AlimBeisembayev

Press

• Wigmore Hall

  London

  Jan 2024

  • Alim Beisembayev is, beyond doubt, a remarkable talent, and on present evidence a pretty fully formed one, at that. It was impossible not to notice the technical elements (a supremely even left hand at speed, for example), but most of all this was a moving experience. The opening of the Allegro molto danced beautifully; while the Adagio ma no troppo, taken at the perfect tempo, made time stand still. It might be noted at this point just how much Beisembayev held the audience in his thrall... Rarely have I heard the opening of ‘Ondine’ so even and yet so atmospheric, not just light textured, but positively luminous. Every note was audible, and yet the totality created a magic web of sound.

    • Seen and Heard International
    • 06 January 2024

  • This was big-boned playing that projected the tempestuous outbursts of the “Appassionata” on a thunderous scale. the Romantic sweep of Beisembayev’s performances carried all before it. A contrasting pair by Rachmaninov...brought back the wealth of colours that distinguish Beisembayev’s Rachmaninov

    • Financial Times
    • 09 January 2024

• Album: Liszt Transcendental Études

  Warner Classics

  Dec 2022

  • Dans sa jolie note d’intention, Alim Beisembayev avoue que les pianistes qui lui ont ouvert l’univers des Études d’exécution transcendante sont, dans l’ordre, Cziffra, Richter et Kissin, mais dès le Preludio, lancé comme une bombe, ce piano qui avoue ses cordes de métal, cet appétit athlétique, cet héroïsme du geste évoquent pourtant Lazar Berman, et personne d’autre, jusque dans l’inverse absolue, la canzone de Paysage qu’il modèle en poète. On courra donc à Mazeppa où les muscles n’assurent pas obligatoirement de l’endurance, ce que la santé du pianiste ignore, jetant le cosaque par-dessus sa monture ; simplement bluffant, et à l’inverse les diaprures, la féminité de Ricordanza, si subtilement dites jusque dans les silences, si ce virtuose n’est pas aussi un poète ! Des doigts de feu pour Wilde Jagd, un éclairagiste inspiré pour Chasse-neige, et puis, délivré de la pression des Études soudain comme il chante dans La leggierezza ! Vite d’autres disques !

    • Artamag
    • 20 December 2022

• Oxford Piano Festival

  St John the Evangelist, Oxford

  Aug 2022

  • Piano music doesn’t get much more grown up than Beethoven’s last sonata, Op 111 in C minor, and Beisembayev tackled it with impressive assurance, giving the first movement an imposing sense of grandeur and steering a steady course through the variations that follow…it had great integrity and intelligence.

    • The Guardian
    • 08 August 2022

• The Leeds International Piano Competition

  University of Leeds

  Sep 2021

  • Present at the finals was Pianist magazine editor, Erica Worth: ‘It takes great guts to play Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini as the chosen concerto in the finals of an international piano competition,' said Worth. ‘One needs to be able to coax myriad colours and touches out of the instrument – from the spiky staccato chords in the opening variations, to some fast chordal progressions in the speedy ping-pong action with the orchestra and then to the moving and totally lush-sounding Hollywoodesque Variation 18. He had all… and more! I predict a brilliant future for this humble giant from Kazakhstan.

    • Pianist Magazine
    • 18 September 2021

  • 23-year-old Kazakhstan-born Alim Beisembayev was a worthy winner, with a polish and maturity to his playing that marked him among the all-male quintet of finalists. the fact that Beisembayev also won the contemporary music prize for his group of Ligeti Studies in his semi-final recital, as well as the virtual audience award, based on votes from those who watched the streaming of the earlier rounds, suggests that his playing consistently stood out. But the most valuable commodity is a real musical personality, and that can’t be taught; to judge from the final, though, Beisembayev certainly has that.

    • The Guardian
    • 19 September 2021

  • Pianist Imogen Cooper, who chaired this year’s Leeds jury, praised his performance of Ligeti studies in the semi-final. ‘They are some of the hardest ones out there and he played without any scores at all,’ she says. ‘It was breathtaking.

    • Classical Music Magazine
    • 20 September 2021

  • Beisembayev also scooped the audience prize, which is voted for by the public, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Prize for performance of a 20th/21st century work. Alim was the very first pianist that I listened to in the pre-selection round, which was just people submitting tapes. And I remember listening to it and thinking, ‘my goodness, if they’re all this good, how am I possibly going to choose?’,” Adam Gatehouse, The Leeds artistic director, said. He stood out right from the beginning.

    • WTVB
    • 20 September 2021

• BBC Proms, Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2

  Royal Albert Hall

  Aug 2023

  • ...Beisembayev has something about him of the grand pianistic manner of the great Cuban-American virtuoso Jorge Bolet, who was similarly undemonstrative at the keyboard, while commanding an equivalently sparkling technique, rhythmic control and dynamic range. Beisembayev reeled off the concerto as if he was to the manner born... a dazzlingly fast encore of the Danse Infernale from Stravinsky’s Firebird brought the house down...

    • The Guardian
    • 07 August 2023