Petr Limonov

The Russian-born pianist Petr Limonov was trained at home, in France, and in Britain, which he has made his adoptive home (and where he has sometimes used the name Peter Limonov). Limonov's performing career, though new, has been even more far-flung, extending as far as Japan, and he has been heard on several recordings. Limonov was born in Moscow on June 16, 1984. He took up the piano at five and quickly showed enough promise to win admission to the Central Music School there, in 1991. Seven years later he won the Nikolai Rubinstein Piano Competition in Paris, which attracted the attention of the Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation and snared the youngster concert bookings in Russia, western Europe, and Japan. He declined to rest on his prodigy laurels, however, and sought out further training. A scholarship from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music allowed him to enroll at London's Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Hamish Milne and Alexander Satz. He has also been influenced by master classes with Stephen Hough, Stephen Kovacevich, and Alfred Brendel, among others. Limonov studied further in Paris at the Ecole Normale Cortot, then returned to London and entered the master's program at the Royal College of Music in 2010. He studied piano with Dmitri Alexeev and also took conducting lessons from Peter Stark; these paid off when he was named principal conductor of the London Soloists Philharmonia Orchestra in 2012. He has also conducted the London International Chamber Orchestra. Limonov has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Salle Cortot in Paris, and Duke's Hall, the latter with Prince Charles in the audience. His solo repertoire runs from Renaissance keyboard works to the present day. Limonov has been especially visible as a collaborator with, among others, Nicola Benedetti, Leonard Elschenbroich, Jennifer Pike, and Laura van der Heijden, with whom he recorded the album 1948, featuring Russian cello-and-piano music from that year, when Soviet cultural restrictions began to take hold. That release won a prestigious Edison Klassiek award in the Netherlands. Limonov has also backed Elschenbroich on an album of cello-and-piano music by Alfred Schnittke, and in 2019, he accompanied Pike on the recital album The Polish Violin. ~ James Manheim