Kirill Gerstein returns to London’s Wigmore Hall on Monday 4 October as part of the venue’s lunchtime concert series.

As with Gerstein’s Wigmore Hall concert last autumn when he presented Debussy’s fiendishly difficult 12 piano études streamed live to an empty hall, Debussy is a significant focus of Gerstein’s new programme. The études had been on Gerstein’s wish-list to study since he recorded Liszt’s Transcendental Études in 2016 to which the études pay homage. Over the last year, Gerstein’s preoccupation with Debussy transformed into a significant recording project in which he pays homage to Debussy and Komitas, of whose work Debussy was a fervent admirer. In a recent BBC Music Magazine article about Komitas, Gerstein pointed out that: “both composers were profoundly affected by the implosion of their two worlds – Komitas by the Genocide, Debussy by war in Europe – and their music reflect a close emotional alignment.”

In addition to BBC Radio 3’s live broadcast, Gerstein’s concert will be livestreamed in HD on the Wigmore Hall website. The two-CD project, to be released by myrios classics later this year, will feature the Komitas and Debussy works performed at the Wigmore Hall, in addition to a collaboration with Gerstein’s friend and colleague Thomas Adès.