Alexander Gadjiev

Alexander Gadjiev gives listeners the sense that they are exploring the music alongside him. As an artist, he moves effortlessly between styles, eras and expressions. 'A spring in his step, conveying an exceptional degree of urgency,' Gramophone wrote of his album Legends, released in August 2025.

The pianist from the border town of Gorizia, on the Slovenian–Italian frontier, has distinguished himself as one of the foremost of his generation. Gadjiev won first place at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2021, and came second in the world’s most prestigious piano competition, the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, the same year. His concert at the Festival will be his first ever in Norway.

At Troldhaugen, Gadjiev has programmed Grieg, and the concert also offers a return to Olivier Messiaen, the composer behind the work that opens this year’s festival – now featuring a meditation from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus. The final part of the concert is Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which he has also recorded on his latest album.

Image on top: Alexander Gadjiev, photo by Andrej Grilc

Contributors

• Alexander Gadjiev piano

Works

• Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
  Arietta, Op. 12 No. 1
  Solitary Traveller, Op. 43 No. 2
  Halling, Op. 47 No. 4
  Notturno, Op. 54 No. 4
  Scherzo, Op. 54 No. 5
  Bell Ringing, Op. 54 No. 6
  Goblins, Op. 71 No. 3
  Reminiscence, Op. 71 No. 7

• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
  Excerpts from Miroirs:
  Oiseaux tristes
  Alborada del gracioso
  La Vallée des cloches

• Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
  Le baiser de l’Enfant Jésus
  from Vingt regards sur l’Enfant Jésus

• Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881)
  Pictures at an Exhibition

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