[classical piano] [Christopher Nupen] Where do they come from?

The great super talents.

Some say they come from nature.

Some say they come from the gods.

We do not know.

It is a mystery, but a mystery that enriches our lives.

[classical piano] [Christopher] These hands make magic.

A magic which we cannot explain, but which can touch us in ways that we do not forget.

And once that happens, our response calls us back for the rest of our days.

That is just one of the magics of music.

It is multifaceted, multicolored, and always different in every different pair of hands.

These are the hands of Daniil Trifonov, an artist whom nature has endowed with the most prodigious gifts.

A maker of magic in his search for beauty.

[elegant classical piano] [peppy violin concerto] [cheers and applause] [elegant classical piano] [Christopher] Offstage, he is modest and unassuming, but in performance there is a transformation, an unmistakable aura of commitment.

[camera shutters] [Christopher] And a pressing need to share his quest for beauty.

[piano continues] [Christopher] His need to communicate through music came early.

A spontaneous urge to compose, which first appeared at the age of five.

His gifts developed fast as both composer and pianist, and by the time he was seven, he was performing in public with a conviction and poise that were astonishing for his age.

He's preparing to play his own composition, entitled Pinocchio.

[lively piano intro] [music turns melancholy] [Christopher] At the age of nine, the family moved from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow so that he could study with Tatiana Zelikman at the famous Gnessin Music School for Gifted Children.

[dramatic, abrupt end] [applause] [Christopher] He won his first major piano prize at the San Marino competition in Italy when he was 17.

And two years later, third prize at the Chopin Competition, which is one of the most challenging.

[flowing piano] [Christopher] At the age of 18, he transferred to the Cleveland Institute of Music on the recommendation of Tatiana Zelikman, to study piano with Sergei Babayan and composition with Keith Fitch.

At 20, he won the first prizes at both the Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky competitions, which resulted in his playing 110 concerts in the following 12 months.

An astonishing figure.

[Christopher] How much time have you spent on the road in the last 12 months?

[speaking English] [practicing piano melody] I hope he does not get overworked with this too many concerts, because we know that these kind of things happen in the past, and you know, with other great artists, and I want him to keep that freshness for, for the rest of his life.

[building melody] [Daniil] [speaking English] [classical piano] At a certain point, it can get difficult, but I always try to arrange certain periods in a season when I can go back home, or to Cleveland Institute of Music to play for my teacher, for Sergei Babayan.

Or I visit my parents or my girlfriend.

[Christopher] In Cleveland, he quickly made friends with a number of the students, and with one in particular, Judith Ramirez from the Dominican Republic, also studying piano.

[twinkling, lighthearted piano] I was invited to a movie night with some friends, and when I came, it was really funny because Daniil, even though he just won a prize in this competition, he was so shy and really kind of cute.

And he said, "Hi, I am Daniil Trifonov," and the way he said it, it was really funny.

And then, I don't know, we just, I saw, I thought was, well, that's, it's nice.

He's a really good pianist.

But then in a way, he's just really humble.

He doesn't even like, brag abou anything, or anything of that.

He was just really funny.

And that was, I don't know, that was nice.

-[Judith laughs] -[dog barks] [Judith] I might say that what I admire the most about him is that, well, I know him since he still wasn't a big famous person.

And then over the years, this big career appeared.

I think out of nowhere.

It just, it just happened.

But he hasn't changed.

And that, uh... That's really, it's really comforting for me, knowing that it demonstrates how much he does that for the sake of music itself.

He's not pursuing a... ...just to have a big name.

He's not trying to... show the world how good he is.

He's just really doing it for the love of music.

And, um, I think that big passion of him, and at the same time, big, humble attitude is one of the most impressive thing for me.

[rumbling piano] [tempo increases] [music turns more expressive] [music intensifies] [music turns expressive] [music turns frantic] [music softens, slows] [piece ends] [applause] If I tell you that he has this effortless... effortless pianistic ability, that's only a very small thing.

Or he has amazing ears for for the color of the sound, and that he's very alive.

But the most important thing is his love for music.

He loves music more than others.

And that's why when he plays it something happens different.

He... That feeling of love, it goes... It's so contagious.

You feel that you are inspired, and people begin to love the music, which maybe they knew, or they heard, and they even work on it and they didn't want to hear again.

But when Daniil plays that, you want to learn that piece again, because there is some kind of this like, first love feeling, the freshness.

[Christopher] The enthusiasm proved infectious, and the news traveled fast.

In the Financial Times newspaper, Martha Argerich, one of the world's leading pianists, and one of the most difficult to please, had this to say.

"I heard him again last night on YouTube.

"He has everything and more.

"What he does with his hands is technically incredible.

"And then there is his touch, so gifted with tenderness, "and at the same time he has the demonic element.

I have never heard anything like this before."

[frantic, expressive classical piano] [music ends] [applause] He's always ready to find something new, and he's always very modest and ready to play.

And he always asks, "How was that?

How was how did I play?

What was wrong?

Please."

So I never felt that he became, you know, he has this kind of feeling of that he's a star, because he's a star now from the point of, more trivial, like career from that point, he's became very known and popular, but I see that it didn't make him... He didn't change.

He remained the same, very demanding from himself, a musician person who doesn't care.

I feel sometimes he doesn't eve know what's really happening.

This career and fame thing, I felt that he's the same Danii like in the first lesson, eager to, again, learn and ask what was wrong each time.

Chopin Etude in F major.

[lively, flitting music] [Sergei Babayan] Daniil was 19, and first impression actually was through DVD, which he sent me.

I heard, I remember, Prokofiev's 3rd Concerto and some piece of Chick Corea, and Chopin's Scherzo No.

4, which was more important for me than all that.

And I immediately knew that this is a pianist who has natural predisposition.

Can you say that way in English For Chopin.

I felt that this is a natural Chopin pianist.

[fast, expressive piano] [music builds] [music turns flitting, lively] [gentle ending] [applause] [marching band plays drums] I always have a feeling that I... came into contact with this very rare diamond.

And that's not only enjoyment, that's also responsibility and pressure, but of a good quality pressure.

And so yes, I enjoyed immensely, working with Daniil.

And in the same time, it is a huge responsibility.

[heavy, somber chords] [music becomes softer] [soft, more melodic variation] [music intensifies] [music turns dramatic] [music floats downwards, softens] [music flits upwards] [music softens] [Joel Smirnoff] He's a very bright guy, and he feels a great deal.

You know.

One of the characteristics of great musicians and great composers is that not only are they talented, not only are they accomplished, not only have they worked to be worthy of their God-given talent, or whatever you want to say about it, because we can't take credit for the talent we have.

But they're also people of quality and of depth.

-[piano melody] -I see, okay, okay, okay.

It's nice to have someone to play everything you're playing.

They're people who feel things intensely... who want to share things, what they feel intensely.

They have a need to do it.

And these are not necessarily extroverted people.

Daniil is not an extrovert.

It's so interesting.

As a person, he's a very respectful, very thoughtful, very reflective person.

Will usually speak only when spoken to.

And yet in his musical expression, that is where he is sharing and giving gifts to us every single day of his life right now.

[classical piano with orchestral accompaniment] Off the beat.

Off the beat, please, Hope!

[Christopher] The Cleveland Institute has commissioned him to write his first piano Concerto, and to play it with the Institute Orchestra, conducted by the president, Joel Smirnoff.

[wondrous music] [music intensifies] [music turns frantic] [piano solo] [orchestra re-enters] [music turns dramatic] [music stops] [Christopher] What are you doing riding bicycles along the lake on the day of the first rehearsal for your first piano concerto?

[chuckles] Well... Of course you are nervous before a first rehearsal.

And... It is the first time I'm orchestrating for such a large orchestra, and... But at the same time, you also need some time, away from your piano.

And you can, uh, just... Just do something different.

And it can even inspire for some newer ideas.

[classical piano] [Christopher] And new ideas are seldom far away.

He's questioning both of Rachmaninov's two alternative endings to his Variations on a theme of Chopin for a recital, which he will play in the Teatro Accademico in Castelfranco Veneto in Italy.

[speaking English] [Christopher] He feels that neither of Rachmaninov's endings does justice to the work which the master has created.

[Christopher] And so he has the idea of repeating the Chopin prelude which inspired the work.

[Christopher] And so the Castelfranco performance will end as it starts, with Chopin's original theme.

-[Russian spoken offscreen] -[laughter] [elegant, sustained classic piano] [music intensifies] [sustained chord fades out] [applause] [Christopher] On stage, you give the impression of having an urgent need to communicate what you think the music is about to the people who've come to hear you play.

Is that how it feels to you?

[speaking English] [Christopher] So there is an urgent need to get out and go get on the stage, and to perform?

[frantic, flitting music] [Christopher] And how do you feel before you go out to play a recital?

Are you nervous?

[Christopher] A certain anxiety of anticipation?

[Christopher] When you feel that, do you have any sense of having to deal with it, to control it, to keep it quiet?

[Christopher] Exactly.

[soft, contemplative music] [Christopher] In the words of the critic Norman Lebrecht, "Trifonov is a major artist, "phenomenally gifted with fresh ideas "and a winning stage presence that is quite irresistible.

"From the moment he bounds through the door, unable to contain his need to share."

[music continues] [music gently fades] [applause] [Christopher] Do you do a lot of musical analysis?

[warm, joyful music] [intensity increases, then softens] [music gently fades] [Christopher] Tell us, who is Daniil Trifonov?

How do you see him?

[Christopher] What sort of childhood did Daniil Trifonov have?

When you think back to the early days, when you started, do you remember it as something warm, or something cold, or something difficult, or something easy?

How does it land in your mind?

[speaking English] [Christopher] So the main ingredient was surprise?

-And development, discovery?

-Yes.

-[Christopher] Fantastic.

Bravo -[glasses clink] [elegant classical piano] [Sergei] I assigned to him very big Chopin repertoire.

I thought it's good for him to play lots of etudes and a new concerto, new sonata.

And I was stunned.

I was actually, really... I could not believe how quickly he learned the notes.

-[music continues] -[glasses clink] [chatter amongst group] [Sergei] From lesson to lesson, he brought new pieces, and that inspired me.

Like they say, you know, usually teacher, maestro, has to inspire the student, but it's not so.

Very often, also, we expect inspiration from student.

When student works on that kind of level, you get so inspired, you want to give all of what you know.

So I felt that was one of the most productive student-teacher relationship I ever had in my life.

I could say that he took in a few weeks from me more than some of the people who studied with me for years.

[applause] [lively, jaunty music] [music softens] [music intensifies] [music lively, frantic] [music softens] [music intensifies] [music turns cheerful] [music builds] [fast waltz] [music turns suspenseful] [fast waltz] [music turns frantic] [music slows, softens] [tempo increases, music turns cheerful] [music turns frantic] [piece ends] [cheers and applause] [Christopher] What was your first musical memory?

Probably the first conscious memory was when I was composing at the piano, when I was age of five, and... Not even when I listened to something, but when I was able to create something, that was probably the first memory where concentration was purely on... what was going on and without... It was difficult to withdraw yourself from that atmosphere.

From the beginning, there were moments when he would discover things, and what amazed me is that he would go always to extremes.

For instance, I... thought that he's looking too much at his hands, and I told him that, you know, one idea which I always have, that when blind people play, they don't see the keys.

Yes?

They have to reach the key.

So I told him that "You should be able to play without looking at your hands, but completely clean.

Can you do that?"

So, um, I would think that, you know, he would just do that maybe for some hours a day, but he would do it like fanatic for many hours.

Like he would go to the hall, turn off the light, and practice in complete darkness, Tchaikovsky concerto.

And that's when, once, when lights went off in one of the performances... It was near London somewhere, with London Symphony, he was able to play the whole first movement.

And, and for instance, I told him to practice while you play something and do something strange, like stand up and sit down and stand up and sit down, without losing the control.

That way you feel very well the control of, you know, of your contact with the keyboard.

But then he went much further.

He would go and practice laying on the chair, and going almost under the piano.

So everything what I told him h would not just do a little bit, but he would develop that, and then he would call me to long distance, When I was in Saint Petersburg, he would call me and say, "You know, I tried this thing you told me."

That passion, that is something else about Daniil.

That what makes him different with other people.

That's why he has that kind of success, also, I think, because he does not do halfway.

He does everything fully and more than you would expect.

[dramatic music falling downwards] When I was playing Rachmaninov, Concerto No.

2 for the first time, which I jus learned, I played it a week ago.

And this is a quite complicated uh, concerto in the sense of, shoulder, shoulder pain, that you really must have incredibly loose and flexible upper part of your back of your neck and shoulders, in order to not sound harsh on the, all the forte cantabile chords.

For most of Rachmaninov, it is quite common approach.

There was a swimming pool nearby, where... Nearby the concert hall.

And so I thought, "What if I try to practice in a swimming pool?"

So I just went, of course, it looked very weird.

There was some other people, but I didn't care because I, I was more focused on where I will play.

You know how sometimes we warm up, warm up just in the air, in the air keyboard?

But air doesn't have any resistance.

It's good to practice it, so you make all the things structured in your mind.

But in the water, water have so much resistance.

And in order to be able to play in the water like you play in the air, you have to, first of all, you have to play from shoulder.

There is no way you will be able to play just with your fingers in the water.

You have to really work from all your, evolving, no, involving, involving all your spine.

And... I practice, like I just played through the whole concerto in the swimming pool.

How strange it might sound.

But when I went out to practice on a real piano, it suddenly became so... the piano was, although it was quite heavy instrument, but suddenly it was like there was no heaviness in it.

And it is... The sound changed completely, everything.

Even the... Just the freedom of a hand with which it could, it could play all the passages of Rachmaninov, Second Concerto.

Completely, completely different feeling.

There's something you find, but it doesn't mean that it will help in some other concert.

So... Sometimes before a concert, you come up with some crazy idea and it works.

And this is usually just this idea for this particular concept, it doesn't mean that it will help again.

[lively, flitting music] [music softly fades] [Christopher] When talking abou looking for the flow, you made a comparison between surfing on a wave, the wave of music, and a wave of the sea.

-Do you remember that?

-Yes, of course.

Well, I've never tried surfing... But perhaps if I would, if I tried it, I think it might feel nearly similar to, in the sense that, of the performance.

Okay, yeah, in the, in the practice, you figure out many ways how to play, but on the concert, you just have to listen to the flow.

And it is the, um... as the waves of the ocean lead the surfer accordingly to the waves, in the same way the music, according to its own waves, suggest performer where to go.

And you can immediately... You can immediately notice insincere or artificial, way of surfing on the music when, when waves comes from performer not from a music.

So it's, you have to be really intuitive somehow, just feel the suggestions.

[music swells] [music softens, becomes more delicate] [Christopher] Did you first want to compose or first want to play?

Well, it's not really, I was just curious... to compose, and the piano was a great tool to use for composing.

And of course, my parents were great help to me, because they're both musicians, and of course at that age, I couldn't do any, um... completely conscious decision about it.

So of course when at the age of five and a half, my parents brought me to a music school, it was... It was very important.

[Christopher] Was that Gnessin?

Or before Gnessin?

It was still in my hometown of Nizhny Novgorod.

We moved to Moscow to study, so I could study at Gnessin School, but it was later when I was already nine.

[Christopher] So your relationship with your parents was a very positive one and a very fruitful one, yes?

-Of course.

-[Christopher] Of course.

[Christopher laughs] And my mother, she's a teacher of theory of music, and my father is a composer.

[Christopher] When did you start to realize that you could do things which other people couldn't do?

Or didn't you yet realize this?

No.

I'm just playing the piano.

There are people doing even more crazy things.

He was taught to be focused, concentrated, and of course, his amazing nature, too, very special, with very special ears for color of the sound.

He could immediately, if I would show something, he could imitate exactly that color in the sound.

[playing piano gently] [Christopher] He's here exploring the adventures of Maurice Ravel's Boat on the Ocean.

[speaking English] [ominous piano] [tormented, frantic music] [music slows, softens] [music grows frantic] [playing grows mysterious] [playing grows gentle] [playing grows frantic] [Christopher] And all of this without looking at the keyboard.

[Christopher chuckles] [ambient classical music] We think of it as a beginning piece, but, you know, this is a person who has been composing, he says, even before he played the piano.

In other words, this... the imagination of his, and relative to music, specifically musical imagination, has been at work for so long.

And so what I think is most surprising for those of us who do not know this side of him, is that there's an actual compositional language fully formed, you know, and Daniil has gotten it from the inside.

So when we asked him, why did you choose to write a piano concerto specifically as a first concerto in the great Romantic style?

Which, it was a clear choice of his.

He said, "Well, it's the music which I'v been playing so much lately."

[lush, Romantic-style music] [dynamic, expressive piano joins] In general, I think 99% of music arrives through a particular state of mind and express what is in your atmosphere in that moment.

And when the intensity of this atmosphere is strong enough is the moment when you are able to express it through music.

[elegant music with graceful piano] [music swells] [music swells] [music softens] In general, in this concerto, I try to involve orchestra a lot.

There are many sections where they are leading the material, where they are telling the main story.

In the terms I try to avoid just using orchestra as accompaniment.

In parts, it's more of chamber music.

He's capable of telling a story which is going, and it's not interrupted, it's not, it never becomes boring.

It goes.

It has the drive, and I listen with interest.

Yes.

Here and there, some things I might have few wishes for the orchestration.

Maybe it's too thick and maybe piano doesn't project.

Maybe instrument is soft.

But these are such small, minor, minor details, because the most important thin about piece is there.

It's a... It's a new, unique, fresh and young, some kind of idea, which just, which goes.

And it keeps you... You know, you are hypnotized by it.

You are not bored.

And this piano concerto, I think, is the biggest gift that I can imagine because we need this piano concerto.

We need a repertoire right now which will prove to skeptics, and there are, most people are skeptical that classical music... That everything has already bee written in classical music.

And I was thinking this morning, actually, or last night in the wake of yesterday's rehearsal, which is, the students are so excited about this and they're so into it, you know.

They understand.

They're finally getting the fact that they're really giving birth, they're participating in a birthright here of something quite great, and they didn't really get it, I think, until yesterday.

And I was thinking that in terms of audience building, the concerto is a big one.

The concerto is a big audience builder, because we all love heroes.

[dramatic music] [music softens] [music swells and intensifies] I'm happy to see someone who is a composer and pianist together.

First of all, pianist-composer understands other composers much, much deeper.

Every little detail which is written in the score on a different level.

In the same time, to be freer, not to be a slave, but to be creative, and to go beyond what is written in the score, not to become a slave of those indications.

[music continues] [music climaxes] [piece ends] [cheers and applause] [Christopher] In the second hal of the first movement, there's an extremely beautiful theme.

Now, where did that come from?

I was once in France, in Tours, in the city of Tours, where... I was in a church, and there wa a very beautiful choir singing.

And when I went, it was, I remember it was early Sunday morning, and when I went out of a building, of a cathedral, it arrived.

[Christopher] Inspiration?

This is actually one of few things which I wrote without piano.

[Christopher] And would you say that that inspiration, which came at that moment owed anything to any past composer?

Rachmaninov, Scriabin, or was it pure Trifonov?

Well, it was obviously influenced by the sound of choir in the cathedral.

[serene piano and orchestra] [Daniil] Of course, there are influences of other Russian composers of... ...great era of pianism of late 19th, early 20th century.

But, material has to come through your heart.

[serene music continues] [Christopher] Smirnov had a nice expression.

"There is a saying that good composers borrow, great composers steal."

[laughs] [Christopher] Has this colossal talent which inhabits you ever felt like a weight on you?

[speaking English] [Christopher] And how do you se the life of a musician?

[Christopher] Does there come a moment where you say, "This is how I want to play it now, even if it's going to change later?"

Or do you feel that it will forever change?

[gentle, lilting music] [music intensifies] [music softens] [music intensifies] [music softens] [piece ends] [Christopher] Sacile in Italy, near Venice, to visit the Fazioli piano factory.

He's been asked to choose a new concert grand for London.

[peaceful music] [music intensifies] [music climaxes] [peaceful theme continues] [Christopher] Why have you sent Daniil Trifonov to Sacile?

Ah, well, that's a very easy question to answer, is because he must be happy, and I supply the pianos for him in the UK.

And so it's time to have a new one.

So it makes perfect sense that Daniil should choose the one that he wants, so it will become, as it were, his piano.

So he comes to London and anywhere in the UK, and knows exactly what he's going to get and be happy with.

So that's one element of the stress of being a pianist taken away.

[Christopher] And does that mea he will use it exclusively?

No, no, no.

That's economically not viable.

But it'll be his.

We tend to do this, because we have artists choose pianos for us quite often, and we always refer to them as Angela's or Daniil's now, and so on.

So it's sort of sort of ownership in a way.

[Christopher] And reassuring in a way.

Very much.

Yeah.

[loud, expressive piano chords] Here, of course, sound very much, but, what is... [loud, expressive piano chords] Well, here it has maybe a little bit more emphasis.

[Christopher] From this side, the power coming out of this piano is remarkable.

Yes, well, probably in this piano you have more emphasis on every note and every melody.

[Terence] The trouble is, they're both beautiful.

And you have to choose between two diamonds, two beautiful diamonds.

And also the technician, It's important that the one technician works on the piano, because if you have different technicians, it's different mechanic, as it were.

It has a different feel, different voicing and so on.

So he has to be, Daniil has to be happy with the piano, and I know he's happy with the technician, because he already works with him.

So the two combined make it a very nice thing for him, because being a pianist, clearly they go and have to pla different pianos every day, and some of them are not as lovely as we would hope they would be.

Quite often that's the case.

So to be able to go and do a big concert in a major hall, knowing exactly what you're to deal with is a really relief for them.

[flowing music] But it has a lot of density, this one, also.

[continues playing] [begins playing] Well, the important thing to consider is that in a large concert hall, a certain amount of color will be lost, and a certain amount of warmth will be lost.

So it's quite important that piano has, of course, enough power, but also... ...if it's have enough... ...of drama.

Enough of density.

[plays piano gently] Good acoustics here, too.

[laughs] [Terence] And it's singing beautifully.

-[noodles on piano] -No.

It's phenomenal.

[plays stately theme] [resumes playing] -No, I choose this one.

-[Terence] You choose this one.

So we'll bring this home to London for you.

And whenever you come, it's yours.

And maybe can you do me a favor and sign the frame a bit later?

-Yeah.

Sure.

-[Terence] That'd be fun.

We know the serial number, but you'll know from the signature it's yours then.

Thanks for doing this for me.

I really appreciate it.

Of course.

My pleasure.

[skillful classical piano] [lively music] [music becomes subdued] [flitting music] [music turns ominous] [music turns frantic] [music softens] [music builds] [music intensifies] [final chords ring out] [applause] [gentle, sweet piano] [indistinct chatter] No, it must be 46.

[noodling on piano]