Biography
“Modest as ever, Daniil Trifonov offered another masterclass in how virtuosity is sublimated into poetry.”
Bachtrack, July 2025, reviewing a recital at the Caramoor Festival
Whenever Daniil Trifonov performs, time appears to stand still. Out of silence emerges a rare kind of music-making, transcendent and revelatory, never predictable yet always alive to the composer’s intentions and rooted in the music’s nature. “What he does with his hands is technically incredible,” observed one commentator shortly after the young Russian pianist’s winning performance in the final of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2011. “It’s also his touch – he has tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that.” This was the opinion not of a professional critic but of one of the world’s greatest pianists, Martha Argerich.
Deutsche Grammophon announced the signing of an exclusive recording agreement with Daniil Trifonov in February 2013. His debut recital, recorded live at Carnegie Hall, presented Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, Scriabin’s “Sonata-Fantasy”, and Chopin’s 24 Preludes op. 28. His next album (2015) featured Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, recorded with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, together with the same composer’s Variations on a Theme of Chopin and Variations on a Theme of Corelli and Trifonov’s own Rachmaniana, a virtuoso piece for solo piano.
In 2016, DG released Transcendental, his recording of Liszt’s complete concert Études: the first such survey created for the Yellow Label by one artist. The following year saw the release of Preghiera, recorded with violinist Gidon Kremer and cellist Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė; Chopin Evocations, comprising recordings made with Mikhail Pletnev and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra of the two Chopin piano concertos, as well as a selection of Chopin’s earliest and latest works, and Chopin-inspired pieces by Schumann, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Mompou and Barber; and a Schubert album featuring the “Trout” Quintet and other chamber works, recorded with Anne-Sophie Mutter and three graduates of the Mutter Foundation.
Trifonov then recorded the complete Rachmaninov piano concertos with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Nézet-Séguin. Destination Rachmaninov – Departure, featuring Nos. 2 and 4, was released in October 2018, followed a year later by Destination Rachmaninov – Arrival, completing the cycle with Nos. 1 & 3. His live recording of No. 2 as part of the historic DG120 Gala Concert at Beijing’s Forbidden City was released in January 2019.
Silver Age, made with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, was issued in November 2020. It includes Scriabin’s Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor and Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka, among other works by three of the most pioneering composers of Russia’s Silver Age. In October 2021, Trifonov released a double album centred around J.S. Bach’s The Art of the Fugue. Also including pieces by four of Bach’s sons, among other works, Bach: The Art of Life reflects the pianist’s insight into the family life and music-making of one of the greatest composers of all time.
For his next release, Trifonov joined baritone Matthias Goerne for the last in the latter’s trilogy of Lieder recordings with three of DG’s outstanding young pianists. Featuring works by Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Berg and Shostakovich, Matthias Goerne · Daniil Trifonov – Lieder came out in June 2022. The pianist’s subsequent album, issued in March 2024, saw him reunited with his mentor Sergei Babayan. Rachmaninoff for Two contains performances of the two Suites for two pianos, the two-piano version of the Symphonic Dances, and Trifonov’s transcription of the Adagio from Symphony No. 2. It was awarded a Diapason d’Or in November 2024.
In October 2024, Trifonov released My American Story – North, the first in a two-part pianistic exploration of the Americas. Joined by The Philadelphia Orchestra and Nézet-Séguin in Gershwin’s Concerto in F and the world premiere recording of the concerto written for him by Mason Bates, Trifonov also performs solo works by John Adams, John Cage, Aaron Copland, John Corigliano, Dave Grusin, Thomas Newman, Art Tatum and Bill Evans.
In the year marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Shostakovich, Trifonov’s interpretations of two solo rarities – the early Scherzo, Op. 1a, and the 3 Fugues – appeared on the DG compilation album Shostakovich Discoveries, issued in May 2025.
His latest recording is a double album featuring a selection of solo works by Tchaikovsky. Revealing the composer’s more intimate, private side, TCHAIKOVSKY presents the Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, Theme and Variations in F major and Children’s Album, as well as Mikhail Pletnev’s Concert Suite from the Ballet “The Sleeping Beauty”, and is set for release on 3 October 2025.
Trifonov rounds off a summer of festival appearances with performances of Rachmaninoff’s Second and Third Piano Concertos at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Daniel Harding (19 & 21 August 2025). He then begins the new season with two recitals for the La Jolla Music Society, the second featuring repertoire from TCHAIKOVSKY (24 & 25 September). Other upcoming highlights include a series of Schubert song-cycle recitals with Matthias Goerne in Quebec, Toronto, New York (Carnegie Hall), Washington D.C., Boston, Dallas and Houston (13–29 October), and later in Leipzig, Vienna and Baden-Baden (18‑30 November); Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G for his second Carnegie Hall visit of the season, with the Orchestre National de France and Cristian Mǎcelaru (9 November); Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in Munich with the Bayerische Staatsorchester and Kirill Petrenko (7–9 December); and another return to Carnegie Hall (13 December), this time to perform the recital programme of works by Schumann, Prokofiev, Taneyev and Myaskovsky which he will be touring across both the US and Europe throughout the 2025–26 season.
Daniil Trifonov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, the son of professional musicians. He made his debut with orchestra at the age of eight, and went on to study at Moscow’s Gnessin School of Music with Tatiana Zelikman. In 2009 he enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of Music to study with Sergei Babayan; he also received lessons in composition during his time there. He won the 13th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv in 2011 before returning home to secure first prize, the Gold Medal, and Grand Prix at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition. He also won the Tchaikovsky Competition’s Audience Award and the Award for the best performance of a Mozart concerto, on which occasion, Martha Argerich concluded that Trifonov was gifted with “everything and more”.
Her view has been endorsed by an ongoing flood of rave reviews, audience ovations, artistic residencies and international prizes, including one Grammy Award (Transcendental) and six nominations; the 2014 ECHO Klassik Award for Best Newcomer of the Year (Piano); Gramophone’s 2016 “Artist of the Year” award; BBC Music Magazine’s 2019 Concerto Recording of the Year (Destination Rachmaninov – Departure); Musical America’s Artist of the Year 2019; and a 2021 OPUS KLASSIK Instrumentalist of the Year Award for Silver Age. Trifonov has also been appointed a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic, and is the subject of Christian Dumais-Lvowski and Denis Sneguirev’s documentary Daniil Trifonov – Grâce à la musique (2024).
His inventive brilliance and individuality also extend to his reputation as a composer, which reached a new level in April 2014 when he performed the fiendishly difficult solo part in the world premiere of his First Piano Concerto at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has since performed the work extensively, giving its Carnegie Hall debut in November 2017. Trifonov premiered his Piano Quintet (Quintetto Concertante) at the Verbier Festival in July 2018 and has since given further performances in Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv, among others.
8/2025