Kissin: from prodigy to a musical ‘genius’

‘An extraordinary pianist’

IBy Cezary Owerkowicz

t is a bit of a sacred description: ‘Talent is a gift from God Almighty’ and the secular equivalent would be: ‘Kissed by Muses’, somehow it is a ‘sort of by artistic angels’, isn’t it? It rather looks like ‘a kiss of fame’. It doesn’t mean that ‘Kissin’ in Russian has something to do with ‘kiss’ but in Russian or any other language, especially among the professionals and lovers of music it means — always lucky in his career as a pianist.

The Moscovian Evgeny Kissin is now 45. I followed his career for almost forty years with real interest and with a very friendly attitude. From afar it looked as a continuous thread of successes.

The last time I observed with pleasure how the world critics of music had appreciated him so much so they called his music album with Beethoven’s life as the best of 2017 along with the already renowned Classic Master of Piano, Krystian Zimerman’s album with Schubert’s Sonatas.

In our professional ranking it does not mean only golden but also diamond medal. This encourages me to search for myself and introduce to you how the talented Russian as a prodigy, a young phenomenon finally became a great artist. Of course, it will rather be only a few pictures on the way to the stardom.

Evgeny was extremely quiet as a child. He stood and listened to his sister playing the piano. One day, when he was just one year old, he sang a theme from a Bach fugue while she practiced on the piano.

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From then on, he sang everything he heard: sister’s repertoire, melodies heard on radio, TV and records and learned how to read music. ‘My parents didn’t expect me to have a gift for music’, says Kissin. ‘They didn’t think that I’d be a musician, so they allowed me to do whatever I wanted.

‘They thought my sister would be a pianist.’ He began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at the age of two. Nobody taught him before he attended school, and it was only there that he learned how to read music.

When he was six, he entered a special Gnesina school for gifted children where he met the only teacher in his life - Anna Kantor. ‘As long as I can remember, I was more interested in music than spending time outside with other children. It was an urge that neither I nor anyone else could stop. Perhaps some would think that my childhood wasn’t really normal. But for me it was as natural and normal as breathing.’

At the beginning he practiced 20 minutes daily but soon it was close to one hour and next even four hours a day. ‘As a musician, I was developing very fast, and when one has a real gift, one can make strides by using natural talent... ‘Later there comes a moment when one can’t grow without working hard.’

His first performance was at the age of seven, when he played his own compositions. He was 10 when he played his first concert with an orchestra. At 12 he performed both Chopin’s Concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic at the Great Hall of Conservatory. This famous concert was a decider in his career. He was virtually unknown until that evening and woke up the next morning as a legend.

Kissin looked reluctant to consider that the concert as a transition to stardom. ‘I understand that it was an important event in my life... But fame and stardom? I have never been interested in them. I’ve never liked publicity. I’ve eventually learned how to behave properly when approached by music fans...’ The day after the Moscow concert the whole family took a short vacation in Zvenigorod, a small settlement near Moscow... A young phenomenon

Salute

No roses without the thorns. There was a time of Soviet Union. Kissin’s family stayed in block building. Their downstairs neighbor, an artillery captain, complained as strong as Molotov cocktails to authorities that The Kissins make big noise on piano.

He implied that mother, Mrs. Kissin, a music teacher was giving private lessons at her home, what was a crime at that time in the Soviet Union. When they explained to him that the boy practice so much piano, the captain complained that her boy doesn’t attend school. Mrs. Kissin explained that the boy was given free-attendance status so that he could practice more at home. The captain retorted: ‘I’m an artillery officer, but I don’t fire cannons at home.’

However soon a group of neighbors appealed to the court, asserting that the Kissins had a grand concert at home and a boy is sitting under the piano, pushing hard on pedals. (‘We actually had an upright piano only at that time,’ remembers Evgeny).

Rehearsal

Eventually a militiaman (policeman) came to investigate. On that particular day, Kissin had a rehearsal at the Kremlin for a gala concert dedicated to 27th Congress of the Communist Party.

‘My father explained to the militiaman the reason of my absence’, says Kissin. ‘The militiaman gave a salute and said, “So be it. His practicing will never be a problem from this point on.’

At first Kissin was allowed to travel only to Eastern Europe (the so-called ‘socialist camp’). However very soon fame of the ‘young phenomenon’ penetrated even the ‘iron curtain’ and the boy played in Federal German Republic.

The tour with orchestra Moscow Virtuosi ran also through Austria and Switzerland. His impresario sent the boy’s records to the legendary conductor and asked for a meeting. Karajan agreed. Kissin remembers every minute of that visit and the extraordinary effect Karajan made on him.

His teacher Anna Kantor said ‘He had never played Chopin’s Fantasy as he did for Karajan’. The effect was mutual. When I finished playing, I looked at Karajan, got up, took a few steps toward him and saw him giving me flying kiss, then taking off his sunglasses wiped his tears with a handkerchief’.

The wife of Karajan told him that: ‘I have been married to him for 30 years and have never seen him so moved’. While saying goodbye to Kissin mother, Karajan pointed at the 16-year-old pianist and said: ‘Genius.’ In 1988 Evegeny played under the Karajan baton Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto.

After graduating from the Gnesina School, Evgeny was supposed to go to the Moscow Conservatory. Upon the request of the school administration (and the most probably the phenomenal student) the Conservatory agreed to accept Anna Kantor to teach Evgeny also at the academic level in spite of the tradition that an academic school student will be put under the direction of renowned academic master - professor.

Mentor

‘Anna Pavlovna and I matched extremely well, both musically and personally. She has become not only my musical mentor but also my friend and friend of my family. Never having had her own family, she has become a part of our family,’ said the grateful student over the years.

In 1991 Russia was extremely turbulent because of the change in the system. Everything was uncertain; the country was disintegrating and the future unpredictable.

Kissin was already well known and a young extraordinary pianist touring the world. They all moved to New York. ‘So we decided to wait out’, he explained, ‘to see how all the turmoil would end. And since my tour at that time included the US, we decided to stay there. We also thought about the UK. Now we live in both New York and London.’ That way he became not only symbolically but also practically the Citizen of the World.

I have no choice but to finish my article and continue the story (or few shots) about the adult artist next time.

Editor’s Note: Cezary Owerkowicz is the chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Philharmonia and talented pianist. He regularly organises concerts by well-known musicians for the benefit of music lovers and to widen the knowledge of music in Kuwait. His email address is: cowerkowicz @ yahoo.com and cowerkowicz@ hotmail.com