Yevgeny Korolyov

Piano

Yevgeny Korolyov is an extraordinary phenomenon on the international music scene. Without the use of any “external effects”, Korolyov convinces his public through an enormous spiritual understanding of the works he performs and in whose service he puts the wide range of his abilities as an artist and interpreter.

At the Central School of Music in Moscow, the musician studied under Anna Artobolevskaya as well as with Heinrich Neuhaus and Maria Yudina. He continued his studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire under Lev Oborin and Lev Naumov. In 1978 he moved to Hamburg, where he currently holds a professorship at the Academy of Music and Drama.

Yevgeny Korolyov won the Grand Prix at the Clara Haskil Competition in Montreux-Vevey (1977) as well as several other prizes at international competitions including the Johann Sebastian Bach competition in Leipzig (1968), the Van Cliburn Competition (1973) and the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Toronto (1985).

His repertoire ranges from Bach, the Viennese classics and the works of Schubert, Chopin and Debussy to the modern classics such as Messiaen and Ligeti.

But the musician has a special affinity with Bach, and performed the complete Well-Tempered Clavier in Moscow at the age of seventeen, followed by Clavierьbung and the  Art of the Fugue. His recording of the latter was highly esteemed by the composer Gyцrgy Ligeti, who said that “If there was only one CD I could take with me to an uninhabited island, I would choose Korolyov’s recording of Bach, because even when left pining away with hunger and thirst, I would still listen to this recording again and again, even to my last breath.”

Yevgeny Korolyov has performed at the world’s great concert venues, among them the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Dusseldorf’s Tonhalle, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, the Theвtre des Champs elysees in Paris and the Teatro Olimpico in Rome.

He has given guest performances at numerous festivals such as the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Ludwigsburger SchloЯfestspiele, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Montreux Festival, the Kuhmo Festival (Finland), the Glenn Gould Festival in Groningen, the Chopin Festival in Warsaw, the Budapest Spring Festival and the Settembre Musica in Turin. Korolyov is also a regular guest at the Ferrara Musica festival in Italy and the festival of the International Bach Academy Festival in Stuttgart. In May 2005, Korolyov performed the  Goldberg-Variations at the Salzburg Festival which was dedicated to baroque music.
Korolyov’s recent highlights include recitals at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Bachwoche Ansbach and the Dresdner Musikfestspiele as well as in Moscow, Budapest, Luxemburg, Brussels, Lyon, Milan and Turin. He has also toured to Japan. His recital featuring Bach’s Goldberg-Variations at the Bachfest Leipzig (2008) was recorded by EuroArts for a DVD and by NHK Tokyo for TV transmission. In the 2009-10 season the musician performed the  Goldberg-Variations at the Bachfest Montreal, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg.

As a passionate chamber musician, Korolyov performs with Natalia Gutman, Mischa Maisky, the Auryn Quartet, the Keller Quartet and the Prazбk Quartet. In piano duets, he often performs with his wife Ljupka Hadzigeorgieva.

Yevgeny Korolyov has recorded for TACET, HANSSLER CLASSIC, PROFIL and the label of the Hessischer Rundfunk. His recordings of works by Bach elicited an enormous response from the international music press. Numerous critics count his CDs amongst the most important Bach recordings in history. Recently PROFIL released a CD with Piano Sonatas by Haydn, while TACET released a CD with Mazurkas by Chopin. In November 2010 a CD with works by Bach for piano and piano duo together with Ljupka Hadzigeorgieva arranged by Kurtбg, Liszt and Korolyov.

During the season 2010-11 concert season he will be performing in Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Paris (Theвtre des Champs-elysees), Budapest, Hamburg and Stuttgart.