Evgeny Kissin - The Gift of Music - Sony Music Entertainment

Evgeny Igorevich Kissin was born in Moscow on the 10th of October 1971. He started to play the piano at the age of two as soon as he was tall enough to reach the keyboard, and he has not looked back from that day to this. His is a very rare story of continued success that has had the simutaneous blessing of critics, the public and musicians alike.

This film by Christopher Nupen, who gave us "The Trout", the Jacqueline du Pré films, and so many other classics, is a film which shows Kissin in preparation, interview, rehearsal and performance, with several dazzling performances shot live on stage, in true concert conditions. It also contains footage from Kissin's memorable Promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in August 1997. This was the first Prom in the 103-year history of the celebrated Promenade Concerts to be given by a solo recitalist and it attracted the biggest audience in all of those 103 years; very nearly six thousand people.

The music is by Liszt, Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Paganini, Kissin himself and Chopin, the composer for whom Kissin feels the closest affinity.