An ode to boundless imagination. A two concert festival with dazzling virtuosity. Nathalia Milstein and our Artist in Residence Antonii Baryshevskyi play two solo recitals with etudes. Composers have been writing concert etudes since Chopin. They challenge pianists to transcend the limitations of their 10 fingers and the 88 keys of their instrument. But composers have also used etudes to explore new worlds of sound and expression. A sunset should be able to rise from a grand piano. Nathalia Milstein present a recital around Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux, opus 39, in which he transformed paintings into sound poems. Antonii Baryshevskyi begins with Chopin and Liszt and takes us through Debussy, Bartók and Ligeti to our own time, in which composers still write etudes to push boundaries.
Antonii Baryshesvkyi piano
Pianist Antonii Baryshevskyi presents a full evening of etudes. Iconic piano works by Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Bartók and Ligeti alongside a wide range of contemporary etudes by Shalygin, Lunyon, Kerkelov, Hosokawa and Szymanski. Baryshevskyi continues to captivate audiences with an inexhaustible palette of colours and the communicative power of his playing. He has won prestigious competitions and has been acclaimed in leading venues from the Wigmore Hall in London to the Philharmonie in Berlin. This recital is an exhilarating journey through several musical time periods and an ode to the boundless imagination of composers who explore new worlds of sound.
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Nathalia Milstein piano
“One of the greatest talents of the new generation.” France Musique is full of praise for pianist Nathalia Milstein, known for her successes on the biggest concert stages. She opens our two concert festival of piano etudes with Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux opus 39. These etudes are inspired by fairy tales and paintings. Although Rachamninov kept his sources of inspiration to himself, it is clear that each of the nine etudes tells a compelling story of its own. The music presents the pianist with great technical challenges, but above all it demands a maximum palette of colours and great narrative power. Qualities that Nathalia Milstein excels in. Her previous performances of Rachmaninov's masterpiece left a deep impression. She also performs Pièces de clavecin by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Claude Debussy’s Images and Thème et Variations by Gabriel Fauré.
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Keren Motseri soprano
Joe Puglia violin
“With fearless technique, Motseri explores every corner of Kurtág’s extreme sound world. When a waltz casually appears in the last movement, Motseri and Puglia fill the space with more flair than a Viennese string orchestra. A moment later, an abstract piece of Eastern European folk music thunders into the dance hall, which the virtuoso Puglia draws out of his violin with ferocity and passion. Motseri and Puglia play as if they share the same dream.”
De Volkskrant *****
You listen on the edge of your seat. The concerts of soprano Keren Motseri and violinist Joseph Puglia are always inspiring. On stage they challenge each other to find drama in their dialogues, but also the subtlest nuances. A long-cherished wish comes true: they perform György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments. A masterpiece by the now 98-year-old Hungarian composer and an iconic cylce of the 20th century. The two musicians travelled to Budapest to spend several days working on the piece with the perfectionist Kurtág. The Kafka Fragments is a journey into Kafka’s world. The music demands the utmost from the musicians: extroverted theatre, but also heartfelt introspection.
Elisabeth Hetherington soprano
Barokensemble Postscript
Aysha Wills traverso
Cynthia Freivogel & Tomoe Badiarova violin
Iteke Wijbenga viola
Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde cello
Artem Belogurov harpsichord
Elisabeth Hetherington's star is rising fast. For both early music and new music, she is a dream interpreter, with a radiant voice and an equally lucid imagination. This opera gala takes us back to the eighteenth-century noble salon, where visitors loved to listen to the hits from the opera theatre in domestic settings. Many popular opera arias from that era were brilliantly arranged for smaller ensemble. These are brought to life by Postscript, one of the best baroque ensembles in our country. A programme with arias by Handel, Hasse, Bononcini and other grandmasters.
Tobias Borsboom piano
Dutch pianist Tobias Borsboom likes to search for hidden treasures in the piano repertoire. On one of his quests he came across the Java Suite by the composer Leopold Godowsky. Godowsky was on a concert tour in Indonesia in 1924 and fell under the spell of Java's temples, jungles, cities and volcanoes. He wrote an hour-long musical travelogue: virtuoso piano music that allows the pianist to conjure a kaleidoscopic palette of colours from the piano.
Coraline Groen violin
Jelmer de Moed clarinet
Rik Kuppen piano
About 100 years ago, jazz, tango and other dance music breathed new life into the compositions of a growing number of composers. Clarinettist Jelmer de Moed, violinist Coraline Groen and Rik Kuppen play a colourful programme around Bartók's Contrasts, written for jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman, with plenty of room for swing. Works by Bernstein, Gershwin, Milhaud, Stravinsky and Ives are also on the programme.