Roman Rabinovich

Praised by The New York Times for his ‘uncommon sensitivity and feeling’, the eloquent pianist Roman Rabinovich was the winner of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008. His subsequent career has led him to perform throughout Europe and the USA in venues as Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Washington DC’s Kennedy Center.

Roman Rabinovich has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NFM Leopoldinum, KBS Symphony, Prague Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and all the major Israeli orchestras, and has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Zubin Mehta, Ludovic Morlot, Kristjan Järvi, Michael Stern, Christoph Koenig, Gerard Schwarz and Joseph Swensen. He has garnered critical acclaim for performances of concertos of all periods, ranging from Bach to Lutoslawski.

Highlights of the 2024-25 season include returns to Wigmore Hall for a series of three recitals, as well as to the Lammermuir Festival in Scotland and the Liszt Academy Chamber Music Festival in Budapest, and his concerto debut with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Roman Rabinovich also returns to Israel for a recital tour and concerto performances with the Haifa Symphony. The 2024-25 season also has a particular focus on JS Bach’s Golberg Variations, with a number of performances scheduled, including in London (Wigmore Hall) and Vienna (Bösendorfer-Zyklus), to coincide with a planned recording release in May 2025.

Dubbed ‘a true polymath, in the Renaissance sense of the word’ (Seen & Heard International), Rabinovich is also a composer and visual artist with a repertoire spanning six centuries, from Byrd to Boulez and beyond. He has won critical acclaim for interpretations of the music of Haydn; he has performed Haydn Sonata cycles at the Lammermuir and Bath Festivals in UK and at ChamberFest Cleveland in the US; he has also appeared at the Herbstgold Festival in Eisenstadt, and curated a three-concert Haydn Day at Wigmore Hall in 2022. He has also released two albums of Haydn Sonatas on First Hand Records to great critical acclaim, with BBC Music Magazine noting ‘the elegance and liveliness of Rabinovich’s keyboard style are, indeed, a joy to listen to, and his unfailing musicality and inventiveness allows him to penetrate to the expressive heart of Haydn’s world.’

Roman Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic debut under Zubin Mehta aged 10, having immigrated to Israel a year before from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Seymour Lipkin, he went on to earn his masters- degree at the Juilliard School where he studied with Robert McDonald. He was among the first of three young pianists to be championed by Sir András Schiff for his ‘Building Bridges’ series. Together with his wife, violinist Diana Cohen, he is co-director of the ChamberFest Cleveland and ChamberFest West (Calgary) Festivals

Video

Brahms: Piano Concerto no.1 (excerpt)

Szczecin Philharmonic, Philippe Bach, October 2017

Haydn: Presto from Piano Sonata No.35

Tippet Rise Arts Center

Bach: Goldberg Variations (complete)

Chamberfest Cleveland, July 2021

Rabinovich: Sonatina

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Nov 2020

Ligeti: Musica Ricercata (excerpts)

Tippett Rise Arts Center, Aug 2019

Schubert: Sonata in C Minor, D.958

Tippett Rise Arts Center, Aug 2019

Repertoire

Concerto List
    • J.S. Bach:

Concerto in D minor BWV 1052
Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056

    • Bartók:

Concerto No.1, Sz.83, BB91
Concerto No. 2, Sz..95, BB101

    • Beethoven:

Concerto No 1, in C major op 15
Concerto No 2, in B flat major op 19
Concerto No 3, in c minor op37
Concerto No 4, in G major op58
Concerto No 5, in E flat major op73
Choral Fantasy, op80

    • Berg:

Chamber Concerto

    • Berstein:

Symhphony No.2, ‘The Age of Anxiety’

    • Brahms:

Concerto No 1, in D minor op15

    • Chopin:

Concerto No 1, in E minor op11
Concerto No 2 in F minor op21
Fantasy on Polish airs, op13

    • Dvorak:

Piano Concerto in G minor, op33

    • Franck:

Symphonic Variations, M 46

    • Grieg:

Concerto in A minor op16

    • Haydn:

Concerto in D major

    • Liszt:

Concerto No 1, in E flat major
Concerto No 2, in A major

    • Lutosławski:

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

    • Martinů:

Concertino for Piano Trio and String Orchestra, H.232

    • Mendelssohn:

Double concerto for violin and piano in D minor
Concerto No 1, in G minor op 25
Concerto No 2, in D minor op 40
Concerto in A minor, MWV O2

    • Mozart:

Concerto in B flat major K 238
Concerto in E flat major K 271 “Jeunehomme”
Concerto in A major K.414
Concerto in F major K.459
Concerto in D minor K.466
Concerto in C major K 467
Concerto in E flat minor K.482
Concerto in A major K.488
Concerto in C minor K.491
Concerto in C major K 503
Concerto in B flat major K.595

    • Prokofiev:

Concerto No 1, in D-flat major op10
Concerto No 2, in G minor op16
Concerto No 3, in C major op26
Concerto No 5, G major op55

    • Rachmaninov:

Concerto No 2, in C minor op18
Concerto No 3, in D minor op30
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

    • Saint-Saens:

Concerto No 2, in G minor op22
Concerto No 5 in F major, op103

    • Schubert / Liszt:

Wanderer Fantasy

    • Schumann:

Concerto in A minor, op.54
Introduction and Allego Appasionato op.92

    • Shchedrin:

Concerto No 2

    • Shostakovich:

Concerto No 1, in C minor for piano, trumpet and orchestra op35
Concerto No.2 in F major, op102

    • Stravinsky:

Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra

    • Tchaikovsky:

Concerto No 1, in B flat minor
Concerto No 2, in G major op44

    • Yusupov:

Concerto “Intimo” 2007

Artwork

Roman Rabinovich regularly enhances his performances with his own visual art. He paints, draws and also uses an iPad to create artworks. Rabinovich often provides drawings and paintings for programme booklets and brochures, some of which are featured on this page. Rabinovich’s artwork has been exhibited in the USA and Israel, on CD covers and in booklets, and in the music press.

Links

Official website
www.romanrabinovich.net