Pavel Kolesnikov

This beautifully curated programme by the acclaimed pianist Pavel Kolesnikov is inspired by the American artist Joseph Cornell, famous for his assemblage boxes full of everyday objects.

Kolesnikov plays a constellation of pieces by Messiaen, Chopin, and Couperin, as well as Thomas Adès’ Darknesse Visible and Schubert’s Four Impromptus, in response to Cornell’s artwork Celestial Navigation, in which the artist invokes the myths, images, and theories once used to explain the predictable yet baffling patterns of the night sky.

Kolesnikov’s says: “Light is a wave and so is sound. A piano is a boat, a spaceship, a dreamy discoverer of wonder worlds… this performance is an ode to the night sky, to the vastness of space, to that pure silent light that travels from the other side of the universe to reach an eye, yours or mine, and to make us wonder.”

Kolesnikov is one of the finest, and most imaginative, pianists of his generation. In 2012 he became a sensation at the Honens International Piano Competition when he took home the world’s largest piano prize. He is celebrated for his thought-provoking programming which offers the listener a fresh, often unexpected perspective on familiar pieces.