{"id":40988,"date":"2025-01-14T07:28:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T12:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/alexandre-kantorow-rises-with-piano-prizes-and-the-paris-olympics\/14\/01\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-01-14T07:28:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T12:28:55","slug":"alexandre-kantorow-rises-with-piano-prizes-and-the-paris-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/alexandre-kantorow-rises-with-piano-prizes-and-the-paris-olympics\/14\/01\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandre Kantorow Rises, With Piano Prizes and the Paris Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the cover of his latest album, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Brahms-Schubert-Alexandre-Kantorow\/dp\/B0D9T9FKMQ\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alexandre Kantorow<\/a>\u2019s left arm falls back behind a piano bench. A wave builds slowly from his dangled palm, up through the straight line of his bare forearm, and crests around his shoulders before breaking, down through his arched neck and deeply bowed head, leaving, in the wash, his right hand at the keys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In this strikingly fluid photograph, taken by Fadi Kheir during Kantorow\u2019s Carnegie Hall debut in 2023, he appears first as an unusually relaxed performer in flow. But the image reveals a second character. In the long hair draped messily over the keys, the single left sleeve rolled up, and the sliver of calf revealed between trouser and boot, a bohemian peeks through: slightly unkempt and, perhaps, not easy to tame.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spotify\" class=\"css-9whsf3\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/2PPl1NlhPnphcPELnb18qg\" width=\"300px\" height=\"380px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Kantorow, 27, plays with a sound that roars, with depth and clarity. And the classical music industry has taken notice: After winning the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019, and the Gilmore Artist Award in 2023, his career has been on a rapid rise. On Jan. 24, he will make <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.laphil.com\/events\/performances\/3059\/2025-01-24\/rachmaninoff-muhly\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his debut at the Los Angeles Philharmonic<\/a>, in Rachmaninoff\u2019s \u201cRhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the first French pianist to win either the Gold Medal or the Gilmore, he has earned a degree of fame in his home country. Kantorow also gained worldwide notice last summer, when he was seen with a crystal-embellished shirt and fuzzy beard, performing Ravel\u2019s \u201cJeux d\u2019Eau\u201d in the pouring rain during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. (After the performance, the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr\/auvergne-rhone-alpes\/puy-de-dome\/clermont-ferrand\/jo-de-paris-2024-alexandre-kantorow-pianiste-heros-de-la-ceremonie-d-ouverture-la-pluie-a-agi-comme-un-personnage-3013397.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">France3<\/a> channel declared him \u201cheroic and unflappable.\u201d) In November, a reviewer for <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/culture\/article\/2024\/11\/04\/le-rachmaninov-miraculeux-d-alexandre-kantorow-a-la-philharmonie-de-paris_6376068_3246.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Le Monde<\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>reported that, outside a Kantorow performance at the Philharmonie in Paris, a group of fans stood holding signs that read \u201ccherche place,\u201d or \u201clooking for a seat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With his combination of youth, talent, competition pedigree and looks, Kantorow seems a shoo-in for a field that\u2019s always keen to anoint a new star. Yet, in a marked contrast to others his age, his rise has changed little about his everyday working practices. His number of international engagements has increased, and the team around him has grown to accommodate that, but he remains with the same general manager and piano teacher he has had since he was 16. Rather than signing with a major label, he remained with Bis, the small, committed Swedish label that became part of the Apple-owned Platoon in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t really like change, and unnecessary change in life,\u201d Kantorow said in an interview in Paris. Robert von Bahr, the founder of Bis, wrote in an email: \u201cHe guards his relationships for the long run, and refuses to change himself or his outlooks. Very few artists in his class do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">KANTOROW HAS HIS FATHER, <\/strong>the violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow, to thank for his early breaks in the music industry. He accompanied him on a 2014 album of French violin sonatas. When Alexandre was 17, his father conducted on his ambitious recording of both Liszt concertos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Alexandre Kantorow\u2019s parents, however, were concerned that he might fall into music by default \u2014 his mother, Kathryn Dean, is also a violinist \u2014 and they were wary of overexposing their son. The family moved to Paris from Clermont-Ferrand, in central France, when Kantorow was an infant. Unlike many of the other musicians he would later encounter at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, he stayed in nonspecialist schooling for as long as possible. \u201cMusic was a kind of private family thing,\u201d he said, \u201cand it stayed so for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This allowed him to cultivate a range of interests, and Kantorow might well have pursued science, particularly astrophysics. He has been regularly praised for his poetic performances; that essential ambiguity comes principally from a world of advanced math built on proofs and beliefs. \u201cOf course, the logical mind is very present,\u201d he said of astrophysics, but there\u2019s also a \u201ckind of faith and mysticism about the big questions of the universe \u2014 of where we come from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Kantorow\u2019s early piano education focused on discipline. With Igor Lasko, he learned to enjoy the work of detailed practice. When Kantorow was 12, Lasko asked him firmly whether he wanted to work seriously as a professional or remain an amateur. A professional, Kantorow responded, even if he wasn\u2019t totally convinced. \u201cI think the ego kicked in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If Lasko brought depth of focus, then Rena Shereshevskaya, the esteemed Russian-French teacher who would eventually coach him to the Tchaikovsky Competition win, brought a breadth of view. In addition to working on the deep-set, long-ringing sound that distinguishes his sound today, they tried various ways of finding profound meaning in score.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was J.S. Bach who, synthesizing the musical language that existed before him, created the basis of the modern musical language,\u201d Shereshevskaya said in an email. Her beliefs \u2014 that everything in music stemmed from Bach, and that, by using and enriching this musical language, all composers are connected through a kind of universal ur-meaning \u2014 may not sit well with modern-day musicologists. But Kantorow nevertheless found the act of searching enthralling. \u201cAll her students really feel the motivation and the search,\u201d he said. \u201cYou feel that what they are doing always has meaning behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Kantorow went to Shereshevskaya with the Tchaikovsky Competition in mind. Their training regimen, which they compared to that of an athlete\u2019s, was done with a view to drilling Kantorow\u2019s subconscious. \u201cThe best concerts for me are the moments where your brain is quite far back,\u201d Kantorow said. \u201cSuddenly, you disappear, you don\u2019t exist anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It paid off almost immediately. The first round of the Tchaikovsky Competition was \u201cabsolutely terrifying,\u201d Kantorow recalled. \u201cBut even if the brain was not helping at all, the body knew a lot of things to do. It still found music inside.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">A FEW WEEKS AFTER <\/strong>Kantorow\u2019s sold-out performance at the Philharmonie, his fellow French pianist Bertrand Chamayou, who is a generation older, performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in the same hall. He played in every piece on the program: Ravel\u2019s Piano Concerto in G; the solo piano part in Gershwin\u2019s Variations on \u201cI Got Rhythm\u201d; and the ensemble parts in two ballet scores, Milhaud\u2019s \u201cLa Cr\u00e9ation du Monde\u201d and Bernstein\u2019s \u201cFancy Free.\u201d The program had been presented eight times in nine days, in four different countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the moment, it\u2019s difficult to picture Kantorow being as stylistically flexible as Chamayou. He\u2019s taking his time. Andras Schiff once spoke of playing Bach\u2019s \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/van-magazine.com\/mag\/andras-schiff\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Art of Fugue<\/a>\u201d only at age 70, and perhaps the greatest reward for prize winners like Kantorow is the luxury of not touching some repertoire until they are absolutely ready. Kantorow is, for example, uncomfortable performing Bach in public. \u201cI feel it needs a whole balance with the head and heart, this alignment which I, for now, don\u2019t have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Kantorow sometimes seems like a pianist from a different era. \u201cIn a weird way, I kind of like that classical music is still a special experience where there\u2019s not much else going on other than the sounds of what you hear onstage,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, there\u2019s opera, but there\u2019s something special at the symphony, the recital or the chamber music concert, when there\u2019s silence everywhere \u2014 when you hear music that only comes from instruments directly, not with amplifiers. It\u2019s something about when there\u2019s very much only one sense working.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Previous Gilmore winners have used its considerable prize money \u2014 $300,000, with $250,000 set aside for career-enhancing projects \u2014 to support the creation of new work. Aside from a recent concerto by Guillaume Connesson, Kantorow hasn\u2019t had much experience in contemporary music, but he is committed to exploring it. Asked what kind of compositions he was attracted to, he said: \u201cI still believe in harmony very much. It doesn\u2019t need to be tonality, more a sense of the grammar that we built with the ages.\u201d In talking about creating new music, Kantorow gives off the sense that he has barely started on the wealth of older works. He is currently fascinated by Brahms\u2019s early period, having just completed a survey of his three piano sonatas while learning the First Piano Concerto. On one level, Kantorow can identify with what he called \u201cthe element of brashness, of risk\u201d and of youth in the bravura of the First Sonata. Yet, in the Second, Kantorow sees Brahms \u201cdestroying the form,\u201d wanting \u201cto advance in music, and he will do it in the most immediate way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For Kantorow, that sort of immediacy seems to run contrary to his rather artisanal outlook, built on tools, craft and intuition. \u201cThe best interpretations are those which feel like they are starting from scratch, with few preconceived ideas of how it\u2019s going to unfold,\u201d he said. \u201cThey add things in the moment, and they have an intimacy with their body to achieve this level of risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He is like a potter at the wheel, using the same tools and a touch of flair to make the same beautiful objects, again and again. \u201cWe just craft sounds, and shape them with the right timing,\u201d he said. The rest may follow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/14\/arts\/music\/alexandre-kantorow-piano.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the cover of his latest album, Alexandre Kantorow&rsquo;s left arm falls back behind a piano bench. A wave builds slowly from<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/alexandre-kantorow-rises-with-piano-prizes-and-the-paris-olympics\/14\/01\/2025\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}