Le Piano Symphonique, Lucerne: pianist Alexandre Kantorow in a marathon from Prokofiev to Alkan & Medtner with an Anders Hillborg premiere

Alexandre Kantorow (Photo: Sasha Gusov)

Bach: Partita No. 2 in C minor, Haydn: Andante mit variationen in F minor; Alkan: Symphonie pour piano seul, Op. 39; Schaghajegh Nosrati; Le Piano Symphonique at Hotel Schweizerhof, Luzern
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Alkan: Preludes Nos. 3, 13, 18, Anders Hillborg: Kalamazoo Flow; Medtner: Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 5; Alexandre Kantorow, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Robin Ticciati; Le Piano Symphonique at KKL Luzern
Reviewed 15 January 2026

Thursday evening's concert at Le Piano Symphonique at KKL Luzern (15 January 2026) was something of a marathon for French pianist Alexandre Kantorow. He opened the evening with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and conductor Robin Ticciati (standing in for an ailing Christoph Eschenbach) in Prokofiev's mammoth Piano Concerto No. 3. Ticciati and the orchestra followed with Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 (replacing the planned Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 1 in Schoenberg's orchestration). Then Kantorow returned with a solo recital moving from Alkan to an Anders Hillborg premiere to Medtner. Finally finishing with a Chopin encore at 10:20pm, some three and a quarter hours after launching into the Prokofiev. Le Piano Symphonique concerts are certainly not for the faint-hearted.

At the helm of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, Robin Ticciati gave no sense of being a last-minute stand-in. His relation with Alexandre Kantorow was flexible and lively, the two men bringing feeling of vibrant youth to the concerto. This is young man's music, Prokofiev completed the work age just 30 having begun it some five years earlier, and he was the soloist in the premiere in Chicago. Ticciati's concern for detail in the orchestra by no means overwhelmed hi rapport with Kantorow. This was a performance that wore the technical demand lightly, Kantorow's performance being notable for the detail as a much as volume.

The opening of the concerto had a 'Once upon a time' feel to it before the music picked up speed, the orchestra's vividness being matched by the dazzle and detail of Kantorow's playing. This was about detail rather than sheer impact, with moments of poetry. It felt a vibrant, young men's performance, yet Kantorow brought out a feeling of impressionistic tone-painting as time seemed, occasionally, to slip. The build up to the recapitulation was terrific and the end of the movement simply stupendous. The second movement seemed to move between wit and edge, and more impressionistic moments, though towards the end things built into a positively orgiastic climax before a hint of the opening movement brought things to a close. The third movement, which the composer described as an argument between soloist and orchestra, began with a sense of relentlessness though neither Kantorow nor the orchestra made the music heavy. There was a steady onward energy to the performance with Kantorow demonstrating amazing stamina, both engaged and engrossing. Time eased, and we returned to a more impressionistic feel, concentrated and intent with music that seemed to hark back to earlier in the work. The ending, however, was relentless, full of energy and attack.

Quite what you followed that with is anyone's guess. Eschenbach had planned to perform Schoenberg's orchestration of Brahms, though quite what this work would say to the Prokofiev, I don't know. As it was, Ticciati chose Dvorak's penultimate symphony and any doubts about why this particular work were knocked out by the simply terrific performance from conductor and orchestra. The symphony belongs to that group of later works where Dvorak's music took on a more intricate, multilayered approach which meant that Ticciati's eye for detail brought out the sheer richness of the music.

We began with a sophisticated and fluid account of the lovely cello melody, the opening full of calm detail before the vivid build up to excitement of the main section. Here there were lots of contrasts of timbre, texture and colour, the vividness offset by more relaxed moments. Ticciati brought compelling drama to the recapitulation, the whole lithe, youthful and joyful. The second movement began with a rich string sound, in dialogue with some intensely intimate wind playing. But this is all simply a prelude to one of Dvorak's most engaging yet wonderfully complex passages, Ticciati encouraging all sections of the orchestra to contribute to the whole. The ending of the movement was intense, with Ticciati certainly not going for the easy option. By contrast, the third movement seemed to be almost a Viennese waltz, with lovely woodwind swirls, orchestra and conductor creating a richly sophisticated delight. The finale opened with the vivid trumpet melody which acts as a motto theme throughout. The first subject returned us to the richly sonorous cello section, the line having a sophisticated sense of lift and elegance. The swagger of this movement was offset by the move into a Czech Furiant, the whole full of delightful contrasts. There was certainly a sense that Ticciati and the orchestra were enjoying themselves here, even with the angry Furiant that brought the work to a conclusion.

Alexandre Kantorow returned with three of Alkan's Preludes, Op. 31. Alkan wrote 25 in all, covering all 24 major and minor keys. We began with No. 8, 'La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer'. A strange, high RH melody over a deep, dark LH. There was a moment of orgiastic climax in the middle, but the majority of the movement concentrated on a sense of time suspended as Kantorow brilliantly captured the work's strange atmosphere. Then came No. 13, 'J'étais endormie, mais mon cœur veillait' where a tender RH melody unfolded over throbbing LH with occasional threatening notes in the bass. Finally, No. 18, 'Sans trop de mouvement' which was haunting and somewhat waltz-like.

In 2024, Kantorow received the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award and the commission to Swedish composer Anders Hillborg was supported by the Gilmore International Piano Festival. Hillborg's work, Kalamazoo Flow was named for the town in Michigan were the Gilmore Festival takes place. Kalamazoo Flow began with a simple, evocative folk-like melody which developed a two part texture before moving into something more complex. Throughout the work, these three elements moved between each other, creating a sense of interrupted flow, vividly fast, impetuous passages alternating with moments of calm. Though the opening simplicity did return, the ending was positively virtuoso in is fast furiousness.

Nicolai Medtner's Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 5 was his first piano sonata, the first of 14, completed in 1903. There are hints of Rachmaninov and Scriabin, but the work is very much Medtner's own. There was a folk-ish simplicity to the opening, the music fast and fluid with moments of real delicacy. The second movement Intermezzo featured a rather wandering melody supported by restless and somewhat dark chromatic harmonies. The third movement, Largo was full of concentrated drama, with a haunting melody of a darkly serious LH. The impetuous finale featured plenty of vivid fingerwork.

Despite the feats of stamina and technical wizardry, Kantorow gave us a lovely Chopin prelude as an encore.

Hotel Schweizerhof Luzern ready for Schaghajegh Nosrati's recital

Kantorow's choice of Alkan in his recital echoed the programme at the lunchtime debut recital where Schaghajegh Nosrati performed in the historic splendour of the Hotel Schweizerhof. She began with an elegant account of Bach's Partita No. 2 in C minor, with very much a modern piano sound allied to fine sense of technique and style. She followed this with something a little less well-known, a set of variations by Haydn. Here the theme was gently melodic and melancholic, creating an intriguing base for a set of subtle variations that rather evaporated at the end with little in the way of showy piano dazzle. Technique of a very different type was required for her closing work, Alkan's stupendous Symphonie pour piano seul, a work that took until the 20th century before it was performed in its entirely. Nosrati certainly seemed to have the technical chops for the work, and demonstrated a poised sense of control over this sprawling monster. The opening movement all sturm und drang, and then a slow movement funeral march that was anything but funereal. The third movement was vivid and urgent, with perhaps a waltz in there somewhere, then dark galloping drama in the finale. This year is not one of Alkan's anniversaries, so the festival's focus on the composer was more than welcome. He is exactly the type of figure suitable for festival discovery and rediscovery. More please.

We were treated to an encore, returning to Bach with a poised prelude and fugue. 

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