Evgeny Kissin plays Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Bizet

From virtuosic fireworks to lilting melancholy, Evgeny Kissin presents a recital of Romantic masterworks for his instrument. Filmed at the 2007 Verbier Festival, one of the greatest pianists of our time frames the exceptional musical evening with sets of variations: the first by Beethoven (in C Minor, Op. 80) and the second Vladimir Horowitz’s luscious take a familiar melody from Bizet’s opera Carmen. The two works set off Brahms’s 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118—a series of miniatures infused with introspection and complexity—and Chopin’s quietly rippling Andante spianato and fanfarelike Grande polonaise brillante in E-flat Major, Op. 22.