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New album “My Rachmaninoff” now available on CD, vinyl and digitally

One week before Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday, Alexander Krichel’s very personal new album “My Rachmaninoff” was released.

Some works from it — such as the Prélude in C sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2, which for him symbolizes his first highly emotional encounter with the piano giant, or the Étude-Tableau, Op. 39 No. 6 “Little Red Riding Hood”, a gripping confrontation with human primal fears — have already been available in advance on YouTube and all streaming platforms. In addition, the dramaturge and former spokesman of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Tom R. Schulz, conducted an extensive video interview with Alexander Krichel about the album.

Alexander Krichel opens “My Rachmaninoff” with the Préludes in C-Sharp Minor, G Minor and G-Sharp Minor, which are followed by the Corelli Variations, a piece that accompanied him intensively especially during the Pandemic. Another major work on the album are the Études-Tableaux, Op. 39 with which he associates exciting memories of his first tours in Japan and South America. The programme is closing with the beautiful Kocsis transcription of the Vocalise.

The album is available as of now digitally or on CD/vinyl. In the physical version, there is also more insight into these special works and what they mean to Krichel in a booklet text written by him personally.

The album release is accompanied by a German tour with various recitals, showcases and live radio interviews in the coming days and weeks, all dates can be found here.

(c) Raimar von Wienskowski
First single from new album “My Rachmaninoff” released

Today, the first single from Alexander Krichel’s new album “My Rachmaninoff”, the Prélude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2 (from Morceaux De Fantaisie), was released. The complete album will be available from 24 March – one week before the 150th birthday of the maestro.

The Prélude in C-sharp minor has a special meaning for Alexander Krichel, as it was his first encounter with Sergei Rachmaninoff. Taking part in a youth piano competition at the age of nine, an older participant warmed up with this very piece. “I was just talking to my piano teacher, and although I only heard the music in the background, the first three dramatic notes grabbed me right away and wouldn’t let go,” the pianist said. In order to expose his audience directly to the captivating effect of Rachmaninoff, Alexander Krichel opens his album with precisely this piece, which is also biographically one of Rachmaninoff’s first works. Together with the Prélude Op. 23 No. 5 in G minor and the Prélude Op. 32 No. 12 in G-sharp minor, the works quite literally form a prelude to the journey through Rachmaninoff’s musical biography.

The single is available for streaming here, the music video can be found here.

Hong Kong, new release & back to Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Having just returned from an impressive concert tour in Hong Kong – which included performing Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto – the pre-Christmas period has begun quite intensively for Alexander Krichel, with several piano recitals and further preparations for a special project: his very personal new album “My Rachmaninoff” will be released on 24 March 2023, on the occasion of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday.

A beautiful concert tour will accompany the release of this album and present it to live audiences across Germany, including at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg on 4 April, in Berlin on 14 April and in Ulm, where the annual benefit concert series for the Ulm Hospice is celebrating its fifth anniversary. Tickets for these concerts have been available for a few days now.

In addition to the album release, Alexander will also be realizing various other projects in the coming year: In Koblenz and Karlsruhe he will play Richard Strauss’ highly virtuoso Burleske for the first time, together with the Rheinische Philharmonie and Benjamin Shwartz. Edvard Grieg’s beautiful piano concerto is on the program in Frankfurt (Oder) and Potsdam with the Brandenburg State Orchestra under Roland Kluttig.

The summer festival “Kultur rockt” also recently started the ticket sales. You can find the complete concert calendar for the next few months with all dates and the associated ticket links here on this website.

NWX 2022 (c) Nils Hasenau
NWX 2022 (c) Nils Hasenau
Moving Pictures at an Exhibition 

Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is one of the most popular works in the piano repertoire.Together with London video artist Roshanak “Roshi” Khakban, Alexander Krichel has now reversed  the creative process and created new (moving) images from Mussorgsky’s music. Their result is an abstract journey through music and thus an art form that reflects the zeitgeist of our society. The visual impressions correlate with the emotional content of the music and allow the audience to experience the images in a multi-sensory way. The production celebrated its world premiere at the end of the New Work Experience 2022 in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. The impressive architecture of the Grand Hall provided the perfect stage for this unique interplay of live music and video projection.

Charity concerts for Ukraine in Ulm (D) and Kreuzlingen (CH)

The charity concert of the annual series “Alexander Krichel in Ulm” can look back on the proud total donation sum of 17,000 euros: Traditionally, the proceeds of the evening were donated to the Ulm Hospice as every year. Due to the current situation in Ukraine, the Lions Club Ulm/Neu-Ulm Alb-Donau decided to double all proceeds and donate this part to the Ulm Ukraine campaign “100,000”.

In addition, Alexander Krichel played a charity concert in Kreuzlingen (Switzerland), organised by five Rotary Clubs of the border region around Konstanz and Kreuzlingen, and was also able to raise the sum of 15,000 euros for a good cause: Even before the outbreak of the war, the proceeds were to go to the organisation “Open Hearts”, which looks after disabled young people in Ukraine; the current situation has made the urgency of the cause even more relevant.

Alexander Krichel beim ZDF Morgenmagazin
Autumnal highlights 

The release of his new album was just the start of an autumn full of highlights: After playing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in the Grand Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, Alexander directly went on to Berlin to shoot with the ZDF Morgenmagazin. Being live on TV, he presented selected pieces from the new album to the morning audience. After a short concerto stopover in Sopot, Poland, the next highlight was already at his doorstep The Chopin performance with the Polish Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra under Wojciech Rajski at the Golden Hall of the prestigious Vienna Musikverein.

“Alexander Krichel plays Enescu & Mussorgsky”

New album was released on vinyl, CD, download and stream on 01 October 2021 with Berlin Classics.

Alexander Krichel juxtaposes the very rarely played 2nd Suite by George Enescu with the famous Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.

You can listen to new album here.

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