Konstantin Lifschitz
“To say that Mr. Lifschitz made his playing look easy would not be quite accurate. What he offered was a performance of such poetry that the question of whether executing it was difficult hardly came to mind.” (New York Times)
“Lifschitz maximised the instrument's potential for colour and tonal variety…the gentle, unshowy authority of his stage manner, that he was most persuasive, emphasising the work's qualities as living music as opposed to historic monument.” (The Guardian)
“This was due to Lifschitz's sovereign technique. Variations of touch, tone and pedalling were not only sensitive, with bell-like upper lines and beautifully weighted chordal sonorities, but almost invariably functional, highlighting structural change. It was the most magical moment in a deeply satisfying evening.” (The Independent)
Konstantin Lifschitz has established a worldwide reputation for performing extraordinary feats of endurance with honesty and persuasive beauty. He is giving recitals and playing concertos in the world’s leading concert halls and orchestras, besides being an active recording artist. His performance was praised as “the most magical moment“ and “deeply satisfying” by The Independent, and “naturally expressive and gripping” by the New York Times
Born in Kharkov, Ukraine in 1976, at the age of five, Konstantin Lifschitz was enrolled in the Gnessin Special School of Music in Moscow as a student of Tatiana Zelikman. After graduating he continued his studies in Russia, England and Italy where his teachers included Alfred Brendel, Leon Fleisher, Theodor Gutmann, Hamish Milne, Charles Rosen, Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Vladimir Tropp, Fou T’song and Rosalyn Tureck.
In the early 1990s, Konstantin Lifschitz received a grant from the Russian Cultural Foundation. Around that time, he started to perform in European capitals such as Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Munich and Milan. He toured Japan with The Moscow Virtuosi under Vladimir Spivakov, while in Europe he toured with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov, and also performed with Mischa Maisky and Gidon Kremer in many European cites. In 1995 he received the ECHO Klassik Award of “Most Promising Artist of the Year” for his first recording, and the following year he was nominated for a Grammy award for Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
Since his sensational debut recital in the October Hall of the House of Unions in Moscow at the age of 13, Konstantin Lifschitz performs solo recitals at major festivals and the most important concert venues worldwide and appears with leading international orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, RAI National Symphony Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
As a soloist Konstantin Lifschitz has collaborated with leading conductors such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Yury Temirkanov, Sir Neville Marriner, Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Fabio Luisi, Marek Janowski, Eliahu Inbal, Mikhail Jurowsky, Andrey Boreyko, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alexander Rudin and Christopher Hogwood.
As a passionate chamber musician, Konstantin Lifschitz has collaborated with such artists as Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin, Misha Maisky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Lynn Harrell, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Daishin Kashimoto, Leila Josefowicz, Carolin Widmann, Jörg Widmann, Sol Gabetta, Eugene Ugorski and Alexander Rudin.
In 2017 autumn, he launches the complete Beethoven Sonatas Cycles (8 concerts) in Hong Kong, Taipei and Taichung and performs various works by Beethoven and Bach in Tokyo, Shanghai, Nicosia, Maastricht, Berlin and Omsk. He will also be part of the Stravinsky Year Gergiev’s project and will be the soloist in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire Grand Hall with the Concertos by both Stravinsky and Bach under Anatoly Levin.
In the 2018/19 season he will appear with orchestras such as Ural Philharmonic Orchestra under Dimitry Liss, Naples Philharmonic under Andrey Boreyko and will perform solo recitals at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Moscow Philharmonic Hall, La Sala Verdi Milano and many others. He is also invited by numerous festivals including Tokyo Spring Festival, Rancho La Puerta's Music Festival, XII Mariinsky International Piano Festival, Trans-Siberian Art Festival, Kutna Hora Music Festival, London Piano Festival, Würzburg Bachtage and Musiktage Höri Bodensee, where he serves as an honorary patron.
Recently, Konstantin Lifschitz appears frequently as a conductor with such ensembles and orchestras as Moscow Virtuosi, Century Orchestra Osaka, Solisti di Napoli Naples, Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Wernigerode, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra Vilnius, Musica Viva Moscow, Lux Aeterna and Gabreli Choir Budapest, Dalarna Sinfonietta Falun and Chamber Orchestra Arpeggione Hohenems. Leading from the piano, he released all of Bach’s seven keyboard concertos with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.
Konstantin Lifschitz’s latest album “Saisons Russes” with works of Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky and Jakoulov was released by Orfeo in November 2016. As a prolific recording artist, he has been releasing numerous CDs and DVDs, many of which have received exceptional reviews. Lifschitz has made several recordings with the Orfeo label including Bach’s Musical Offering, the St. Anne Prelude and Fugue and Three Frescobaldi Toccatas (2007), Gottfried von Einem Piano Concerto with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (2009), Brahms Second Concerto and Mozart Concerto K. 456 under Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (2010), Bach The Art of Fugue (2010), the complete Bach Concertos for keyboard and orchestra with the Stuttgart Kammerorchester (2011) and Goldberg Variations (2015). In 2008, a live recording of Lifschitz's performance of Bach Well-Tempered Clavier (Books I and II) at the Miami International Piano Festival was released on DVD by VAI. In 2014, Beethoven’s complete violin Sonatas with Daishin Kashimoto was released by Warner Classics.
Konstantin Lifschitz is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and has been appointed a professor of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts since 2008.
