Denys Proshayev
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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 March, 2007 | Herald Budweg
Whereas Denys Proschajew’s performance of the Tchaikovsky piano part was marked with a rather contained noblesse, his performance of the soloist passages in Prokofiev’s concert was aggressive, in full evolution of his virtuose potential, As a cherry on the cake, he permitted himself a show of strength in adding the finale from Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat Major Op. 83. This was a great success as well…
Frankfurter Rundschau, 13 March, 2007 | Anette Becker
… The soloist was another remarkable young artist: Denys Proshayev, born in 1978 in Brest, Belarus, winner of the ARD competition in 2002 and increasingly in demand on the international level ever since - a brilliant virtuose, extremely expressive with a contagious tendency to be impulsive. Hence even the cumbersome single-movement Tchaikovsky concert, that was created simultaneously with his Pathétique symphony and sometimes sounds like a collection of ideas discarded during that process, received febrile glamour…
Frankfurter Neue Presse, 10 March, 2007 |
…The belarussian pianist Denys Proshayev, just one year older than Solyom, approached the music of the young Prokofiev with crystalline tones and some lucent passages, while the orchestra was able to go through the score’s rhapsodian thicket by playing with much transparence and a pleasantly clear articulation. Moreover, the interpreter played Tchaikovsky’s piano concert with just one movement both brilliantly and tastily…
PIANO NEWS, November 2006 | Carsten Dürer
CD of the Month

Since Denys Proshayev, born in 1978 in Brest, Belarus, won the ARD competition in 2002, his career has augured well. And now his first important CD. What does this still young pianist choose as repertoire? Three suites from the Pièces de Clavecin by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Rather unusual. But the skills and the person of Denys Proshayev are far from being usual: on the contrary, they are extraordinary. With Rameau he shows on the one hand that he does not succumb to repertoire restrictions, that he does not let himself be tied down to particular work categories. On the other hand he shows that he is interested in going back to the roots, in this case to the most important roots of French keyboard instrument music. No matter how great Rameau was as a composer of operas, his piano works, which he put together in the three volumes “Pièces de Clavecin“, were leading for all composers that were to follow.
And Proshayev recognizes immediately that Rameau did not merely conventionalise court dances in the individual pieces put together to suites, but that he continued to develop both harmonically and agogically. He plays the A minor suite from the first volume of the “Pièces” slightly agogically and does not try to impose much more dramatic art to these dances. In comparison, the E minor suite from the second volume has a lot more dramatic art and a more distinct intention to filter the harmonious courses that then and now – if played correctly – are full of suspense and fascinatingly clear in the leading voice. Here Proshayev’s mastery flashes up completely. He recognises here a pianistic greatness that is so rare for someone of his age. In this spirit, he lets the “Musette en rondeau” erupt harshly, the final rondo “La Villageoise” twinkle fiercely.
He is always aware of the music and its intrinsic affects, knows how to play to the core of the dances through an immense richness of colours and a differentiated, but subtle dynamic. The last suite from the third volume on this recording, “Pièces de clavecin” from 1728, turns into a fascinating example of how to interpret cembalo music on nowadays’ piano: careful use of pedal, dexterous rubati in order to interpret harmonic effects, lyrically single out melodies in order not to present the many garnishments for their own purpose, which were created especially for the quickly abating sound of cembalos.
Denys Proshayev shows with this recording that he is one of the most serious pianists we can see on stage today.
RONDO MAGAZINE, September 2006
…For the 27-year-old Proshayev, winner of the ARD competition in 2002, Rameau is obviously a matter close to heart: he uses the freedom achieved in transferring this music from a cembalo to a modern grand piano to produce a slew of stunning sound effects: such as an entrancing pianissimo delicacy, with which he savours the echo effects of "Les Trois Mains," or the beautifully expressed gesture full of fantasy and improvisation in the prelude to the first suite. Proshayev approaches the pieces with a Skriabinesc sound culture that ranges from water-colour-like transparency to a lively and effervescent staccato – the highly praised recording of Tharaud looks almost dowdy in comparison with this magic fire…