"As good a performance as you could wish: Bold and romantic, but also clear and precise."

Classical CD Reviews

"Mesmerising enchantment; everything in proportion with not a hint of passionate excess"

Piano News

"It is above all her distinctive sound that almost magically captivates the listener when she plays."

Markus Stange

“Thoroughly exquisite!”

FAZ

"Brilliance and absolute sovereignty"

Peter Eötvös

"Exceptional degree of textural definition, coloristic sensitivity and rhythmic precision"

Records international

"Exceptional!"

L’Education Musicale

"She plays Chopin as if it were dipped in blood… Zassimova’s name will soon be mentioned in the same breath as Cortot, Rosenthal, Friedman, Rubinstein and Arrau."

Fanfare

"Exemplary technique, clear and precise, prioritising emotion over pathos."

Musicologie

"One of the greatest Chopin pianists we had ever heard"

Fanfare

"Anna Zassimova brings imagination, marmoreal sound and searching intellect to her music-making… Poetics and pianism on a grand stage."

International Piano Magazine, 2023

"Anna Zassimova not only plays Chopin, she brings him to life."

Luister, 2023

"Anna Zassimova is once again able to create poetic pearls even out of the best known…"

Piano News, 2022

A playing style that unites stunning virtuosity and a delicate touch in the best possible way. […] Rarely have I met such a versatile artist.

– Wolfgang Rihm

Anna Zassimova’s piano playing blends sparkling technique and vibrant musicality – pianistic qualities that one might associate with the Russian piano school in the mould of Heinrich Neuhaus and his pupils Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels.

Bayrische Rundfunk

Thoroughly exquisite

– Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

ANNA ZASSIMOVA is a pianist of a kind rarely still found, the sort you’d imagine walking out the pages of a 19th century novel. Her playing bleeds with passionate intensity, all softness and fury, coupled with an unparalleled knowledge and sympathetic understanding of the works she plays. There’s nothing showy about it, though it’s riveting, and all the emotion – and my god there is plenty – is of the sort that can only be lived, and cannot be faked.

Anna Zassimova is a product of – perhaps the last generation of – the Great Russian School founded by Heinrich Neuhaus: Bayerische Rundfunk were the first of many to compare her playing to that of Richter and Gilels. The comparison is an apt one.

She trained at the world-renowned Gnessin School in Moscow from age six. While studying her first degree (in piano, at Gnessin Academy, taught by Vladimir Tropp), she experienced the traumas of the collapse of the Soviet Union first hand and full-on, an experience she credits with causing her to “commit” to her art as the only stable point in what was, for her, a time of great instability. Her education, she explains, trained pianists’ hands and minds, almost from birth; it was at this time that piano became her soul. Personal circumstances led her to leave Russia for Germany during this period. She received a DAAD Fellowship to do so, and duly studied at the Karlsruhe Music University (under Michael Uhde und Markus Stange) where she now teaches.

Over the course of the last decade, she has entranced audiences at a plethora of festivals and major concert halls, both with her solo recitals and her concerti. Her solo CD recordings, featuring Romantic and contemporary works have drawn unchecked praise from every quarter. These recordings have focussed on Chopin, her great ‘non-Russian’ love, Schumann, Brahms and fin-de-siecle Russian composers. Vergessene Weisen (“Forgotten Ways”) and it’s sequel, Sonata Reminiscenza, her albums of disappearing Romantic and modernist Russian music and ways of feeling, featuring Medtner, Catoire, Scriabin Roslavets and Wyschnegradsky are widely considered as her greatest recordings. She has also featured on chamber recordings of Tanejew and Catoire, released by cpo. The new Chopin-Album, recorded for BIS, will come out on 2. June 2023.

Zassimova is unusual among performers of her calibre for the breadth of her artistic education, and has taken additional degrees in musicology (where her monograph on Georgy Catoire is singularly responsible for renewed interest in the early 20th century composer) and history of art. She has worked with numerous galleries and events to create programmes pairing paintings and piano works, and entrancing audiences with her discourses on the former and performances of the latter. She is also herself an avid painter, with numerous collectors of her minituarist images of the Russia she remembers,

But it is the piano, truly an extension of Zassimova’s soul, at which all these disparate passions, tempests and deep thoughts come together. And how they do! There are many great piano performers in our time. Zassimova is a true Artist.

– Adam Donen

Events

Event Information:

CD review in "Fono Forum" magazine

December 2023

Review of Chopin CD (BIS) in Fono Forum, DE

CD review in "Pianist" magazine

November 2023

Review of new “Fryderik Chopin” CD in “Pianist” magazine

CD review in "International Piano" magazine

September 2023

Review of new “Fryderik Chopin” CD in “International Piano” magazine

New CD: "Fryderyk Chopin"

Release Date: 2 June 2023

Contents:

Mazurka in F sharp minor, Op. 6 No. 1; Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 6 No. 2; Mazurka in F minor, Op. 7 No. 3; Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52; Nocturne in G minor, Op. 15 No. 3; Mazurka in G minor, Op. 67 No. 2; Three Mazurkas, Op. 50; Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38; Mazurka in C major, Op. 67 No. 3; Four Mazurkas, Op. 41; Waltz in A flat major, Op. 64 No. 3; Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54; Waltz in E major, WN 18; Sostenuto in E flat major, WN 53; Cantabile in B flat major, WN 43; Moderato in E major, WN 56

www.bis.se

New Album: "Catoire Piano Quintet"

“It is not only the listener but also the
exponent who is confronted by the colossal
demands of this music, where everything
– the passage-work and in particular the
rhythm – is invariably unusual and exceptional.
This music is full of a special fluidity,
an undulating motion, with which one
must constantly keep pace while paying full
attention.” These are the words of music
critic Grigory Prokofiev after the evening of
Catoire’s compositions at which the Piano
Quintet op. 28 in G minor was premiered.
The piece was written in about 1914.

Interview with Anna Zassimova

Anna Zassimova interviewed by Eric Schoones, Pianist 2/2022

New CD: Fantasiebilder aus Wien

Melism, 2022

Anna Zassimova invites us to a “virtual concert” in this two-part recital, programmed with her customary flair and originality. We are taken on a journey that follows that most Romantic trajectory – from darkness into light. From Brahms’ and Schumann’s turbulent passions to the latter’s scintillating portrait of Vienna, the artistic jewel of nineteenth-century Europe, she renders the images and emotions of the Romantic imagination in a palette of the most vivid colours.

 

Rotary Offenburg-Ortenau: In Frieden und Freiheit

Benefizkonzert – am Sonntag, den 27. März 2022 – 11 Uhr.

Um Spenden für Hilfesuchende aus der Ukraine wird gebeten

Weberhaus, Am Erlenpark 1, 77866 Rheinau/Linx

DVORAK

Legends, From the Bohemian Forest

Anna Zassimova, Christophe Sirodeau (piano four hands)

Melism, 2021

In the lovely hands of the Russian-French duo, playing on a bright Bechstein grand, Dvorak’s music sounds unusually piquant and unorthodox.

– The Sunday Times, UK

Meet the Artist: Interview with Anna Zassimova

Meet the Artist is a series of interviews in which musicians, conductors and composers discuss aspects of their creative lives, including inspirations, influences, repertoire, performance, recording, significant teachers and more. The interviews offer revealing insights into the musician’s working life and a fascinating glimpse “beyond the notes”.

February 18, 2021

Coming soon: CD "Edition Ruhr Piano Festival 2020"

Live recording of Zassimova’s concert at the Ruhr Piano Festival will soon appear on the CD “Еdition Ruhr Piano Festival 2020”

October 2020

Anna Zassimova at the Festival of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Piano music in the orangery of the Brenners Park Hotel. Moderated concert

August 2020

Anna Zassimova plays Russian piano literature #zusammenspielen SWR2

With the project #zusammenspielen (playing together) we support over 40 musicians from classical to jazz in the Corona crisis.
We invite them to the SWR recording studios and record podcasts with a rare musical repertoire.
There is a new episode every week. This time for fans of the late Romantic era.

The composer Nikolaj Medtner was considered a “Russian Brahms”. Pianist Anna Zassimova plays his opulent Sonata in G minor, Op. 22, giving a powerful gift to all fans of the late Romantic era.
In addition, there are preludes from Medtner’s sentimental contemporary Georgi Catoire.

August 2020

Music and Visual Arts

 
August 8, 2020 5:00 PM
August 9, 2020 11:00 AM
 
Brenners Park-Hotel Baden-Baden

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Piano and chamber music works by Taneyev, Webern, Catoire.
February 22, 2020

Interview with Anna Zassimova on Radio Orpheus, Moscow, Russia

Moderation: Roman Bertschenko, Language: Russian.
February 10, 2020

"Expanding Horizons"

Anna Zassimova interview for PIANIST Magazine
December 2019

"Pure Sound" Award 2nd prize winner

Zassimova’s album “Sonata-Reminiscenza” won the 2nd prize in International Award for Best Recording of Russian Classical Music “Pure Sound” competition, Moscow, 2019.

Zassimovas CD “Sonata-Reminiscenza“ is nominated for OPUS Klassik 2019

Sonata Reminiscenza on Bayerische Rundfunk

On Bayerische Rundfunk, Michael Schmidt recommends Zassimova’s new album and plays music from it.

Zassimova's Elbphilharmonie debut

Anna Zassimova will perform a programme of fin-de-siecle Russian music, featuring works from her new album, Sonata Reminicenza, on 17 September 2018.

New CD: Sonata Reminiscenza

Anna Zassimova’s new CD, Sonata Reminiscenza, has been released by Hänssler Classic. A deep and moving exploration of lesser known early 20th century Russian composers, it will be accompanied by numerous live performances, including a solo performance at the Hamburg Elbphiloharmonie.

The Colours of Russia

Zassimova and Kwartet Śląski present Tanejew’s Piano Quintet op. 30 g-minor. The concert, performed with Silesian String Quartet will take place on 9 June as part of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice’s „The Colours of Russia“ festival. Zassimova has previously recorded this piece for SWR; an album of the performance was released on cpo.

Zassimova at Karlsruhe Kunsthalle

Zassimova will continue her long-standing relationship with the Karlsruhe Kunsthalle, delivering a brief performance at the opening of the Cezanne / Metamorphosen exhibition on Thursday 27 October. She is also to curate 4 concerts tied to the exhibition, in collaboration with the Music University Karlsruhe, which will be performed at the gallery during the Winter season.

Zassimova special on Deutschland Funk

In a 2 hour special, Zassimova’s debut concert at Klavierfestival Ruhr was broadcast in full on Germany’s largest national radio station, accompanied by an interview.

Zassimova to debut at Ruhr Piano Music Festival

Zassimova makes her Ruhr Piano Festival debut on 21 May at Martinslift. After performing works by Chopin, Schumann and Medtner (featured on her forthcoming Sonata Reminiscenza), the second half of the programme will see her perform entirely South American compositions, in keeping with the Festival’s theme.

Booking is open and tickets are selling fast.

Zassimova premieres Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto

Zassimova returns to the Heilbronn Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Peter Braschkat to perform Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto. Following the premiere at the Russian Soul event in Heilbronn on 26 March, Zassimova and the orchestra have subsequent concerts at the Pasqua Musicale Arcense 45. Festival in Arco in Italy

Profile of Zassimova on SWR

Zassimova talks with journalist Georg Waßmuth about her background in Russia and experiences of living and performing in Germany. She discusses the influence of her studies in History of Art on her musical thinking and performance.

She performs works from Chopin, Catoire and Scriabin.

Audio and Video

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Hear Zassimova's Klavierfestival Ruhr debut, recorded for Deutschlandfunk

Anna Zassimova recordings

Assorted live and recorded works2003 - 2021

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) - Fantasie op 77 g-moll(Live, Ruhr Piano Festival concert, 9. Juli 2020)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) - Polonaise op.89 C-Dur(Live, Ruhr Piano Festival concert, 9. Juli 2020)
Clara Schumann(1819-1896) - Romanze op. 21 a-moll(Recording from the album 'Fantasiebilder aus Wien', Melism, 2021)
Robert Schumann (1810-1956) - Romanze Fis-Dur Op. 28/2(Recording from the album 'Fantasiebilder aus Wien', Melism, 2021)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) - Intermezzo E-Dur, op.116/5(Recording from the album 'Fantasiebilder aus Wien', Melism, 2021)
Medtner - Sonata Tragica(composed by Nikolai Medtner. Recording taken from the album 'ergessene Weisen')
Chopin - Polonaise - Fantaisie - Op.-61 - As-Dur(Recording from the album 'Chopin - Late Works')
Luigi Nono - Sofferte onde Serene (1976) for piano and tape(Karlsruhe, live, 2005 - sound recording by Thomas Troge)
Georges Catoire - Sonate-Poeme op. 20(with Laurent Albrecht Breuninger, violin. Live, 2005)
Olivier Messiaen - Oiseaux exotiques pour piano solo et petit orchestre(Live, Neustadt 2008. Ensemble Messiaen, Leitung: Michael Wendeberg)
Alwyn Tomas Westbrooke - Patupaiarehe for Piano Solo(Live, 2010)
Johannes Motschmann, Komposition I für Klavier (2003)(Live, 2003)

Recordings

Fryderyk Chopin

“Anna Zassimova not only plays Chopin, she brings him to life. A bit of a romantic image, admittedly, but this is what Zassimova’s playing evokes. Her Chopin is one without concessions, with all the passions, feelings of nostalgia and longing, joy, lust for life and then doubts. Her drive and empathy are supported by a fabulous technique and a colourful, varied light touch.” – Marjolijn Sengers LUISTER, NL

“Anna Zassimova brings imagination, marmoreal sound and searching intellect to her music-making… Her way with phrasing, rubato and silence, the lingered „speaking“ pauses and magically dissipated endings (something of a trademark), her nuancing of mood and atmosphere, weave spells and spin allusions. Poetics and pianism on a grand stage.” – International Piano Magazin, September 2023.

https://www.recordsinternational.com/…

Review in Fono Forum, December 2023

Review in Pianist, November 2023

George Catoire. String Quartet Op. 23, Piano Quintet Op. 28

“Every new CD by The Utrecht String Quartet contains a musical discovery. In Anna Zassimova, members of the USQ found a like-minded musician, whose recent book about the composer as well as her recordings of Catoire’s works created a renewed interest in the composer. This collaboration resulted in a valuable musical document that gives the listener a good idea of a particularly vivid music with a distinct character of its own.” – Marjolijn Sengers LUISTER, September 2023, NL

Clara Wieck, Brahms, Liszt, Schumann & Godowsky: Fantasiebilder aus Wien

„Anna Zassimova is once again able to create poetic pearls even out of the best known… Petrarch Sonnet and the Consolations by Liszt are just as captivating with their lucid agogic and finely nuanced touch as the Romances of the Schumanns or the Intermezzi by Brahms. Zassimova takes her time, grants quiet freedom. This opens the ears” – Piano News.

“Zassimova has a clever way of conveying controlled but pent-up passion. Her touch lingers on the notes so that each is sustained long enough to suggest that there is a complicated emotional current flowing just beneath the surface.” – presentarts.co.uk

Antonin Dvorak: Legends Op. 59, From the Bohemian Forest Op. 68.

Original version for piano four hands

A journey through the pastoral wonderland of Dvořák’s exquisite miniatures for piano duet, full of character and whimsical charm, passionate drama, vivid imagery, symbolism, and nostalgic atmosphere. These gems of the repertoire deserve to be better known, as they express in miniature the essence of Dvořák’s genius.

Sonata Reminiscenza

“Anna Zassimova successfully combines formidable technical abilities with poetic feeling in this program of rarely performed Russian piano pieces.” – Remy Franck, Pizzicato, Luxembourg

“Anna Zassimova  posséde cette technique d’acier propre à l’école russe de piano mais aussi un toucher lumineux et subtil dans la lignée de Richter et Gilles“  – Arts, lettres et sciences, France. Octobre 2018, Nr. 738.

„Mitreisende Interpretation“ – Bayrische Rundfunk, September 2018
“technique exemplaire, son jeu clair, précis, préférant l’émotion au pathos“ – Musicologie, France. 16. Octobre 2018.
„Exceptionnel“ – L’education musicale, Paris. Octobre 2018

Vergessene Weisen (Forgotten Ways)

“Anna Zassimova is deeply enmeshed in the complex expressive worlds of these Russian piano works. The highly virtuosic, and at the same time expressive, performance of the native Moscovite is unmistakably from the Russian Piano School.” – Bayerische Rundfunk

“Anna Zassimova masterfully unfolds these miniatures in their brittle intimacy, with great understanding.” – FonoForum

Chopin - Late Works

“Every pianist plays Chopin at one time or the other as a rite of passage, but few have illuminated his sensibility as well as Richter, Lipatti, Rubinstein, Horowitz, Ashkenazy (especially in his earliest recordings) and most recently, Perahia and Kissin… Anna Zassimova is all about flow… a new force to be reckoned with. You’ll hear her gift instantly. She plays with a velvety, cushioned sound punctuated by crisp attacks in the main line, creating a dreamlike ambiance. ” – American Record Guide

Catoire - Works for Violin and Piano

“They do not just touch Catoire’s music with their fingertips, but also solve the works’ many expressive demands. It is a great posthumous fortune for the composer that he has found such a convincing advocate as Zassimova. Her comprehensive playing elicits the full range of fragile, delicate, stormy and pressing moods from the piano.” – Klassik.com

Tanejew - Piano Chamber Music

“Zassimova and her colleagues give as good a performance as you could wish, bold and Romantic, but also clear and precise. By a whisker then, this recording gets the top recommendation, even if Pletnev is relegated to second place with much reluctance. If you don’t countenance even the suspicion of Romantic excess, buy the Pletnev in preference to this. But whatever you do, buy at least one of them.” – Classical CD (UK)

Zassimova continues her project of repopularising lesser known Russian romantics with this superbly textured recording of Tanejew’s Quintet.

Brahms - Declaration of Love

“A deeply intelligent interpretation vacillating between vicious passions and intimate contemplation.” – Das Ensemble magazine

“Zassimova’s seamless phrasing and delicate, yet substantive touch to the “golden” tone of the period Beckstein piano, is distinctive.” – The Clarinet

Chopin - Mélodies polonaises Op. 74

“Irresistable!” – L’Education Musicale

“Anna Zassimova, a passionate pianist of Chopin, has a touch that is capable of elucidating all the pleasure to be found in these melodies, and shows a flexibility of play indispensable to their interpretation… played with virtuoso content, the piano Érard, an instrument pampered by the composer himself, takes the place of a true confidant, to reveal the happiest feelings as to deliver the darkest emotions.” – Res Musica

Georgy Catoire, Revived Masterpieces

World premiere recordings of some relevant Russian chamber works composed at the turn of the 20th Century by Georgy Catoire, performed by the Catoire Ensemble.

Catoire - Works for Voice and Piano

“Anna Zassimova has dedicated herself with passion and perseverance to this composer as a musicologist as well as a pianist. Her knowledge, art and love are audible. Yana Ivanilova, who has already recorded with Boris Berezovsky a beautiful record with songs by Nikolai Medtner, once again appears as master of the genre. Once again, this fine recording demonstrates the level of reflection and creative power Russian music reached just before the Communist revolution – at a rapid pace and extreme compression – and how closely it touches Western Europe.” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Chopin - The Erard Recordings

“Chopin played on his favourite piano by a pianist who provides an empathy that is both convincing for the music of the composer and for the quality of the historical instrument.” – Bayerische Rundfunk

“The recording stands out from the multitude of comparable recordings due mainly to the nuanced contrasts of the pianist Anna Zassimova, who once again proves her excellence.” – Klavier.de

Georgy Catoire

Anna Zassimova’s academic work, beginning in 2000, and growing to her Doctorate, has been focussed on the popularisation and study of the Franco-Russian fin-de-siecle composer Georgy Catoire (Moscow 27 April 1861 – 21 May 1926).

Working with archives and libraries in Moscow and Berlin, and with the assistance of Catoire’s heirs in Germany, Russia and France, she wrote the first comprehensive, systematised analysis of the composer and his life. This book Georges Catoire – seine Musik, sein Leben, seine Ausstrahlung (Studia slavica musicologica, 49. Ernst Kuhn, Berlin, 2011) has been referenced extensively in journals including SEER at Oxford University, Music & Letters UK, Die Tonkunst, das Orchester, Neue Musik Zeitung and many others.  She has also published texts on Catoire in German Tchaikovsky Society (2006) and editorials for Moscow State Pedagogical University (2001 and 2002). 

Zassimova has worked with Catoire’s heirs to create recordings of all of the composer’s piano works (including many hitherto unperformed). Notably, she initiated and performed in the only existing recording of Catoire’s vocal works, “Poems for Voice and Piano” (with soprano Yana Ivanilova). Zassimova also recorded all Catoire’s works for Violine and piano with Laurent Breuninger (cpo/SWR).

Catoire works appear on three of her album recordings (among them the first existing record of the piano poem op 34 C-Dur), and it has been observed that, “it is a great posthumous fortune for the composer that he has found such a convincing advocate as Zassimova.” (Klassik.com)

Further solo piano works of Catoire appear on her album Sonata Reminiscenza.

The Catoire Music Initiative was founded in Hamburg in 2017.

Contact

info@annazassimova.com

For Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway & Sweden), the UK and Ireland please contact:

Gunnar Management Ltd.
10-12 Corporation Road, Newport, South Wales, NP19 0AR, United Kingdom
UK: +44 (0) 790 570 0846
Norway: +47 92288474
Greece: +30 6948750992
E-Mail: stromsholm.gunnar@gmail.com
Web: www.gunnarmanagement.com
Member of the International Artist Managers’ Association

 

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