [reverts to pleasant tones] [music swells] [rapid playing and closes triumphantly] [cheers and applause] [audience stomps and claps in increasing tempo] [applause] [Christopher] He'll play next an arrangement of La Campanella by Paganini.

Niccolò Paganini is thought of as the greatest of all violin virtuoso, and the arrangement is by Franz Liszt, who is among the greatest of all piano virtuoso.

[cheering] This is one of the highlights of the virtuoso repertoire, and one which is already very much associated with Evgeny Kissin.

Paganini-Liszt La Campanella.

[audience gasps mildly and applauds] [suspensive piano playing] [whimsical, deep piano playing] [music swells] [tones intensify] [reverts to whimsical, deep playing] [rapid-pace trill playing] [music swells] [tones intensify] [reverts to whimsical, deep playing] [music swells dramatically] [music crescendos to ceremonial tones] [climaxes dramatic] [ecstatic cheers and applause] [Evgeny] From when I started playing recitals in the West, almost from the beginning, I started on Anna Pavlovna's directions, finishing my programs with virtuoso pieces, Liszt’s rhapsodies, Liszt’s Transcendental Études, Brahms' Paganini Variations, Schumann’s Toccata, etcetera, etcetera.

I never even liked that very much.

Not that I hated it, but, uh, I didn't like the idea.

However, one shouldn't forget about the tastes of the audiences.

This does not mean at all that one has to compromise with his conscience as a musician.

It only means that one should remember certain things.

And, uh, if one doesn't please one's listeners, one will lose them.

[applause] But this past season, for the first time, I put all four Chopin ballads in the second half of my program.

No virtuosity for the sake of the virtuosity.

Anna Pavlovna was a little bit worried, but the reception was, uh, extremely enthusiastic everywhere.

So I hope that, in a few years' time, if my career goes well, I won't have to... think about those things any longer.

Honestly, not because I am lazy to practice all those... [chuckles] ...works of transcendental difficulties, but simply because I'm more interested in other things.

[romantic piano playing] [music swells emotively] [music intensifies] [music softens] [music swells emotively] [transitions to tender tones] [music fades out tenderly] [applause] [Christopher] Next, an arrangement by Leopold Godowsky of Franz Schubert's Moment Musical No.

3 in F minor.

[cheers] Schubert's Moments Musicaux, arrangement by Leopold Godowsky.

[plays a whimsical rhythm with melancholic tones] [music swells gradually and emotively] [transitions to pleasant tones] [music closes pleasantly] [cheers and applause] [excited cheering] Beethoven Rondo a capriccio, Rage Over the Lost Penny.

[rapid pleasant piano playing] [music swells] [music softens and swells] [transitions to playful rhythm and tones] [reverts to rapid pleasant playing] [music swells] [plays legato and intensifies] [music swells dramatically] [music swells dramatically and softens] [music abruptly crescendos] [music rumbles softly] [climaxes dramatic] [fervent cheers and applause] [Christopher] This astonishing recital in the Royal Albert Hall in London has now been in progress for more than two-and-a-half hours with a single intermission.

But the enthusiasm both of the audience and of Evgeny Kissin is still running high.

He will return to his preferred composer, Frederic Chopin, for the two final pieces: The Mazurka in A minor, opus 67, number four and the posthumous Waltz in E minor.

[applause] A mazurka by Chopin.

[bittersweet piano playing] [transitions to pleasant tones and swells] [music softens] [reverts to bittersweet playing] [closes bittersweet] [applauding] [cheering] [audience stopping and clapping with increasing tempo] [excited cheering and applause] Another waltz by Chopin.

[audience laughs] [rapid intense piano playing] [rapid mischievous playing] [legato playing] [rapid intense playing] [reverts to legato] [reverts to rapid intense playing] [plays legato and sentimental tones] [abrupt dramatic playing] [reverts to legato] [abrupt dramatic playing] [reverts to legato] [reverts to rapid mischievous playing and intensifies] [climaxes dramatic] [audience erupts with cheers and applause] [excited chatter] [audience claps and stomps rhythmically] [cheers and applause] Thank you very much.

Thank you.

[Woman] Thank you.

[Woman 2] Absolutely wonderful.

-[Evgeny] Thank you.

-[Woman 2] Thank you!

[laughs] [excited laughter and chatter] [bittersweet piano music] [mild applause] [Evgeny] What if I had my gift for music but had no love for music?

When one has real love for music, it's much easier to fight other temptations, potentially destructive temptations, and even to cope with life's difficulties.

An artist should always remain loyal to his art.

But all of this, I think, comes from love.

[music continues]