“Majestic in Chopin, unquestionable in Debussy,
the Argentinian pianist Nelson Goerner is one of those discreet artists whose career is immense.”
– Le Monde
Born in 1969 in Argentina, Nelson Goerner has established himself as one of the foremost pianists of his generation. He was awarded First Prize at the Liszt Competition in Buenos Aires in 1986, and in 1990 he won First Prize at the Geneva Competition.
In the 2019-20 season Nelson Goerner will give recitals on some of the world’s most important stages, including Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, London’s Wigmore Hall, Brussels’ BOZAR and Toulouse’s Cloitre des Jacobins, and give concerto appearances with La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Alain Altinoglu, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Myung-Whun Chung, and the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester under Lawrence Foster.
Two new albums
Nelson Goerner releases two major new albums this autumn featuring substantial bodies of work, including the towering and rarely recorded Variations and Fugue Op. 23 by Ignacy Jan Paderewski as well as Johannes Brahms’ mighty Variations on a Theme by Paganini.
Two works monumental in character, full of musical invention, emotional depth and immense technical challenges. Alongside the Variations and Fugue he programmes another great Romantic composer: Godowski, with his arrangement of a waltz by Johann Strauss, blisteringly virtuosic yet full of Viennese elegance.
Nelson Goerner comments: “Brahms displays exuberant invention in his Variations. They are at once highly virtuosic and very profound, and above all overflowing with imagination. Brahms gives the name “Études” to these variations which, like the études of Chopin and Liszt, go far beyond the superficially off-putting nature of the title. They’re a marvel of inventiveness.”
Goerner’s exhilarating interpretation of Paderewski’s Variations and Fugue – which the composer named his “best piano composition” – proves the position of the composer as a master of the large-scale cyclical form. The album is released on the label of the National Institute of Fryderyk Chopin, Warsaw, with whom Nelson Goerner enjoys a long association. He has previously recorded the Paderewski Piano Concerto with Sinfonia Varsovia for the label, as well as works by lesser-known composers, Martucci, Krogulski, Nowakowski.
Nelson Goerner awarded highest cultural award in Poland
On 14 September 2018 Nelson was awarded the Gold Medal ‘Zasluszony Kulturze Gloria Artis’ by Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage! It is the highest cultural award given by the country, for Nelson’s contribution to Polish music and culture throughout the world.
“You are the best ambassadors of not only our music, but also of Polish culture,” director of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC) Artur Szklener said.
“It is the globally recognized piano mastery, exceptional subtleness, precision of artistic interpretation, unmatched versatility, exploration of instruments’ possibilities with reaching out to the first half of 19th century, priceless pedagogical activity and, most importantly for us Poles, the love for Polish music.”
The First News
Poland in English
Radio Poland
Visit Nelson’s Facebook page for more impressions of the ceremony: https://www.facebook.com/NelsonGoerner/
