Piano

Nikolai Demidenko

Nikolai Demidenko’s passionate virtuosity and musicianship has brought him worldwide recognition. His repertoire is wide-ranging including  Bach, Clementi, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov,  Scarlatti an Shostakovich.

Demidenko performs at the highest level with orchestras and conductors including St Petersburg Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov, Accademia Nazionale de Santa Cecilia and Charles Dutoit, Philharmonia Orchestra with Tughan Sokhiev, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Sylvain Cambreling and Orchestre National de France with Eivind Gullberg-Jensen.

Nikolai Demidenko has recorded extensively, including award winning CDs of Chopin, Medtner and Scarlatti.

New season 2012-13: Nikolai Demidenko returns to perform with Queensland Symphony Orchestra

14 Sep 2012

Nikolai Demidenko kicks off his 2012-13 season returning to Brisbane to perform Rachmaninov's unique Fourth Piano Concerto with the Queensland Symphony...

Nikolai Demidenko in Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata. Brahms: Piano Sonata No 3. - Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

15 Mar 2012

Nikolai Demidenko in a piano recital given at Queen's University, Belfast. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No 14 (Moonlight). Brahms: Piano Sonata No 3,...

Nikolai Demidenko with Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra

13 Mar 2012

Nikolai Demidenko joins Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra and their principal conductor, Ernesto Martínez Izquierdo to perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No1 on 22 and 23 March.

Nikolai Demidenko performs a recital at the Wigmore Hall

23 Jan 2012

As part of London Pianoforte Series, Nikolai Demidenko performs an all-Schubert programme consisting of works from the last year of composer's life.

Nikolai Demidenko with Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya

16 Dec 2011

Nikolai Demidenko performs Chopin's Piano Concerto No2 in F minor with Kirill Karabits conducting Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya.

Nikolai Demidenko performs with the Ulster Orchestra

31 Oct 2011

Nikolai Demidenko makes a welcome return to...

Nikolai Demidenko performs Rachmaninov with the Philharmonia Orchestra

29 Jun 2011

Nikolai Demidenko stepped in at two day's notice to replace Denis Matsuev on 30 June, performing...

Nikolai Demidenko with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

16 Jun 2011

Nikolai Demidenko joins the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and their Chief Conductor, Vasily Petrenko to perform Prokoviev's Piano Concerto No3 on 17 June.

Nikolai Demidenko in Madrid

17 May 2011

Nikolai Demidenko will perform Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 on 27, 28 and 29 May with Jiri Belohlavek conducting the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España.

Nikolai Demidenko travels to Poznan

17 Mar 2011

On 25 March Nikolai Demidenko performs Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No3 with Lukasz Borowicz conducting the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra.

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“Indeed, so inward and intimate was his playing at times that it felt as if we were eavesdropping on some private communion between performer and composer; yet the result never felt in any way short-changed. Often regarded as charming but small, the works in the first half seemed far more substantial than usual, Demidenko revealing their essential character in playing that was focused in execution and subtly gradated in colouring...The big C minor Sonata was on a much grander scale. Here Demidenko's playing took on a symphonic aspect that matched the almost orchestral richness of Schubert's textures in this ambitious and emotionally complex piece...The result had a dramatic breadth that never lost sight of voicing or colouring, maintaining a fine balance between a sustained overview and attention to smaller features in the landscape.”

The Guardian (Schubert, Wigmore Hall) - Jan 2012

“Demidenko’s showed in the first bars of the first Impromptu of the D899 group how big a canvas he proposed to work on: the bare opening chord was like a melancholy call to attention, with the answering phrase like a faint cry in the distance. His tone had a singing warmth, and his pace was gentle: the long sustained lines and the shifts between minor and major were brought out with ballade-like grace. The runs and scales of the second piece were so pearlised and swift that they went like the wind; the third – the rippling one everybody knows, even if they don’t know it’s by Schubert – and the arpeggiated fourth came and went in an exquisite blur. These are not virtuoso pieces, but they benefited enormously from Demidenko’s discreet virtuosity.”

The Independent (Schubert, Wigmore Hall) - Jan 2012

“Nikolai Demidenko’s account of the Concerto in E minor is searching and expansive, livening up with dancing lightness in the krakowiak-infused finale.”

BBC Music Magazine - Mar 2011

“There was more to this performance than barnstorming bravura. He made this vast, hour-long piece a study in musical contrasts, and revealed the astonishing fecundity of Beethoven's imagination... Ever alert to the volatile surface of the music, Demidenko also created a mysterious structural momentum that traversed the whole piece, and his performance illuminated the infinite possibilities contained within a single, simple tune.”

The Guardian (Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, The Barbican) - Oct 2004

“Chopin the poet of brief, highly charged statements and Chopin the master of heterodox large-scale composition are equally well served by this splendid disc. Some of Demidenko’s tempos are unusually slow. In other hands, they might lose momentum, but such is his muscular rhythmic strength and his sense of the singing line in both right and left hand that, with him, they never do. Demidenko’s command of touch, colour, texture, dynamics (tender as well as forceful) realise admirably the astonishing variety of the Préludes.”

The Guardian (Chopin Preludes; Sonata No 3 (Onyx)) - Nov 2008

“Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto demands high-voltage virtuosity, which it got from the Russian-born Nikolai Demidenko. From the haunting opening bars – darkly poised and pulsating – Demidenko put the Concerto's range of tone ahead of any superficial pianistic fireworks. Yet, though he was elusive and elegiac in the slow movement, he hurtled into the finale with bravura and a fearless pace as the Hallé flaunted its own fire and fury. It was electrifying but also poetic.”

The Independent (The Halle Orchestra, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ) - Apr 2009

“...he is informed by Chopin’s contemporary practice and resources and he adapts the modern instrument to reveal an internal world of subtle introspection and dazzling virtuosity with captivating precision.”

Belfast Telegraphn (Chopin recital at the Ulster Hall) - Feb 2010

“If this was a different Chopin from the one we are used to, the way it was delivered took the breath away. Demidenko's virtuosity has nothing to do with Liszt-style playing-to-the-gallery. Supreme technical control and high-speed accuracy are its foundations. More to the point is the clarity with which he invests the most dense and complex structures and the expressive poetry he finds. The two Chopin Nocturnes he gave as encores at the end of this unforgettable recital were flawlessly beautiful. Why aren't the big labels competing to sign him?”

The Independent (International Piano Series Chopin and Schumann recital at the Queen Elizabeth Hall) - Apr 2010

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Nikolai Demidenko’s passionate pianism means that he is in demand worldwide.

Frequent London recitals have included the Great Performers series at the Barbican, the International Piano Series at Southbank Centre, and recently in the London Pianoforte Series at the Wigmore Hall – a Schubert recital performed to a great success and rave reviews in the national press.

He is renowned for his authoritative performances of the Russian concerto repertoire such as Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky and has worked with many conductors and orchestras throughout the world.  He has a flourishing relationship with the St Petersburg Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov, with whom he performs regularly. He also enjoys a fruitful collaboration with several Russian artists who have made their homes in London; a cello and piano duo with Leonid Gorokhov; piano quartets with the exciting new Hermitage String Trio; and a two-piano partnership with Dmitri Alexeev, who likewise studied at the Moscow Conservatoire under Dmitri Bashkirov.

His repertoire is wide-ranging, including Bach, Clementi, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Mussorgsky and Scarlatti. Festival appearances include venues in Aldeburgh, Beijing, Dubrovnik, Eilat, Glasgow, New York, Oslo, Singapore and Warsaw.

Concerto engagements in recent and upcoming seasons include appearances with the Adelaide Symphony, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, NCPA Orchestra Beijing, Melbourne Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Philharmonia, Queensland Symphony, Singapore Symphony,  Orquesta Nacional de España, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester St Gallen, Poznan Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Ulster and Hallé orchestras and London Mozart Players.

For Hyperion Records Nikolai Demidenko has recorded albums of Bach–Busoni, Chopin, Clementi, Liszt, Medtner, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Schubert and Schumann and concertos by Chopin, Medtner (which won a Gramophone Award), Scriabin, Tchaikovsky and Weber as well as the complete Prokofiev Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alexander Lazarev.  For the Munich-based AGPL label he has recorded Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, a collection of Scarlatti sonatas and a Chopin CD which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.  Autumn 2008 saw the release of a new Chopin CD, including his first recording of the Twenty-four Preludes, for Onyx Classics. This CD won the MIDEM 2010 Special Chopin Award for a new recording.

May 2013

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