Daniil Trifonov salutes Russia’s ‘Silver Age’

Note: Due to illness, Daniil Trifonov has postponed his SCP Piano recital, part of a multi-city U.S. tour. The rescheduled date is March 6, and tickets for Nov. 12/Feb. 5 will be honored. Flexible options, including exchanging tickets for other concerts, are also available. More information is available at cso.org or by calling Symphony Center Patron Services at (312) 294-3000.

Born in Russia and an alumnus of the Cleveland Institute of Music, pianist Daniil Trifonov has put down roots in a city that many wouldn’t necessarily associate with him: New York.

“I already felt comfortable here,” said Trifonov during an interview with the New York Times. “New York just felt like my kind of city.” Accordingly, he had a 2019-20 season residency with the New York Philharmonic, where he has become a regular since his 2012 debut there.

He likes to limit his time on the road, since he "doesn’t like living out of a suitcase." His latest tour brings him to Chicago for an SCP Piano recital on Feb. 5. His program consists of Prokofiev’s Sarcasms, Op. 17; Szymanowski’s Sonata No. 3, Op. 36; Debussy’s Pour le piano, and Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5.

The program is inspired in part by his latest disc “Silver Age” (2020, Deutsche Grammophon), recorded with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, featuring three giants of Russian music: Scriabin, Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

“The Silver Age period of art in Russian history is not a single aesthetic, but describes an increasingly fractured social, political and intellectual environment — a cocktail of different artistic expressions, in agitated interaction,” Trifonov explains in the disc’s liner notes. “Scriabin wished to combine all aesthetic experience in a single, mystical, musical vision; Stravinsky unified the arts through a radical reinterpretation of ballet; Prokofiev, meanwhile, embraced cinema as the most complete and modern synthesis of the senses.”

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