András Schiff & Evgeny Kissin in Basel

Sir András Schiff is a Hungarian-born British pianist and conductor, born in Budapest in 1953. He is known particularly for Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert; his recordings include Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas and Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. In 1999, he founded the chamber orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca to perform Mozart’s piano concertos at Salzburg’s Mozartwoche. He later presented complete Beethoven sonata cycles at Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall, pairing the London concerts with lecture-recitals on the works. His performances include solo recitals and concerts in which he directs Mozart from the keyboard. He gives recitals in concert halls such as the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He has also performed in the festival setting of the Verbier Festival.

Evgeny Kissin is a Russian classical pianist, born in 1971, known for his performances and recordings of Romantic-era music. His repertoire is particularly associated with works by Chopin, Liszt, Schumann and Rachmaninoff, alongside Beethoven’s sonatas and concertos. In 1984, aged 12, he performed both Chopin piano concertos in a single evening at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, accompanied by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitri Kitaenko. Four years later, Herbert von Karajan conducted his performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto at the Berlin Philharmonic’s New Year concert. In 1990 he made his BBC Proms debut and later that year gave his first solo recital at Carnegie Hall. He has also given recitals at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Vienna’s Musikverein.