Piano duo of Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy play Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' in its original four-hand version and Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy play The Queen's Hall on Monday 25 January 2027, as part of the venue's New Town Concerts series. They're a piano duo known for taking massive orchestral scores and stripping them down to their essence, and this programme does exactly that with two of the biggest works in the classical repertoire.
The first half is Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, played from the composer's own 1913 four-hand piano version. It's the same music that caused a riot at its premiere, but here it's reduced to its rhythmic and skeletal core, with the two pianos handling the heavy lifting that usually takes a full orchestra. The second half is Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Symphony No 9, which turns the symphonic structure into an intimate, yet powerful, dialogue between the two pianos.
Kolesnikov and Tsoy are celebrated for their musical partnership and for this specific way of working — taking these huge pieces and finding the line that runs through them. The critics have been on board: The Times called them 'a bracing joy', and Gramophone said they 'go far beyond a merely faithful realisation'.
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It starts at 7:30pm at The Queen's Hall, 85-89 Clerk Street, with tickets ranging from £22 to £98, prices including a £2 fee per transaction.
