Tag: piano
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LEILA GETZ: HATS ‘ON’ TO TWO EXTRAORDINARY MUSICIANS!
Following their incredible journey through the Beethoven Piano and Violin Sonatas in three concerts for the Vancouver Recital Society, Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov were anxious to blow off excess steam and see something of Vancouver before they left for their next engagement in San Francisco. So I, as the tour guide, and Allison…
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PROGRAM NOTES: THE BEETHOVEN PROJECT
Ludwig van Beethoven The Ten Violin Sonatas Beethoven wrote his first violin sonatas, a set of three (Op. 12) in 1797-98. Six more appeared by early 1803, making a fairly compressed time span for a medium in which Beethoven was to write just one more in 1812. All but the tenth were written before the…
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SOME THOUGHTS ON OUR UPCOMING 12-13 SEASON
Today we want to share with you a few thoughts and facts about our recently announced 2012-2013 season: UP FIRST: On October 5 András Schiff will open the 33rd season with an all-Bach program. In fact, András was one of the first artists who launched the Vancouver Recital Society in 1981. Like so many…
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LEILA GETZ: ONE OF THE MOST PERFECT CONCERT EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE
Last night I had one of the most perfect concert experiences of my life. I have been attending a conference of music managers and presenters in Budapest. I discovered that baritone Christian Gerhaher was singing an all-Schubert song recital in the Vienna Konzerthaus. It was sold out, but after 33 years in the concert presenting…
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PROGRAM NOTES: CHRISTIAN GERHAHER AND ANDRÁS SCHIFF
Ludwig van Beethoven An die ferne Geliebte Adelaide, Op. 46 An die ferne Geliebte, composed in 1816, stands proudly at the beginning of Christian Gerhaher’s recital as the first important song cycle from any composer, that is, a series of songs in which the constituent numbers are linked together by a theme or narrative of…
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PROGRAM NOTES: KIRILL GERSTEIN
Johann Sebastian Bach English Suite no. 6 in D minor, BWV 811 Bach’s Partitas, English Suites and French Suites – six of each – collectively rank among the glories of the keyboard literature. Each is a four-part sequence of dance movements, all in the same key but varied by rhythm, tempo and mood: Allemande, Courante,…
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LEILA GETZ: WHY I LOVE ANDRAS SCHIFF
Yesterday I watched a video on the VRS YouTube channel featuring pianist Shai Wosner playing the concluding portion of Schumann’s “Carnaval”. I enjoyed it very much. As the video concluded, another video on the YouTube sidebar caught my eye: András Schiff playing the Andantino from Schubert’s Sonata in A Major, D959. I clicked on it…
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MURRAY PERAHIA…REMINISCENCES
Murray Perahia first came onto my radar in 1972 when he won the Leeds International Piano Competition. I knew Murray’s playing through his recordings but didn’t have the opportunity to hear him live for the first time until 1983, when on a visit to London I was able to attend a recital he gave at…
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PROGRAM NOTES: STEVEN OSBORNE
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata (“Moonlight”) in C sharp minor, Op.27, no.2 (Sonata quasi una Fantasia) The year 1801 marked not only the dawn of a new century, but also a significant new approach on Beethoven’s part to matters of form and structure in the piano sonata. The bold use of unusual and exotic keys,…
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PROGRAM NOTES: FLORIAN BOESCH
A recital of Lieder set exclusively to poems of Heinrich Heine and composed solely by Schubert and Schumann is particularly apt inasmuch as Heine was born the same year as Schubert (1797) and died the same year as Schumann (1856). He was not only one of Germany’s leading romantic authors, he also wrote about travel,…