He is a renowned performer of the Central European piano repertoire; his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert have received unanimous acclaim worldwide. He was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for his services to music, and his musical approach has earned him followers all over the world.
He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Philharmonic Orchestras Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of New York and Los Angeles, the Symphony Orchestras of Chicago and London, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. His close relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led to him being appointed a Koussevitzky Artist 2020 at Tanglewood.
With an affinity for Beethoven, he took part in the BBC documentary “Being Beethoven”, and he performed the series of concerts at Tanglewood in 2022. A series that he performed around the world, including with the Camera Musicae Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestras of Melbourne and the São Paulo State, and the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra, and he was the first pianist to play the complete series in a season at BBC Proms in 2010.
In addition to many award-winning recordings of Beethoven, his discography with Harmonia Mundi shows his characteristic approach in the Romantic repertoire of Schumann, Mussorgsky, Brahms and Liszt. In chamber music, he is a regular at the Wigmore Hall, where he has played over 100 times. He works with Mark Padmore on Lied performances, together they have recorded three series of songs by Schubert.
He has received awards such as Instrumentalist of the Year of the Royal Philharmonic Society, two Edison, three Gramophone, Diapason d'Or de l'Annee, the South Bank Show Classical Music Award and honorary degrees from the universities of Liverpool, Edge Hill and Southampton.
He has given performances in the Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully, Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Konzerthaus, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie and Berlin Konzerthaus, and participated in the festivals of Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schubertiade, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lucerne.
(*) Foto: ©Kharkiv Music Festival