PianoForte Continues with Peter Orth, Rafal Blechacz, and
Till Fellner's Beethoven Sonata Cycle;
Perlman Music Program Presents New Work by D. Edward Davis;
Steve Ross and the Pacifica Quartet Return
For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs are available.
Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open
Tuesday-Thursday 10-5:00, Friday and Saturday 10-7:00, and Sunday noon-5:00.
Student and group discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.
Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
Friday, February 5, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. - Musicians from Marlboro
The Marlboro Music School and Festival has been nurturing great artists since 1951, and since 1970 the Marlboro alumni – of all generations – have been performing concerts in the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series as Musicians from Marlboro.
This series has been made possible by the Xerox Foundation.
On this first of two programs this season, Yvonne Lam and Ida Levin, violin; Jonathan Chu, viola; Michal Korman, cello; Lydia Brown, piano; Hyunah Yu, soprano; and Nicholas Phan, tenor, join for a program featuring Haydn's Italian Duets for Soprano, Tenor, and Piano, "Nisa and Tirsi"; Bartók's String Quartet No. 2, Op. 17; Schumann's Songs for Soprano, Tenor, and Piano; and Haydn's String Quartet in G Major, Op. 54, No. 1.
Musicians from Marlboro offers exceptional young musicians from the summer festival together with seasoned artists in chamber music programs of rarely heard works and masterpieces of varied instrumentation. The program has introduced many of today's leading solo and chamber music artists to American audiences; among them are pianists Richard Goode, Murray Perahia, and András Schiff, violinists Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo, and Shlomo Mintz, flutist Paula Robison, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and soprano Benita Valente. In addition to the performances at the Metropolitan Museum, each year more than 25 outstanding artists take time from their regular activities to bring Musicians from Marlboro concerts to venues throughout the country.
Tickets: $40
Saturday, February 6, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. - Steve Ross – "To Wit: Humor in Song"
Steve Ross returns to the Metropolitan Museum for what is becoming an annual engagement – in 2009-2010, he performs two cabaret-style evenings titled "To Wit: Humor in Song." This second program features songs from English shows and revues
Steve Ross has been at the forefront of the cabaret revival when he became the first cabaret artist in 40 years to perform in the newly opened Algonquin Hotel's Oak Room. He performed regularly at the Oak Room for almost four years, and still returns for sell-out performances. A self-proclaimed Anglophile, Steve was happy to begin dinner cabaret at the Ritz in London. He also performs regularly at London's popular Pizza on the Park. He has played at the Spoleto Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Perth Festival in Australia. He has also performed in Brazil and around the United States, including on- and off-Broadway. In 1989, the BBC asked Steve Ross to host a live cabaret series. He was also the host of a popular radio series for National Public Radio, New York Cabaret Nights, with live broadcasts from cabaret rooms in New York City, featuring noted guests.
Tickets: $40
Friday, February 12, 2010, at 7:00 p.m - Till Fellner, Piano – Beethoven Piano Sonatas
Acclaimed as one of the most brilliant pianists performing today, Till Fellner continues with his three-season traversal of the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven at the Metropolitan Museum. These are his only New York performances of the season. In 2009-2010, the second year of the cycle, he performs three programs that will feature the "Pastorale," "Moonlight," "Pathétique," and "Les Adieux" sonatas.
This second of three programs features Sonatas in A-flat Major, Op. 26; E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, "Sonata quasi una fantasia"; C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight"; F Major, Op. 54; and C Major, Op. 53, "Waldstein." The third concert of this season's series will be on March 26, 2010.
This marks the second year of a three-year period during which Fellner will focus on Beethoven: from October 2008 onward he plays all of the Beethoven piano sonatas in a cycle that will be presented in New York, Washington, Tokyo, London, Paris, Vienna, and other cities. In the spring of 2008, he began performing and recording all Beethoven piano concertos with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony. In November 2008 he performed the Beethoven Trios Op. 1 with Lisa Batiashvili and Adrian Brendel.
Born in Vienna, Till Fellner studied with Helene Sedo-Stadler before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel, Meira Farkas, Oleg Maisenberg, and Claus-Christian Schuster. He first gained international recognition by winning first prize at the prestigious Clara Haskil International Competition in 1993. Since then Till Fellner has performed with many of the world's most famous orchestras and conductors, and has appeared in major concert halls and at important festivals in Europe, the United States and Japan. Till Fellner plays regularly in a trio with Lisa Batiashvili and Adrian Brendel and appears in song recitals with tenor Mark Padmore.
Till Fellner has recorded numerous CDs; the latest release was Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier, Book I (ECM Records).
Tickets: $45
Saturday, February 13, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. - Itzhak Perlman Plays Chamber Music with Members of the Perlman Music Program - World Premiere of New Work
Itzhak Perlman's long association with the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series began more than four decades ago. Returning after two sold-out seasons, the concerts by Itzhak Perlman and members of the Perlman Music Program will continue to showcase the exceptionally gifted young musicians of the program founded and guided by Toby Perlman. The first New York chamber music series conceived and programmed by Itzhak Perlman, the concerts reflect his and his wife Toby's personal approach to music-making and teaching. This series is generously supported by Florence Irving and Mrs. Vivian Milstein.
This second program of the season features Schubert's "Trout" Quintet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass in A Major; and Beethoven's String Trio, Op. 8, in D Major (Mr. Perlman will perform in the Schubert and Beethoven works); as well as the world premiere of a new work for two double basses, viola, cello, piano, and electronics by Perlman Music Program composer-in-residence D. Edward Davis.
D. Edward Davis is a composer and sound artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His music has been performed both in the USA and internationally by a wide variety of performers, and he has forged a long-standing relationship with the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, for which he has composed more than 20 works. Davis holds a Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and a Master's degree from Brooklyn College, where he studied composition with Amnon Wolman and David Grubbs.
The Perlman Music Program encompasses both chamber music workshops and an intensive six-week summer residency program, serving approximately 38 exceptionally gifted students, ages 12 to 18, from all over the world. Under the dedicated guidance of Toby and Itzhak Perlman and an outstanding faculty of teachers of violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, and chorus, the program offers instruction, coaching, and mentoring, with a faculty-student ratio of nearly one to three. At the summer program on Shelter Island, students practice their instruments four hours a day, take private lessons and group classes, play in chamber groups and orchestra, and sing in chorus. They discuss performance skills, examine performance anxiety, and perform throughout the summer. In addition, students develop social skills and learn to share the spotlight with others in this non-competitive environment.
Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys a superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. In January 2009, Mr. Perlman was honored to take part in the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, premiering a piece written for the occasion by John Williams and performing with clarinetist Anthony McGill, pianist Gabriela Montero, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He marked an important milestone during the 2008-2009 season, the 50th anniversary of his American debut. In September 2009, he helped inaugurate the Barvikha Concert Hall outside Moscow with a reprise of his acclaimed Klezmer program, "In the Fiddler's House." He will also be featured in recital at the Moscow Conservatory with pianist and frequent collaborator Rohan De Silva. Other highlights of his 2009-2010 season include a performance with the New York Philharmonic to commemorate World Polio Day; two West Coast tours covering Los Angeles, San Diego, Vancouver, and other cities; and recitals across North and Central America including Mexico City, Atlanta, Miami, and Boston.
Tickets: $70
Saturday, February 20, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. - Peter Orth, Piano
Philadelphia-born, Cologne-based pianist Peter Orth performs his only New York recital of the season, a program of Haydn's Sonata in D Major, Hob. XVI:42; Mendelssohn's Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, Op. 35; Schumann's Gesänger der Frühe (Morning Songs), Op. 133; and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.
The first prize in the 1979 Naumburg International Piano Competition catapulted Peter Orth into the American musical mainstream with a highly acclaimed recital debut in Alice Tully Hall. Not long afterwards he was awarded the Shura Cherkassky Prize by the 92nd Street Y in New York and the Fanny Peabody Mason Award in Boston. Since that time, he has been heard as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Detroit, St. Louis, Montreal, and Pittsburgh.
His June 2006 recital at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall received standing ovations and acclaim from critics. Fred Krishnit of The New York Sun commented on Peter Orth's interpretation of Brahms's Handel variations: "Mr. Orth began the Brahms with a stately rendering of the original theme, phrased and paced almost as if it were a throwback to Elizabethan times. His first five or six variations were jaunty in spirit and juicily a-rhythmic in statement – metronome be damned."
In addition to performing as a soloist, Peter Orth has a close artistic relationship with the Auryn Quartet, with whom he tours the major European musical centers – he recently performed Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon with the Auryn Quartet and the legendary singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Since moving to Cologne in 1992, Mr. Orth's European reputation has grown apace – he has appeared at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and London's Wigmore Hall, and at the Klavier Festival Ruhr in Germany. Recently he has performed with such European orchestras as the Residentie Orkest Den Haag, the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Nord Deutsche Philharmonie. He is especially known in Italy, where he plays regularly. Peter Orth began his studies in Philadelphia with Benjamin Whitten. At The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Adele Marcus, Mr. Orth was the first recipient of the prestigious Petschek Award. After graduation he received an invitation from Rudolf Serkin to participate in the Marlboro Festival and a subsequent offer to study privately at the maestro's Institute for Young Performing Musicians in Guilford, Vermont.
Peter Orth can be heard on three compact discs: the two Piano Quintets of Gabriel Fauré with the Auryn String Quartet on the CPO label which was awarded Best Chamber Music recording 1998 by London's CD Classic magazine, a Brahms/Schumann album, and a Brahms album that includes the F Minor Piano Quintet and the Handel Variations, released in 2003 on the Tacet label. His most recent release, on Tacet, features Schumann's Piano Quintet and Piano Quartet with the Auryn Quartet.
Tickets: $45
Friday, February 26. 2010, at 7:00 p.m. - Rafal Blechacz, Piano
After a successful New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum in October 2008, Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz returns with a program of Bach's Partita in B-flat Major, No. 1; Mozart's Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 570; Debussy's Pour le piano; and a group of works by Chopin: Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47; Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20; and Polonaise fantasie, Op. 61, his only New York recital of the season.
Rafal Blechacz was born on June 30, 1985, in Naklo nad Notecia, Poland. At the age of 23, Blechacz has already been cited by critics as a talent that only comes along every few decades – his playing is characterized by its elegance and delicacy and a poetic solemnity that has invited comparison to the legendary pianists of the early 20th century. He began his competition career by winning second prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Young Pianist Competition in Bydgoszcz in 2002 and at the Fifth International Young Pianist Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan, in 2003. In 2004 he garnered first prize at the Fourth International Piano Competition in Morocco.
In 2005, the young artist unanimously won first prize for best mazurka, polonaise, and concerto performances at the 15th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He also won four of the competition's special prizes. In recognition of his exceptional talent for closely approaching the Chominesque ideal, the jury decided, for the first time in the competition's history, not to award a second prize. Winning the Gold Medal at the Chopin Competition opened doors into the most prestigious concert halls around the world. In 2006, Rafal received invitations to perform at the Warsaw Philharmony Hall, the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Tonhalle in Zurich, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 2006 he also presented a series of 12 recitals in major concert halls in Japan including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and he gave critically acclaimed performances at the Ruhr, Verbier, and La Roque d'Antheron summer music festivals. The year 2007 took him to Herkules Saal in Munich, Wigmore Hall in London, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, re-invitation performances in Japan and at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels.
In May 2006 the artist signed an exclusive five year contract with Deutsche Grammophon for three recordings. The first recording was of the complete Chopin Preludes and Two Nocturnes op. 62. Only one day after its release in September 2007, the debut recording achieved gold status in Poland, and after the second week of sales in the Polish market it went platinum.
Tickets: $45
Saturday, February 27, 2010, at 2:30 p.m. - Babar - The New York Chamber Soloists
The New York Chamber Soloists perform a family concert featuring Poulenc's Babar the Little Elephant for narrator, flute, oboe, violin, cello, and piano, with respectively, Ynez Lynch, Jennifer Grim, Melvin Kaplan, Curtis Macomber, Adam Grabois, and Elizabeth Metcalfe.
Poulenc's Babar the Little Elephant came into being when a four-year-old friend of the composer presented him with the Jean de Brunhoff children's classic and asked him to "play this." The musical interpretation of the book's story, of the young elephant's youth in Africa, journey to Paris, and marriage, features musical interludes in the forms of a march, a lullaby, and a waltz, among others. The New York Chamber Soloists perform a chamber version of the work, which was originally written for narrator and piano.
Acclaimed as an outstanding ensemble of distinguished virtuosi, performing widely diverse repertoire in creatively programmed concerts, the New York Chamber Soloists have maintained a unique niche in the chamber music world for nearly five decades. Founded in 1957, this 12-member ensemble of strings, winds, and keyboard can increase to as many as 20 with the addition of guest artists, giving it the flexibility to offer many works that are seldom heard due to the unusual instrumental combinations for which they were written.
They have added substantially to the catalog of 20th century chamber works, with the more than 25 compositions written for them by such significant composers as Gunther Schuller, Mario Davidovsky, Ezra Laderman, and Mel Powell. Most recently, the group has commissioned a new work for children, Ferdinand the Bull, from noted American composer Hugh Aitken.
The ensemble has compiled an impressive record of repeat engagements in North America and abroad, including eleven European tours, six Latin American tours, and numerous tours of the Far East and South Pacific. In the United States, the Chamber Soloists have appeared frequently in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center; in Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress, the National Academy of Sciences, the Kennedy Center, and the National Gallery of Art; at major universities across the country from Boston to Berkeley; and at the Mostly Mozart, Sun Valley and Caramoor Festivals. They have been in residence at the Vermont Mozart Festival every summer since its inception in 1974.
Tickets: $25
Saturday, February 27, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. - Pacifica Quartet
The Pacifica Quartet, Musical America's 2009 Ensemble of the Year and 2009 Grammy Award winner for "Best Chamber Music Performance" for its recording of Elliott Carter's String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5, will in 2009-2010 take up a distinguished mantle of quartet-in-residence in the Metropolitan Museum Concerts series, following in the footsteps of the Guarneri String Quartet. For the inaugural season of its ongoing residency, the quartet – Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin; Masumi Per Rostad, viola; and Brandon Vamos, cello – will present three programs of works including Janácek's "Intimate Letters" quartet, Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" quartet, Haydn's "Lark" quartet, and work written for the Pacifica by Jennifer Higdon. These are the quartet's only New York concerts of the season.
This series is supported in part by the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund.
This third of three programs features Haydn's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5, "The Lark"; Bartók's Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91; and Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden."
Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has carved out a compelling and critically lauded musical path. In addition to the Musical America and Grammy wins, the Pacifica Quartet has swept top awards in the U.S. and abroad, including the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006, making the Pacifica only the second chamber music ensemble ever to be selected. Formed in 1994, the ensemble quickly won top prizes in leading international competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award.
In the 2009-2010 season, in addition to assuming its new role at the Metropolitan Museum, the Pacifica Quartet will return to Europe for two separate tours, perform with acclaimed pianist Menahem Pressler, appear at the Casals Festival, and participate in Beethoven cycles around the United States.
The members of the Pacifica Quartet live in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, where they were appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois in 2004 and serve as Faculty Quartet in Residence. They are also resident performing artists at the University of Chicago and the Longy School in Boston. Reflecting its dedication to musicians and music lovers of the next generation, the Pacifica Quartet was instrumental in creating the Music Integration Project, an innovative program that provides musical performances and teacher training to inner-city elementary schools. Originating on the West Coast, where it played its earliest concerts together, the Quartet takes its name from the Pacific Ocean. Throughout their journey as a string quartet, its members continually strive to be Distinct as the billows/yet one as the sea (James Montgomery).
Tickets: $45
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January 8, 2010
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