Rating: 
Summary: Kissin: Great encores, but lacks depth as a documentary.
Review: After watching Christopher Nupen's fairly poor documentary on Evgeny Kissin, I was left begging for more insightful information on the young Kissin. The encores at the Prom's recital was wonderful, but I must admit the entire documentary as a whole was unfortunately poorly done. Kissin only answered one important question throughout this poorly-staged interview, which was his thoughts on stage fright. I was highly disappointed when there were only still photos displayed of Kissin's youth. How about his numerous recitals when he was a young teenager? I personally have an amazing VHS tape of Kissin playing an all-Chopin program in Yokohama, Japan in 1986. I've also managed to get excerpts of then a 12 yr old Kissin playing the Chopin Piano Concerto no.1 and Mozart's Piano Concerto no.12. I also have his two "LIVE" performances of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no.1. It's wonderful to see the young Kissin playing such difficult masterpieces with such poise and ease. Why didn't Mr. Nupen include these excerpts and some of Kissin's insights into these amazing earlier concerts! After watching this DVD, I felt robbed because I firmly believe I could've directed a better documentary than this. If it were not for the amazing footage of the encores during the Prom's recital, I would have not recommended purchasing this DVD. However, after seeing Kissin perform the fiendishly difficult Paganini/Liszt "La Campanella" and "Transcendental Etude no.10" it's worth the buy. I just hope in the future classical piano lovers will get a chance to see Evgeny Kissin's monumental performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no.3 "LIVE" with Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on DVD. Unfortunately this documentary DVD doesn't contain it, or any of Kissin's amazing concerto performances. Anyhow, if you're a Kissin-fan like I am who loves "LIVE" performances then you'll want to get this DVD, otherwise save your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally A Virtuoso for the New Millenium
Review: Evgney Kissin brings excitement and sparkle back to the piano. In the tradition of the great Virtuosi, Evgeny Kissin's piano playing is breathtaking, to say the least. Arguably he is the best ever, and as he matures he's a sure bet for the overall title both in performance and artistic interpretation.
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring "La Campanella"
Review: I found the DVD extremely inspiring in the way in which Kissin makes all of the pieces look so easy :) I agree with other critics in that so much more could have been of the documentary itself but the encores at the proms make up for the lack of detail / information in the earlier parts.The two particular pieces I most enjoyed were "A Grand Waltz - Chopin" (great introduction by him :) ) and "La Campanella" (the latter of which I will never play even if I had several lifetimes!).
Rating:
Summary: Excelent music and story with very bad sound synchronisation
Review: I like the music and very pleasant story but why there is so bad synchronisation between audio and video in English version?
Rating:
Summary: Excelent music and story with very bad sound synchronisation
Review: I like the music and very pleasant story but why there is so bad synchronisation between audio and video in English version?
Rating: 
Summary: Mr Kissins playing is nothing but emty
Review: I visited a concert with mr Kissin in Stockholm a few years ago. I could barely stay awake. I then realized that popularity has nothing to do with emotionall strenght or depth, only with the superficial that stupid people are able to feel. The crowd gave their applause because of his trancendental fingermovements, and they clapped their hands because of his reputation. When the concert was over, a man shouted "Bravvoooo" just because he wanted to be the fist one to celebrate the star, and the herd followed him. The old lady beside me that had slept during the hall consert instantly flew up and shouted, because she obviously wanted to take part in something that was regarded as hip within the"cultural elite". This movie is pretty much an exampel of that. It's a circus and has nothing to do with the possibilities of the classical music.
Rating:
Summary: It can be better
Review: I would have given it five stars if the interview with Kissin had been more in-depth. I expected that the interview would ask Kissin about how he looked at certain composers and music in general, or what difficulties he ever had as a prodigy and so forth. Apart from some superficial comment like "I felt a special affinity to Chopin", we know nothing more from this video about Kissin's views towards Chopin's (or other composers') music. He talked much about his teacher (and the only teacher he ever has), but did not say how she inspired him, or why he never thought of having another teacher. He quoted almost verbatim a critic's somewhat negative comments to him. But he did not say the impact of this to him. I can't help asking: so what? Why quoted it if he is not going to say or do anything about it? Of course, we ordinary people can't help feeling astonished and amused when he said he could recite the melody of Bach's fugue his sister played when he was only 11 months old. This is a gift that no one need to feel envy. But I am really disappointed that the interview cannot give more food for thought as far as music is concerned.
Rating:
Summary: Could be so much better.
Review: It seems an excellent idea to put to video the life of one of the foremost pianists of the 21st century -the young, but veteran Kissin. What I had hoped to see was Kissin performing in his teens as well as the more recent footage. What we get instead is a video more worthy of the title 'Highlights of Kissin's Proms Concert in '97'. We are whisked through the childhood of Kissin and given a snippet of some chamber music and a rehearsal before the proms concert. Yet it could've been so much better! For example, It would've been nice if the interviewer had asked Kissin to play a chromatic as fast as he could, as he (Kissin) sat in front of his piano whilst being interviewed. Would that not be worth seeing? What is his answer to his critics that say he is in decline? Far too much time is devoted to showing Kissin, soaked in sweat, walking up and down the aisle giving bows between each encore. It almost becomes fascinating to watch the elderly man enthusiastically stamp on the floor in his demand for more playing. His playing is, of course, immaculate, but we already knew that. All in all, a missed opportunity.
Rating:
Summary: So Far, He resembles Cziffra rather than Horowitz
Review: Kissin is quite fluent in English and things he mentioned are all relevant. To be fair, talking occupied only about 1/3 of the total footage leaving well over an hour on the piano. Kissin has a sister who is some 11 years his senior learning the piano and when he was a toddler. His sister was learning Bach's Fugues and he had been listening to her all the time and could hum the tune(s). So he started early and he was allocated a special teacher after he was assessed to be a gifted child by the State, and his teacher even stayed in his home since and for some 20 years! And we have a glimse of his teacher as well as his home here in this DVD. Kissin also told us about his early experience with the piano: the first year, only some 20 min per day and then a year later an hour and then the third year, 4 hours a day. Most of the short pieces like Lizst and Chopin are not in the form of snippets, albeit that a small proportion of them were shot from a distance. There are quite a number of jems, judging from his age and background, one after the other, including Turkish March as arranged by Godowsky. Most of them are rather heavy encores when he played them in a promenade concert in Royal Albert Hall in one go when he was only 26 . The hall was packed with 6,000 audience-- a phenomenon in that hall for 50 years! As pointed out of some reviews, there isn't too much depth in the portrait. That I suppose is a soft spot for many musicians grown up in Russia behind the iron curtain: they are more concerned with the technical side than music or art, as pointed out by Ashkenazy. But Kissin is still young and he has started to play chamber music, as depicted by the clip here, with more mature musicians like Gidon Kremer and the Hagans etc with whom he'll sure progress fast. He also started composing early and he played two of them telling us what sort of standard he was in when he was a small boy. He also told us about his experience of stage fright... I've seen his Tsaichovsky with Karajan when he was around 13. From this DVD, we can see his fingers and hand position much more clearly. Very high bridge and very unique indeed. He has small hands and rather delicate fingers, but his fingers are so independent as could be seen from the way they curl or lift separately from each other when he is playing. Tachnically he is amazing if not stunning and his rhythm is clearcut or perhaps too clearcut. The sound as well as photography are excellent. A very good documentary indeed, and not to be missed by music lovers.
Rating: 
Summary: Kissin piano music
Review: So, so, piano is to brilliant, Kissin rushes all the time, therae are incomplete works like Libestraum, color not that good sound too brilliant, there are better piano videos such as Bunun, Perahia an of course Horowitz not very recommended
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