Daniil Trifonov

Success at major competitions set the seal on Daniil Trifonov’s rapid ascent into the highest echelons of young performers, and he is now established as one of the most interesting pianists around. He first came to widespread attention when he placed third at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2010, playing with the kind of daring, imaginative flair that can be a risk at such events. The following year he won the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. Trifonov was born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in 1991; after studying in Moscow, he went to the Cleveland Institute of Music to work with Sergei Babayan. Trifonov’s recordings of Chopin appeared on various labels before he signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 2013. His first album for the label was a live recording of his debut solo recital at Carnegie Hall. Among the many outstanding albums that followed, highlights include Transcendental (2016), an exultant traversal of Liszt’s Études, and Silver Age (2020), a demanding program of Russian music including piano concertos by Scriabin (1896) and Prokofiev (No. 2, 1913) as well as solo works, all played with a rare degree of refinement and imagination. Occasionally, Trifonov’s interpretive choices—a highly personal rhythmic freedom, or his willingness to focus on subsidiary lines—might divide opinion, but he is a pianist who puts his artistry and stunning technique fully at the service of whatever music he is playing.