Why this site?
A group of us music enthusiasts who've heard the very best in piano playing over the past 40 or so years saw Freddy Kempf's concert in Fremont, California in February '99, and we were just astounded by what we heard - a rare combination of boundless technique, spontaneity, beautiful sense of sound and color, and poetic expressiveness, all with attention to text and subtext.
As a result, we are now hoping to see this UK artist in the U.S. again as soon as such things are possible and looking forward to his series of 10 CDs being recorded by BIS, a company which obviously reacted the same way to his playing as we did.
I hope to help increase awareness of this extraordinary pianist's gifts, as even playing of this caliber can be lost in the recent tendency of cautious concert producers to present only the safest, most-established musicians.
For more reviews of Freddy Kempf's performances, see Neil Tingley's page of reviews.
For information about Frederick "Freddy" Kempf himself, and his enthusiastic reception wherever he plays, see Neil Tingley's Freddy Kempf site.
(If that site is down for maintenance, do try again later.)
For the Moscow reaction, see
The XI Tchaikovsky Competition impact.
======= Recent articles online =======
May 25, 2000: Interview with Freddy Kempf, by AmazonUK
April 25, 2000: Interview with Freddy Kempf, by Mark Bridle of MusicWeb.
Bridle also does a comparison-review of Kissin and Kempf in recent live performances of Beethoven Concertos.
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Also, see BIS for an interesting note about Kempf and recording on BIS.
- Andrys Basten
Kempf , listening to a question from a concert-goer following his Fremont, California recital, February '99
Freddy Kempf - Photo Page
California post-recital photograph: Copyright © 1999 Betty Wong
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