Boris Giltburg

Russian-born Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg is renowned for his idiomatic playing of repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Shostakovich. He was born in Moscow in 1984 to a Jewish family, who moved to Tel Aviv when he was a young boy. The central focus of Giltburg’s repertoire has long been 20th-century Russian music. A blistering 2012 release of Prokofiev’s three “War” Sonatas (Nos 6-8, 1940, 1942, 1944), prioritising visceral drama over measured refinement, demonstrates a raw virtuosity that has since become increasingly polished. Recordings of sonatas by Rachmaninoff, Grieg and Liszt (2013) and an all-Schumann recital (2015) followed, before Giltburg turned his attention principally to Rachmaninoff, with much-lauded accounts of the Second (1901) and Third (1909) Piano Concertos as well as the complete Preludes (1892, 1903 and 1910) and Études-tableaux (2016), where his playing is enriched by a deep-seated sensitivity. Giltburg’s bold risk-taking is revealed in live recordings (2020-21) of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, while his thoughtful and responsive musicality is further evident in collaborations with the Pavel Haas Quartet.