World premiere in the Fürstenhaus
World star Evgeny Kissin plays in the world premiere of his Piano Trio op. 6 at the conferral of an honorary doctorate in Weimar
Since his childhood, the world-class pianist Evgeny Kissin has had a personal connection to the work of Franz Liszt, for which he has always rendered outstanding services. His outstanding achievements as one of the most important pianists of our time and his Liszt interpretations are the main reasons for the award of an honorary doctorate to Evgeny Kissin by the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar on Saturday, 22 October at 7:30 pm in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus.
Like Liszt, Kissin is also active as a composer: He will play in the premiere of his latest composition - the Piano Trio op. 6 - during the ceremony.
Another composition from the pianist's pen will be heard during the ceremony within the festivities celebrating the 150th anniversary of the university: The exquisite Weimar Gropius Quartet with Friedemann Eichhorn and Indira Koch (violins), Alexia Eichhorn (viola) and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt (violoncello) will play Kissin's String Quartet op. 3, which has already been performed several times by different ensembles in Europe and in North America. Admission is free!
Evgeny Kissin himself will play the piano part in the world premiere of his Trio op. 6 and will perform with the Weimar professors Friedemann Eichhorn (violin) and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt (violoncello).
The work is a personal confrontation of the musician and politically alert thinker Evgeny Kissin with Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. Kissin has already voiced his criticism and concern about the war in Ukraine on several occasions and processes the events of the war in his music.
Kissin has made the original manuscript of the piano trio available to the university in advance. It is his concern to send out a sound message against war and violence with the means that music makes available to him. In this, he stands in a row with great composers of Western music history, for whom music has always been a means of reconciliation and international understanding.
This includes Beethoven's setting of Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy", but also initiatives such as the West East Divan Orchestra founded in Weimar or the "Caravan Orchestra", which for several years has been made up of students from the Weimar Music Academy and from Israel and which brings Jewish and Arab music to the stage in moving performances.
Evgeny Kissin will also be honoured in Weimar for this musical commitment to humanism in the world. He is also being honoured with an honorary doctorate for his services to the Yiddish language and Jewish culture. He has premiered and revived works by Jewish composers on several occasions. He writes Yiddish texts himself and deals with Yiddish literature.
[14 October, 2022]