PavelKolesnikov &SamsonTsoy

Press

• Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

  Classical Pride, with the CBSO

  Jul 2023

  • It [Poulenc] was brilliantly delivered by Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, elegantly swapping phrases in the slow movement and dispatching the jazzy finale with poker-faced precision. Their encore, Ravel’s piano duet Le jardin féerique ...was exquisite.

    • Neil Fisher, The Times
    • 10 July 2023

• Prokofiev & Rachmaninov

  Queen Elizabeth Hall

  May 2023

  • ***** ...there were moments of rare magic as each pianist conducted himself with one hand and played a single line with the other... the two pianists created hypnotic magic of their own... making this one for the ages... It will resonate for weeks and months to come.

    • David Nice, The Arts Desk
    • 11 May 2023

• Schubert & Brahms

  Music at Paxton

  Aug 2022

  • The duo’s playing of this last dramatic section is breathtaking! We can hear the fugal entries, from both players, but somehow – without, as it were, showing the joins, there are all sorts of accompanying melodic and harmonic effects – how can just four hands make this splendid noise? I found it an absorbing performance.

    • Kate Calder, Edinburgh Music Review
    • 01 August 2022

• Beethoven, Kurtag, Poulenc & Stravinsky

  East Neuk Festival

  Jul 2022

  • With supreme virtuosity, Kolesnikov and Tsoy delivered a breathtaking and memorable performance.

    • Donal Hurley, Edinburgh Music Review
    • 17 July 2022

• Saint Saens Circle

  LSO St Luke's

  Mar 2022

  • ***** Light, air and adventure from two pianos... The partners are very different personalities, and you hear that in their solo recitals; but here the consonance was so absolute that, able as many of us were to see hands at one keyboard, the melody line seemed to be coming from there but the optics told us otherwise.

    • David Nice, The Arts Desk
    • 21 March 2022

• Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

  Bold Tendencies, London

  Jun 2021

  • ***** ... they succeeded brilliantly. The velvety musings of the two pianos in the second movement, in dialogue with the mysterious swishes, taps and rolls of cymbal and snare drum, were especially effective.

    • Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian
    • 26 June 2021

• Messiaen Visions de l'Amen

  Bold Tendencies, London

  Aug 2020

  • ***** ... the phrase “chamber music” is hardly adequate to describe this magnificent performance of Olivier Messiaen’s two-piano masterpiece, Visions de l’Amen. As Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy powered virtuosically through the clangorous climaxes of Messiaen’s seven-movement work, it sometimes sounded as though every bell in Paris was pealing, every organ thundering a toccata, every choir united in some ancient plainsong hymn. All at the same time.

    • Richard Morrison, The Times
    • 17 August 2020

• Brahms, Schubert, Beethoven & Debussy

  Wigmore Hall

  Jun 2020

  • ***** Piano duo bring electrifying intimacy... two pianists whose sweetness of touch and unobtrusive sense of momentum illuminated a thoughtful programme... qualities present in everything these two played.

    • Erica Jeal, The Guardian
    • 05 June 2020