Mikhail Pletnev

Mikhail Pletnev is a brilliant pianist, a highly sought after conductor, a splendid composer, a remarkable individual, and an artist who defies conventional classifications. “Stupendous virtuosity and glittering ingenuity are the hallmarks of his piano performances. His meteoric career as a conductor seems to have made his playing even more symphonic, and his sound more imaginative.” (Die Welt)

Born in 1957, in Arkhangelsk, Pletnev demonstrated his talent early, entering the Moscow Conservatory at the age of 13. In 1978 he won first prize and the gold medal at the Sixth International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has since performed countless times as a soloist with the world’s most esteemed orchestras and conductors.

In 1990, with the assent of then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Pletnev founded the Russian National Orchestra – Russia’s first non-governmental, privately financed orchestra. Today the RNO is considered one of the world’s finest orchestras; each year, led by Pletnev and other distinguished conductors, it tours Europe, the U.S. and Asia. In 1996, the orchestra performed at the opening of the Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Pletnev has recorded with Deutsche Grammophon since 1993, and his discs have been repeatedly nominated for Grammy Awards. “If music is crafted time, then time for Pletnev is not something that can be measured in technical terms, rather the high art of infinity, of tension and its resolution.” (Crescendo, on the Beethoven Cycle)

The London Telegraph remarked, "from Pletnev's fingers and brain come ideas that vitalise the music and make it teem with freshness and wit. [He] made the music positively leap for joy." The Times describes his playing as "born of a prodigious virtuosity of imagination outrageous in its beauty." BBC Music Magazine called Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonatas, which received a Gramophone Award in 1996, "piano playing at its greatest... this performance alone would be enough to secure Pletnev a place among the greatest pianists ever known.”

Pletnev has also attained international acclaim for his work as a composer. The 1998 premiere of his Viola Concerto dedicated to (and performed by) Yuri Bashmet was enthusiastically received by both the press and the public. His arrangements of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty for piano are legendary – for pianists the world over they have become technical exams that demonstrate one is a master of the instrument.

Recently a journalist wrote: “A conversation with Mikhail Pletnev is like his playing. He is quiet and listens. He is tired of the same old questions; he prefers to improvise. If he does not like something, he gets up and leaves. If something interests him, he awakens and begins speaking in a voice that is obsessed, monotone and musical. Pletnev does not speak of the ordinary; he is only interested in superlatives.”

Pletnev has been the frequent recipient of state honors and international awards, including a Grammy (2005). In 2007 he was awarded a Presidential Prize and Order “For Service to the Homeland.”