Pianist Vesselin Stanev will be joined by cellist Zoltan Despond in a new programme.
“He is not just a pianist but also a musician.” The critic who wrote that was referring to the virtuosity that is a central element in Vesselin Stanev’s playing style. For a pianist whose essential influence was that of Dmitri Bashkirov at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and hence one who belongs to the Russian school of pianists, that comes as no surprise. Yet Vesselin Stanev aims beyond the acrobatic; his most important concern is the emotion he senses in the works and tries to pass on to the audience using the means of his art. That is why Romantic compositions occupy a special place in his repertoire. It is also why his playing style has a suppleness and a richness of colour that point beyond pure virtuosity. They testify to an inward gaze, which is precisely the gaze of a musician.
Zoltan Despond belongs to the new and promising generation of Swiss cellists. His teachers were Pierre-Bernard Sudan (Fribourg), Marc Jaermann (Lausanne), Thomas Grossenbacher (Zürich) and Enrico Dindo (Pavia). Zoltán Despond plays alongside musicians such as Ilya Gringolts, Silvia Simionescu, Claudius Hermann, Tanja Sonc, Marko Milenković, Anahit Kurtikyan, Thomas Grossenbacher. He also regularly collaborates with the pianists Anna Bertogna and Richard Octaviano Kogima.
Keeping you safe
We’re still doing everything we can to keep all our audiences and staff safe at The Stoller Hall.
We’re encouraging mask wearing when moving around the venue and when inside the concert hall, and if you would prefer to social distance when watching the performance, whenever possible we have areas reserved in the hall where there is extra spacing between seats. Please let a member of our team know on arrival, or by emailing boxoffice@stollerhall.com in advance. For our audiences who would like that extra bit of reassurance, our hand sanitising stations, enhanced cleaning measures and modern air handling system helps to minimise any risk from your visit.
