Kirill Gerstein and Piotr Anderszewski win ECHO Klassiks

The winners of the 2015 ECHO Klassiks were announced recently, and 2010 Gilmore Artist Kirill Gerstein and 2002 Gilmore Artist Piotr Anderszewski each received recognition for their recent releases.

Kirill won the Concerto Recording of the Year award for his Tchaikovsky recording, while Piotr received the Solo Recording of the Year award for his Bach recording.

Kirill’s February release of Tchaikovsky’s first Piano Concerto has been championed as “the real Tchaikovsky,” a recording that takes the popular classical piece back to its roots.

“The main draw of this recording is Mr. Gerstein’s brilliant, insightful and exceptionally transparent playing. The album includes a dazzling account of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, a work he composed during a period of deep immersion into Tchaikovsky’s music,” wrote Anthony Tomassini for the New York Times.

Gramophone praised Piotr’s release of Bach’s English Suites 1, 3 and 5: “And how Anderszewski can dance - at least at the keyboard - in a movement such as the Prelude of the Third Suite, urged into life through subtle dynamics, voicings, articulation and judicious ornamentation… Anderszewski’s CDs are all too infrequent, so let’s cherish this one.”

When asked about the qualities he admires in Bach, Piotr said he strives to replicate the “clarity of the counterpoint, but also in capturing the formal quality of the piece. Then a subtle balance between a sense of abstraction on one side and lyricism and rhythm on the other.”

The awards will be presented at Konzerthaus Berlin on Sunday, October 18 and will be broadcast at 10 p.m. in Germany.