Evgeny Kissin has been a piano superstar ever since he burst onto the scene as a curly-haired child prodigy in the early 1980s.
Starting in the early days of YouTube in the mid-2000s, fans began uploading videos of his performances to the platform. Over the last two decades, these videos have garnered millions of views.
Today, we’re looking at the seven most popular Kissin performances, and we’ve arranged them in reverse countdown order.
Evgeny Kissin
When it’s available, we’re also using YouTube’s heatmap to note which portions of performances viewers have most often replayed.
Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1
2.1 million views
This 2011 performance video from Tel Aviv shows Kissin at the height of his powers.
One of the most popular moments in this performance is actually Kissin’s first entrance at 4:00. Kissin’s opening flourishes mix a commanding attitude with an intense intimacy.
The most replayed minute of the entire performance happens in the first movement at 11:15, when Kissin returns with a wistful restatement of the main theme.
The heatmap shows that viewers have also gravitated toward the beginning of the poetic second movement (20:44 in this performance).
Chopin himself described this adagio in a letter to a friend:
“It is not meant to create a powerful effect; it is rather a Romance, calm and melancholy, giving the impression of someone looking gently toward a spot which calls to mind a thousand happy memories. It is a kind of reverie in the moonlight on a beautiful spring evening.”
(You can read more about what Chopin secretly thought about his Piano Concerto No. 1.)
Kissin takes this description to heart, employing a lovely, pearly tone throughout.
Beethoven’s Rage Over a Lost Penny
2.4 million views
This performance is an encore from a Kissin performance at Royal Albert Hall in 1997.
The clarity of the articulation here verges on the supernatural. Take note of how even in Beethoven’s various accents and sforzandos, Kissin retains complete control.
Even within the context of a dazzling showpiece, Kissin doesn’t shy away from employing quiet dynamics as he phrases: an interpretive choice that makes the entire performance especially interesting.
In 2020, our contributor Nicolette Wong explained why she loves this piece – and Kissin’s performance – so much. (Read “My Beethoven by Nicolette”)
Rachmaninoff’s Prelude Op. 23, No. 5
2.4 million views
Kissin has a special kinship with works by Russian composers.
Listen to how thick and full Kissin’s tone is in the opening to this Rachmaninoff prelude. And yet it never comes across as mucky or muddled: his voicing of different lines within the texture is impressive and effective.
When the prelude takes a turn toward the yearning in the lyrical middle section, Kissin is well-equipped to convey those emotions, too.
That contrast makes the return of the insistent march-like theme at the end all the more impactful.
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2
3.6 million views
With a concerto that’s as oft-performed and oft-recorded as Rachmaninoff’s second concerto, it can be difficult to stand out. But Kissin does.
He doesn’t stop to dilly-dally at any point in the performance; he is more interested in creating longer phrases and a larger narrative, avoiding the temptation to linger too long at individual notes. This keeps his performance from turning maudlin, without sacrificing emotional intensity.
Like other performances on this list, his fluency with tone and voicing is especially noticeable throughout.
It’s also striking how he is able to blend in with the orchestra or cut through its texture at will, depending on what musical idea he might be exploring.
Rachmaninoff’s Prelude Op. 3, No. 2
4.5 million views
Here’s yet another Rachmaninoff work. (See why we mentioned that Russian music is a speciality?)
The power of the famous opening chords is stunning and more than a little terrifying. This is a piece that can easily sound sluggish or even samieish, but Kissin’s chords seem to be in dialogue with one another.
In the contrasting rippling middle section, Kissin steers clear of melodrama, letting the sheer power of a grand piano speak for itself.
The performance marries strength with restraint. The constant tension between the two is the reason why the narrative of this piece is so gripping throughout.
At the very end, before the applause begins, you can hear a patron call out “Merci!” It’s easy to see why.
Liszt’s La Campanella
5.5 million views
5.1 million views
Interestingly, Kissin’s #2 and #3 most popular performances on YouTube are actually of the same piece and performance: Liszt’s La Campanella, played in London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1997.
Kissin’s technique here is absolutely blistering. His repeated high notes ring loud and clear like bells (fitting, given “la campanella” means “the bell”).
Even given the piece’s built-in bombastic nature, the performance is full of subtleties, building up to a barnburner of a final minute. It’s musically interesting playing, and not every rendition of a virtuoso piece like this is.
Chopin’s Waltz from Op. 64, No. 2
7.2 million views
Kissin’s most viewed video on YouTube isn’t a big concerto or flashy virtuoso piece; it’s a stunning, melancholy waltz from Chopin, played beautifully.
The passage at 1:05 is often played in a contrasting manner to the opening, emphasising its sparkling virtuosic qualities – but Kissin chooses to sustain the same dark melancholy mood instead, to great effect.
He also draws out all manner of colours throughout the piece (just as he did in every performance on this list).
This isn’t the showiest entry, or the longest, or the most virtuosic…but it’s deeply touching, and easy to see how it has accrued over seven million views, and become the most popular Kissin performance on YouTube.
For more of the best in classical music, sign up for our E-Newsletter
