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Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music and who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?

There was no musical influence until I saw and wanted a little toy piano at the age of 5, which my parents bought for me. Having shown interest in pressing keys that make sound, my parents proceeded to find me a teacher. In fact one of my several childhood teachers still follows my career to this day. She introduced me to the wonders of music through reading me all sorts of stories, literature and relating it to the music that we would listen to. I especially remember being inspired by the legendary recording of 12-year-old Evgeny Kissin playing both Chopin Concerti.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

It has definitely been a learning curve since winning the Leeds Piano Competition. You have to be very disciplined with your time, carefully estimate and learn about what you can or can’t manage, preferably not the hard way! Planning programmes has been especially challenging as you have to take into account many factors, e.g. my development, audiences, and of course what I want to say artistically.

Which performances/recordings are you most proud of? 

I am pretty happy with the Transcendental Etudes for the time being. I really enjoyed the process of creating something in a church in Hampstead for three days straight. It was quite an intimate experience as opposed to being on stage. That music has such a vast variety of ideas, so I felt fortunate to be able to explore it and try to convey this variety.

Which particular works/composers do you think you perform best?

At this point, I don’t think there are any I could say I perform best. I’m constantly learning about the styles of each composer and sometimes I relate with one more than the other at certain times. I can only say that I could never stop playing Beethoven or Chopin.

What do you do off stage that provides inspiration on stage?

Everything in life contributes, from eating, visiting places, to spending time with interesting people. A more direct way of being inspired for me is listening to others.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

Besides Wigmore Hall, I very much enjoy playing in the Philharmonic Hall of my home town in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I enjoy sharing with the audience of such different culture what I’ve learnt over here.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’saudiences?

Making classical music accessible to everyone so everybody has the opportunity to discover potential affinity for it. Of course, the earlier the better.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

Definitely Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto at the Proms [in 2023] with 2 days notice!

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

Success suggests an end goal for a certain task. As there is no end to perfection in music, I’d say making sure of consistent growth however small, is a success.

What advice would you give to young/aspiring musicians?

Discover yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. Play to your strengths while working on your weaknesses. I was fortunate to have a teacher who assisted me with this.

Pianist Alim Beisembayev hails from Kazakhstan and has already made a name for himself, having won the world-renowned Leeds Piano Competition in 2021 aged just 23. He appears at this year’s Cheltenham Music Festival on Thursday 11 July playing music by Schubert, Chopin and Clara Schumann. More information

alimbeisembayev.co.uk


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Franz Liszt divides opinion. For some he is regarded as one of the greatest pianist-composers of the Romantic era; for others, he is a showman and a charlatan who wrote vulgar, showy music. 3D rendering of Franz Liszt by Hadi Karimi In fact, he was a remarkable musician and human being. Sure, as a performer he could be flamboyant and extravagant in his gestures, but he helped shape the modern solo piano concert as we know it today and he also brought a great deal of music to the public realm through his transcriptions (he transcribed Beethoven’s symphonies for solo piano, thus making this repertoire accessible to both concert artists and amateur pianists to play at home). He was an advocate of new music and up-and-coming composers and lent his generous support to people like Richard Wagner (who married Liszt’s daughter Cosima). His piano music combines technical virtuosity and emotional depth. It’s true that some of his output is showy – all virtuosic flourishes for the sake of virtuosity – but his suites such as the Années de Pèlerinage or the Transcendental Etudes, and his transcriptions of Schubert songs demonstrate the absolute apogee of art, poetry, and beauty combined. Martha Argerich Martha Argerich brings fire and fluency to her interpretations, underpinned by a remarkable technical assuredness. Her 1972 recording of the B-minor Sonata and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 is regarded as “legendary”.
Leslie Howard Australian Leslie Howard is the only pianist to have recorded the solo piano music of Liszt, a project which includes some 300 premiere recordings, and he is rightly regarded as a specialist of this repertoire who has brought much of Liszt’s lesser-known music to the fore.
Lazar Berman Berman’s 1977 recording of the Années de Pèlerinage remains the benchmark recording of this repertoire for many. Berman brings sensibility and grandeur, warm-heartedness, and mastery to this remarkable set of pieces.
Alim Beisembayev Winner of the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, the young Armenian pianist Alim Beisembayev’s debut recording of the complete Transcendental Etudes is remarkable for its spellbinding polish, precision, and musical maturity, all supported by superb technique.
Yuja Wang Yuja Wang has been praised for her breath-taking interpretations of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto which combine force and filigree, emotional depth, and technical mastery to create thrilling and insightful performances.
Other noted Liszt pianists include Georges Cziffra, Jorge Bolet, Krystian Zimerman, Lang Lang, Daniil Trifonov, Sviatoslav Richter, Marc-André Hamelin, Nelson Freire, Claudio Arrau, and Vladimir Horowitz.
(image credit: 3D rendering of Franz Liszt by Hadi Karimi)

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Alim Beisembayev and Eric Lu, winners of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021 and 2018 respectively, have both released new albums. 

Eric Lu impressed at the 2018 competition with his beautiful tone and the phrase “poet of the piano” is regularly attached to his playing. Elegant lyricism is highly appealing, especially in the music of Chopin, which Lu recorded for his previous album.  There is no doubt that Schubert too was a spinner of beautiful, long-spun melodies, but in the case of the music selected by Lu for his latest release, I do not believe that poetry and golden cantabile are enough to convince in this instance.

Lu says in interviews that Schubert is “the composer who moves me most intensely….I love Schubert. It is difficult to describe how meaningful his music is to me.” Yet I felt on listening to this album that Lu had not fully absorbed the “essence” of Schubert’s writing: to play this music pianistically, one must also absorb the songs, chamber music, other piano music et al. The result, for me at least, is a rather contrived sound. Lu aims for expression, overly romanticising the “tragedy” he perceives in Schubert’s writing, in particular in the Allegretto in c and the Sonata in A, D959, and clearly subscribing to the rather hackneyed, oft-quoted view that this work, along with the other two final sonatas, is a portent of the composer’s imminent demise. He portrays this through ponderous tempi (the Andantino of the D959 is positively funereal) and rather suspect use of rubato and agogic accents, which I suppose are intended to emphasise the pathos, poignancy, tragedy et al, in this music, but too often just sound artificial and interrupt the rhythmic flow of the music (most obviously in the Allegretto in c). Throughout the album, I found Lu’s playing rather too ‘safe’, too concerned with beauty of sound rather than highlighting the dramatic shifts of mood and contrasting colours in this music. Personally, I would have liked a little more “bite”, both rhythmically and dynamically, to disturb the beauty.

Contrast this with the new release from Alim Beisembayev, the young Kazakh pianist who at just 23 wowed the 2021 Leeds competition judges and audience with a dashing performance of Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini in the final, and who displayed remarkable poise, musicianship and maturity in his playing throughout the competition. 

In Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes, an ambitious choice for anyone, Beisembayev positively glitters: superlative, secure technique underpin playing which is daring and fearless from the outset (the Preludio is a stunning opener), with perfectly managed tempi and split-second precision (at no point does one feel that the pianist is in any way out of control), elegant lyricism when required (Paysage – the only piece in this set which I can actually play! – is tender, freighted with poignancy; likewise, the middle section of a fiercely dramatic Mazeppa), tasteful, subtle rubato, vibrant colours and contrasts, and a remarkable control of the momentum and drama within each piece. Feux Follets trips along with gossamer lightness and wit; Vision emerges from the darkness of G minor into heroism, while Harmonies du Soir is delicate yet sweepingly passionate. There is so much to enjoy and marvel at in this album, from tumultuous tumbling descents to sparkling virtuosity, tonal depth and colour, reverie and delicacy. And never once does one feel an ego getting in the way of the music. It’s showy playing, as demanded by the score, without being showy. A absolute treat of an album which reveals the myriad facets of Liszt’s musical personality, played by this young pianist who fully appreciates the variety and range of expression in this music. 

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This year’s Petworth Festival, which opens on 13 July, offers a feast for piano fans this year.

Thanks to a new partnership with the Leeds International Piano Competition, Petworth will showcase the first, second and third prizewinners over consecutive years, with current Leeds winner Alim Beisembayev performing at Petworth on 29 July in a programme of music by Haydn, Beethoven and Liszt.

“It is one of the greatest privileges we could wish for to be able to showcase winners of such an important international piano competition as The Leeds….I know they will be a source of great inspiration to young musicians in our area.” – Neil Franks, Chair of Petworth Festival

From a young concert pianist at the start of an international career to a grand statesman of the piano, Piers Lane gives a concert of Nocturnes by Chopin, some of the best-loved piano music in the repertoire, on 17 July.

Another piano treat awaits the next day when Steven Osborne performs Debussy, a glorious programme which includes the much-loved Arabesques.

For jazz fans there’s boogie-woogie with Ben Waters, who celebrates the music of some of his heroes – Fats Domino, Huey Piano Smith, Albert Ammons, Ian Stewart (founder member of the Rolling Stones), Jerry Lee Lewis, Diz Watson – as well as performing his own compositions.

In addition, the Festival welcomes some of the finest chamber pianists – Martin Roscoe, Iain Burnside, Charles Owen, Huw Watkins – joined by, amongst others, violinist Tai Murray, soprano Julia Sitkovetsky, and cellist Natalie Clein,

This feast of music takes place in the lovely West Susssex town of Petworth from 13 to 30 July. The town is easily accessible from London by road and rail, and there is plenty on offer during the two-week festival to satisfy all tastes, including events for children.

Full details and tickets on the Petworth Festival website