Born in 1995 to a family of musicians, Nathalia Milstein began the piano at the age of 4 with her father Serguei Milstein and continued her studies with Nelson Goerner at the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique as well as with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim-Saïd Akademie in Berlin.

Nathalia launched her international career in 2015 by winning 1st Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition and has been since then invited to renowned halls such as the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Zankel Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and the Radio France Auditorium in Paris, as well as performing with orchestras such as the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Boulez Ensemble, Paris and Geneva Chamber Orchestras, amongst conductors such as Mikko Franck, Matthias Pintscher, John Storgårds and Arie van Beek.

In 2017 she was awarded the Young Soloist Prize by the Médias Francophones Publics and in season 2021/22 Nathalia was selected for the “Building Bridges” series curated by Sir András Schiff. Throughout her studies, Nathalia Milstein has received valuable teaching from renowned professors and pianists such as Daniel Barenboim, Menahem Pressler, Emanuel Krasovsky, Elena Ashkenazy or Enrico Pace.

A keen chamber music player, Nathalia also performs regularly with renowned musicians and is invited to international chamber music events, such as the Intonations Festival in Berlin, the West Cork Festival in Ireland, Lavaux Classic in Switzerland, the Schiermonnikoog Festival in the Netherlands. She also appears on the latest CD recording of the Prazak Quartet dedicated to works of Smetana. For several years she has been playing in duo with her sister violinist Maria Milstein, with whom she recorded two albums together - “La Sonate de Vinteuil” (2017) and “Ravel Voyageur” (2019) - both on the French label Mirare and praised by international critics. Supported by the Safran Foundation (Paris) and the Foundation “Tempo” (Geneva), Nathalia's debut solo CD, featuring works of Prokofiev and Ravel, is released in 2018 on Mirare. Her second album « Visions Fugitives » is released in September 2021 and is awarded a « Choc Classica » as one of the best recordings of 2021.

Piano

Nathalia Milstein

Named after a rustic dance associated with clowns originating from the ancient Italian town of Bergamo, Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque from 1905 opens with a smoothly flowing Prélude. Next comes a faintly comedic Menuet in a more staccato style, followed by the dreamily expressive ‘Clair de Lune’ or ‘Moonlight’. The suite concludes with a feather-light Passepied, a French court dance with Breton folk roots.

There’s a distinctly rustic, folky feel to Bartók’s Piano Sonata of 1926, heard especially strongly in its opening Allegro moderato and closing Allegro molto. These are separated by a slow movement whose dark writing suggests sombre tolling bells. 

A sunnier pastoral flavour is evoked by ‘Feuillet d’album’ or ‘Album leaf’ in Tchaikovsky’s set of 6 Morceaux Op 19 composed in 1873. ‘Scherzo humoristique’ by contrast is more reminiscent of the ballet stage, with its ebulliently whirling, dexterously challenging outer sections. ‘Rêverie du soir’ meanwhile is a wistful, sighing minor-tonality work with a brief major-keyed central interlude. 

A visionary single-movement melding of fantasia and sonata forms over which all the main material is derived from the opening bars, Schubert's monumental ‘Wanderer’ Fantasie in C major of 1822 may have coincided with the onset of the syphilis that would kill him six years later, but that’s not the emotional world it presents. Seemingly more apt is Schumann’s analysis, written while Schubert was still alive and apparently uncontradicted by him: “The enthusiastic beginning is a seraphic hymn to the Godhead; you see the angels pray; the Adagio is a gentle meditation on life and takes the veil from off it; then fugues thunder forth a song of endless humanity and music”. 

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Nathalia Milstein, piano

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