| After a 2014/15 season including dates at the Cleveland Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, violinist Alina Ibragimova returns to North America this summer for the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Academy of Ancient Music and Edward Gardner at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. She then teams up with baroque ensemble Apollo's Fire (led by Jeannette Sorrell) for concerti by Bach and Vivaldi, first in Cleveland, and then in London at the BBC Proms. The 2015/16 season sees her in subscription weeks with the Boston Symphony, Montreal Symphony and Madison Symphony. Click here for video of Ibragimova playing the Berg Violin Concerto, and enjoy a "Wigmore Hall Live" performance with Cédric Tiberghien here. |
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| This past weekend pianist Ran Dank (and fellow pianist Adam Golka, see below) joined BAM's RadioLoveFest for a Beethoven Sonata Marathon presented by WQXR. At the Marathon, Dank performed the "Tempest" and "Quasi una fantasia" sonatas. This summer Dank performs concerts at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and theSanta Fe Chamber Music Festival. 2015/16 dates include the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Charleston Symphony, Kevin Puts' "Night" for piano and orchestra with the Mobile Symphony, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Ashland Symphony, among other dates. |
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| Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers' 2015 has already included an acclaimed step-in at Carnegie Hall with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a subscription week with the Colorado Symphony, and a recording of the Bernstein Serenade with the London Symphony Orchestra and Keith Lockhart. Upcoming dates include concerts of works by Arvo Pärt with the MDR Sinfonieorchester and Kristjan Järvi, Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the Indianapolis Symphony, led by Daniel Meyer, Prokofiev Concerto No. 1 with Gerard Schwarz at the Eastern Music Festival, and the Mason Bates Violin Concerto (written for and premiered by Meyers) with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the National Symphony. Meyers has also commissioned a new work for violin and orchestra from Einojuhani Rautavaara. Contact Lee Prinz for more information. |
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| Pianist Adam Golka has enjoyed a sparkling 2014/15 season, with a new recital disc, a series of special concerts curated by Sir András Schiff, Mozart K. 467 with the Seattle Symphony, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Richmond Symphony, and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Vancouver Symphony and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Colombia. This month at the WQXR Beethoven Sonata Marathon (at BAM's RadioLoveFest) Golka performed the Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10, No. 2 and the "Hammerklavier" sonata (one of the works featured on his new recording). Although we do not have recordings of those performances, we leave you video of Golka performing Beethoven Sonata Op. 110. On June 7, Golka plays a solo recital at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, presented by the Musicians Emergency Fund. He looks forward to returning to the Marlboro Music Festival later this summer. |
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| Marc-André Hamelin just performed back-to-back weeks with the Seattle Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. In Seattle, he played the Grieg Piano Concerto with Ludovic Morlot: "They just wouldn’t let him leave.
Thursday evening’s Seattle Symphony audience stood, stomped, applauded, whistled, shouted 'bravo' and generally carried on when piano soloist Marc-André Hamelin played the last triumphant chord of the Grieg Piano Concerto. The ovation continued until Hamelin finally returned to the Benaroya Hall piano for a sassy virtuoso encore. … He is an intelligent and thoughtful artist, one who illuminates the tender eloquence of the Grieg as well as the thundering octaves and bravura flourishes."
- Melinda Bargreen, The Seattle Times, April 24, 2015 In Cleveland, Hamelin performed Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 in D Major as part of an all-Haydn program. "None, though, ranked as highly on the clarity scale as pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin. Performing Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 in his Cleveland debut, the virtuoso – and the orchestra behind him – was the very paragon of Classical purity, a fount of crisp, sparkling passages.
His Adagio was a thing of special beauty. Through him was channeled Haydn himself, engrossed at the keyboard in a moment of profound, personal reflection. Silken phrasing, Hamelin's fairy-like touch, and the score's own gentle dissonance combined to conjure a musical scene rare both then and today."
- Zachary Lewis, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 1, 2015 In March Hamelin performed the Haydn on a ten-city tourwith the Canadian chamber orchestra, Les Violons du Roy. |
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| Cellist Steven Isserlis has a new Hyperion disc of concertos by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, recorded with Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. "Both Isserlis and Järvi leave their competition standing when it comes to expressive eloquence..."
- BBC Music Magazine, April 8, 2015 Isserlis has just completed a Far East tour, including recitals and dates with the Taiwan Philharmonic and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. ~ ~ ~ Join us online, and learn more: www.ColbertArtists.com And on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @ColbertArtists |
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| Pianist Cédric Tiberghien opened the Chicago Symphony's French Reveries and Passions Festivalon May 3 with a recital program of works by Ravel, Debussy, and Szymanowski. His performance was given a standing ovation and unanimous critical acclaim: "Orchestra Hall has heard no more impressive a debut in recent seasons...I hope the management brings the pianist back as a concerto soloist, for he is a major talent Chicago deserves to hear more of."
– John Von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune, May 6, 2015 "If future festival events sustain the caliber of musicianship Tiberghien demonstrated in his performance, the next three weeks will be a prolonged sonic treat for Chicago’s music lovers"
- Tim Sawyier, Chicago Classical Review, May 4, 2015 "The precision, vitality and nuanced inflection Tiberghien brought to each of these pieces left one wanting to hear more..." - Lawrence B. Johnson, Chicago On the Aisle, May 4, 2015 |
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| The Ginastera Harp Concerto is a touchstone work for Yolanda Kondonassis. She performs it this month with the Columbus Symphony. Next season she plays the Ginastera again with the Oregon and the San Diego symphony orchestras, and the Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp with the Cleveland Orchestra. Jennifer Higdon has been commissioned to write a new harp concerto for Kondonassis, to be premiered in the 2017/18 season. Contact us for more information on this exciting work! |
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| Last month, Zuill Bailey performed the world premiere of Michael Daugherty's "Tales of Hemingway" with the Nashville Symphony; the work was recorded for an upcoming Naxos release. Next season he performs the Daugherty with the Virginia Symphony, the Erie Philharmonic and the Asheville and El Paso symphony orchestras. His 2015 recording of Nico Muhly's Cello Concerto has received widespread praise: "Zuill Bailey opens this triptych with a superb account of Bloch’s masterly Schelomo, concentrated and powerful, the soloist rhapsodising in a freely expressive style." - Gramophone, April 1, 2015 "Bailey’s playing is strong-limbed and sensitive throughout..." – San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 21, 2015 |
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| The charming Swiss-Italian pianist Francesco Piemontesi is
currently on tour with the Philharmonia Orchestra playing the Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor (which he has recorded, along with the Dvorák Piano Concerto, for Naïve Classique, preview here). These dates are followed by his recital debut for Washington Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center next month. In 2015/16 he plays recitals for the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts, and subscription weeks with the the Oregon Symphony (Mozart K.595) and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Toronto Symphony. Enjoy a recent Piemontesi performance of Mozart K. 503 with Manfred Honeck and the hr-Sinfonieorchester in this video. |
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| Cellist Mark Kosower has just wrapped a recording of the two Victor Herbert Concertos with JoAnn Falletta and the Ulster Orchestra, to be released on Naxos. Preview the recording with this behind-the-scenes video. Kosower recently performed with the Toledo and Hawaii symphony orchestras, and is set to join the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra next month for the Dvorák Cello Concerto. |
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| Violinist Anthony Marwood is the newly appointed Principal Artistic Partner of Les Violons du Roy. The appointment means that Marwood will spend a minimum of three weeks with Les Violons du Roy in 2015/16 and approximately four weeks per year in each of the following two seasons. He begins his tenure next fall with programs of De Corelli à Britten and Beethoven etMarwood in October and November, affording the public an opportunity to appreciate his virtuosity in Beethoven’s Romances for violin and in eclectic works by Geminiani, Stravinsky, and Britten. In the second half of the season, Marwood returns for a play/direct week with the St. Louis Symphony in a program of Bach, Dvorák and Peteris Vasks' Distant Light, which he has recorded with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on Hyperion. |
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| This spring pianist Till Fellner toured to Mexico and South America with the Camerata Salzburg and Louis Langrée, playing Mozart Piano Concerto K. 488. In 2015/16 he performs Mozart K. 503 with Bernard Haitink and the Berlin Philharmonic, and returns to the Chicago Symphony, again with Mo. Haitink, for performances of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482. For the moment, enjoy this video of Fellner playing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony. Fellner, Nagano and the OSM have released an album with Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5; preview the disc here. |
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