June 16, 2010, Wednesday 9.30 pm
Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center
FESTIVAL OPENING
FOUR PIANOS AND ONE CONDUCTOR
Alexander Ghindin, Piano
Cyprien Katsaris, Piano
David Lively, Piano
Janis Vakarelis, Piano
Alexander Polishchuk, Conductor
Programme
Richard Wagner: Tannhauser Overture (Arrangement: C. Burchardi)
Carl Czerny: Concertante for 4 Pianos, C Major, No. 1, Op.230
Intermission
Claude Achille Debussy: Les Jeux, Bale, and L. 126 (Arrangement:
Maarten Bon)
Maurice Ravel: Bolero (Arrangement: Jacques Drillon)
Bestowed with the high honour of ”Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation”, conductor Alexander Polishchuk graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1991, following in the footsteps of a historic tradition and a long line of distinguished Pupils of Professor Ilya Musin. Following his graduation, Polishchuk was asked to remain at the conservatory for another two years to assist Professor Musin – an honour given to a highly selected few. A prize-winner at the Sixth All-Union Conductors’ Competition in 1988, Polishchuk has, since 1990, performed regularly with the legendary Saint Petersburg Philharmonic.
From 1989 to 1991, Polishchuk was conductor of the Mussorgsky Opera & Ballet Theatre (now the St. Petersburg Mikhailovsky Theatre), touring with the Orchestra to Japan and to Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre as part of the Sholokhov Jubilee Celebrations. In 1991, Polishchuk was appointed Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg Municipal Symphony Orchestra, where he remained for four years. From 1995 to 1997, Polishchuk conducted numerous opera performances at the Mariinsky Theatre of Saint Petersburg in productions of Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky and Katerina Izmailova by Shostakovich, as well as touring with the Mariinsky Theatre Company to Finland. In 1996, Polishchuk became Artistic Director and Principal
From 2001 to 2008, Polishchuk served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, where he also conducted the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, as well as implemented the Festival Orchestra Project of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Society for touring abroad.
A much sought-after conductor, Polishchuk has been conductor at the St. Petersburg House of Music from 2008 to the present, as well as appearing with the Russian National Orchestra at the “Concert on Red Square” in honour of the 850th anniversary of the City of Moscow.
A versatile musician, Alexander Polishchuk’s breadth of repertoire is wide-ranging, whether conducting ballet, operatic or symphonic repertoire. A great believer in education is also a sought-after and revered teacher. Polishchuk has been a professor of conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory since 1993, and has also served as Artistic Director of the “Peter the Great Master Class and Workshop in St. Petersburg” for conductors from 1995 to 2002. During the 1998-1999 seasons, Polishchuk was Guest Professor of Conducting at the Royal Academy College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden. He has also given master classes at universities in Finland, Scotland, Singapore, Portugal, Sweden, and the USA. Maestro Polishchuk’s pupils have won many international conducting competitions and hold distinguished posts around the world.
Since 1989 Alexander Polishchuk has toured in the USSR and Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Great Britain, France, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Singapore, Hungary, Ukraine and other countries.
Alexander Polishchuk has taken part in many Russian and foreign festivals including “Stars of the White Nights” (St. Petersburg, Artistic Director: Valery Gergiev), “Musical Collection” (St. Petersburg, Artistic Director: Yuri Temirkanov), “Musical Kremlin” (Moscow, Artistic Director: Nikolay Petrov), “Classic and Modern” (Novosibirsk, Artistic Director: Arnold Kats), Christmas Festivals in Novosibirsk and in La Roque d’Antheron, France, “Classical Nights” in Megève, France, “Music in the Mountains” in Courchevel, France, “Pablo Casals Festival” in Prades, France, as well as numerous other festivals in Germany, Switzerland and other countries.
Alexander Polishchuk has performed with well-known soloists such as Nikolai Petrov, Sergei Roldugin, Charlier Olivier, Olga Borodina, Anna Netrebko, Yuri Laptev, Alexander Gindin, Eduard Grach, Michel Lethiec, Miroslav Kultiyshev and many others.
 |
Alexander Ghindin, Piano Alexander Ghindin is one of the most inspiring pianists of this generation, constantly gaining recognition and frequently gracing the stages of major concert halls throughout the world. Ghindin is a tremendous talent whose honors at major competitions span decades. Since becoming the youngest prize winner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1994, he proceeded to gain 2nd Prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in 1999, and in 2007 won First Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. During the 2008-09 season alone Ghindin played 103 concerts, and his current schedule spans into the year 2012. After joining the Moscow State Philharmonic as soloist in 1999, his career has led him to perform with the greatest orchestras in his native Russia including the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra, State Academic Symphony Orchestra, and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. His appearances with orchestras throughout the world include the Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchester der Stadt Freiburg, Philharmonie de Liège, Swedish Royal Festival Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Flemish Radio, National de Montpellier, Philharmonie de Luxembourgh, New Japan Philharmonic, Lithuanian Chamber orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Camerata de Lausanne and others Ghindin regularly collaborates with the world’s most prominent conductors including Vladimir Fedosseyev, Saulus Sandeczkis, Vasily Sinaysky, Fuat Mansurov, Yuri Simonov, Dimitry Kitaenko, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Verbitsky, Paavo Järvi, Alan Gilbert, Leonard Slatkin, Artur Fagen, Thomas Zanderling, Jesus Lopes Cobos. Alexander Ghindin has been featured at numerous music festivals such as Moscow, Stockholm, Echternach, Luxembourg, Colmar, La Roque d'Anthéron, Brussels, Limoges, the Montpellier Festival de Radio France, le Châtelet in Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Sintra Festival in Portugal, Ruhr Klavier-Festival, Filharmonia Warscawa, Dubrovnik International Festival, the Osaka International Festival. Ghindin’s recital engagements at prestigious concert halls have included London’s Barbican, Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory and Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Gaveau, Théatre des Champs Élysées, Théatre du Chatelet in Paris, Gasteig in Munich, Rudolfium in Prague, Riksallen in Stockholm, Copenhagen New Opera Hall, Teatro Olympico in Rome, Tel-Aviv Opera, Warsaw Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow Conservatoire, and many others. Not a stranger to chamber music, Ghindin performs frequently with Vladimir Spivakov, violin, and in many concerts with Nikolay Petrov, piano, has performed almost the entire two piano repertoire. |
Alexander Ghindin’s discography is plentiful with fifteen recordings to date, among them, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 4 in their original versions with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra led by Vladimir Ashkenazy for Ondine Records, and the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Vladimir Spivakov for Capriccio. Ghindin’s current recording project is set for December 2009 when he will record Scriabin for the Naxos Label in London.
 |
Cyprien Katsaris, piano Cyprien Katsaris, the French-Cypriot pianist and composer, was born in Marseilles in 1951. He first began to play the piano in Cameroon where he spent his childhood, at the age of four, with Marie-Gabrielle Louwerse. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire where he studied piano with Aline van Barentzen, Monique de la Bruchollerie, and chamber music with René Leroy and Jean Hubeau, he won the International Young Interpreters Rostrum-Unesco (Bratislava 1977), the First Prize in the International Cziffra Competition (Versailles 1974) and he was the only western-European prize-winner at the 1972 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Competition. His major international career includes performances with the world’s greatest orchestras: The Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, The Philharmonia (London), The NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra... He has collaborated with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Myung Whun Chung, Sir Simon Rattle, Mstslav Rostropovich, Charles Dutoit, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Christoph von Dohnanyi… and Karl Münchinger, who on the festive occasion of his farewell concert in 1986, with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, personally invited Mr. Katsaris to perform the Haydn D major Concerto. Mr. Katsaris has recorded extensively for Teldec (Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin, Warsaw 1985; Grand Prix du Disque Franz Liszt, Budapest 1984 and 1989; British Music Retailer’s Association’s Award 1986; Record of the Year 1984, Germany, for the 9th Symphony of Beethoven/Liszt), Sony Classical, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG-RCA, Decca, Pavane, and now on his own label, PIANO 21. In addition to the standard repertory, such as the complete Concertos by Mozart, recorded live and performed in Salzburg and Vienna with Yoon K. Lee and the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie, he has revived long lost works such as the Liszt/Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in the Hungarian style which he has recorded with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1992, the Japanese NHK TV produced with Cyprien Katsaris a thirteen-program series on Frédéric Chopin which included masterclasses and his own performance. On 17 October 1999, the New York concertgoers offered Mr. Katsaris a standing ovation in Carnegie Hall for his recital dedicated to Frédéric Chopin, performed on the day of his 150th death Anniversary. On January 2006, the day of the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s birth, he was the soloist at the inaugural concert of the Mozart Orchestra Mannheim founded and conducted by Thomas Fey. In March |
Cyprien Katsaris is “Knight of Merit of Cameroon” (1977), “Artist of Unesco for Peace” (1997), “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters” (France 2000). He also received the “Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris” (2001).
 |
David Lively David Lively, American-born concert pianist, began his public career at the age of fourteen, performing Khatchaturian’s virtuoso Piano Concerto with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Lorin Maazel subsequently invited him to perform with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra for Tschaikovsky 1st. Following engagements included invitations with such ensembles as the English Chamber Orchestra, with Sir Simon Rattle, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of France in collaboration with such prestigious conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Erich Leinsdorf, Lovro von Matacic, Kurt Sanderling, Sergiu Comissiona, Ferdinand Leitner, Walter Weller, Leonard Slatkin, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Michael Tilson Thomas, etc. An exceptionally gifted artist, David Lively has acquired over eighty concertos in his repertoire, of which he has recorded over ten for labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Koch Schwann and Marco Polo. Especially interested in the American heritage of the twentieth century, David Lively focused particularly on the masterpieces of Elliott Carter and Aaron Copland, with whom he studied them personally and consequently recorded. Meanwhile, his enthusiasm for such neglected masterpieces such as Busoni’s and Furtwängler’s monumental Piano Concertos led to recordings of both, the one of Furtwängler’s being the first of the unabridged and definitive version. This curiosity has led to his recent recording of Joseph Marx's two monumental piano concertos of the same period (a premiere recording for ‘Castelli Romani’). He has also devoted his attention to contemporary production, having given the European premiere of “Riverrun” by Takemitsu with conductor Kent Nagano, the French premieres of solo works of Elliott Carter, Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg as well as the world premiere of the chamber concerto “Cries” by William Blank, written especially for him, and Michael Travlos’ Double Concerto with the Moscow Radio Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedosseyev. William Blank's upcoming Piano Concerto, commissioned by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva has been written expressly for him. It will be performed with Dennis Russell Davies conducting. Very involved in chamber music, organising the Saint Lizier Festival devoted to this repertoire in the French Pyrenees every summer, David Lively has given numerous concerts with the Melos and Borodine Quartets, violinists Gil Shaham, Myriam Fried, Augustin Dumay and pianists Martha Argerich, Eugene Istomin, Jörg Demus, amongst many others. David Lively studied in the United States and in France (with Jules Gentil at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris) where he currently resides. Prizewinner in numerous international competitions, including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud where he met Claudio Arrau, to become one of |
Having taught at the National Superior Music Conservatoire of Paris, David Lively has also been invited to give master classes at the Hochschule in Vienna, the Royal Scottish Academy of Glasgow and the Chapelle Royale in Belgium. From 1998 to 2001, he was in charge of one of the concert pianists classes at the University of Music in Vienna. He is also regularly invited on international juries for competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth and the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud.
A total command of the keyboard allied with an insatiable curiosity allow David Lively to master all styles from the Renaissance to today and to perform such monuments as Bach’s entire Art of the Fugue. His authoritative reputation led to his post as Dean of Exams at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris where he also teaches a class of post-graduate study.
David Lively has given great consideration to the role of the keyboard in the history of music. This has led to redefinition of his role as virtuoso and the development of several exciting projects.
One of these is the rediscovery of the Romantic chamber concerto, a surprisingly well-developed genre in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Study of this specific genre has led to reconsideration and performance of several works well known in more amplified versions and the rediscovery of works little known or just recently republished. This project is offered as well on historic Romantic instruments.
His current recording project consists precisely of the rehabilitation of the historic performances of Frederic Chopin’s six works for piano and orchestra in their original chamber version on period instruments with the Terpsycordes Quartet for the Ricercar label.
One other project of great potential and innovation is Prismorphism, an original interpretive approach developed personally by David Lively in collaboration with Jean-Baptiste Barrière, composer specialised in computer research, involving synthesizer and computer programming. This installation-performance is proposed in inspiring architectural sites that allow for spatialisation and projection of Impressionistic masterpieces. Just one, but very essential, objective is to allow these new techniques to gain a new audience by offering them an original interactive listening participation.
These musical adventures show David Lively to be on the cutting edge of musical performance.
His recent release of Philippe Boesmans’s complete works for piano solo on Cypres label was nominated for the Octaves de la Musique last June.
 |
Janis
Vakarelis, piano Janis Vakarelis enjoys a major international career, which has developed worldwide since he won the 1st Prize at the 1979 Queen Sofia International Piano Competition in Madrid. He has worked with many eminent conductors including L. Maazel, C. Davis, S. Rattle, K. Masur, M. Rostropovitch, V. Ashkenazy, Y. Menuhin, C. Eschenbach, M. Janowski, N. Marriner. The orchestras with which he has worked include Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, St.Martin-in-the-Fields, Orchestre National de France, Wiener Symphoniker, RAI Torino, Dresden Philharmonic. Janis Vakarelis has recorded extensively over the years for RCA (Brahms, Prokofiev), ASV (Brahms), RPO Records (Liszt, Prokofiev, Gershwin),which earned him extraordinary reviews in Gramophone, Classical Music and Diapason –specifically for the recording of Liszt 2nd and Prokofiev 3rd Piano Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic under Witold Rowicki and the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F with Henry Lewis. He has also appeared at the following International Festivals: London Proms, Schleswig-Holstein, Spoleto,Brescia-Bergamo, Echternach, Sintra, Brno, Enescu, and the Gstaad Festival. Janis Vakarelis is equally comfortable as a concerto performer, chamber musician and festival director: he has worked with artists like Y. Bashmet, S. Isserlis,H. Schiff, V. Spivakov, A. Dumay, M. Maisky, M. Portal, Ensemble Wien, Berlin Philharmonic Quartet, Fine Arts Quartet. Janis is Artistic Director of the Nafplion International Music Festival which he founded in Greece in 1991. This season's highlights include performances with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, La Scala String Quartet,Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of the University of Maxico,Orchestra Sinfonica di Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta and he is showcasing the World Premiere of the Piano Concerto by Rene Koering. The President of Greece presented him with the Order of the Golden Phoenix for his services to music. He has lived in Paris since 1980. |
Tannhauser Overture (Arrangement: C. Burchardi)
Wagner composed Tannhauser while he was the Conductor of the Orchestra in Dresden between 1843 and 1845.The story of this music drama takes place in 13th century Germany. The work was first staged in Dresden on October 19th 1845. The music drama is based on the conflict between sacred and cursed love. The persona that represents sacred love here is Thrüngen’s niece, Elizabeth while the persona that represents passionate love is Venus. This Overture is often played in concert halls. It has almost all the main ideas if the music drama. The piece begins with a theme sung by the choir and the middle section shows the pleasures of Vebüsberg. Towards the end the religious theme appears and tries to destroy the Venus theme. At the end of the choir crescendo there is a victorious celebration of pure love over cursed love.
Carl CZERNY (1791 – 1857)
Concertante For 4 Pianos , C Major, No. 1, Op.230
—Andante con moto
Austrian born composer, teacher and pianist Czerny’s life shows signs of maturity from the earliest of age. Czerny started playing the piano at age three and composing at age seven. He was also able to play Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Clementi’s pieces by heart. When he first played for Beethoven, the great composer immediately admired him and became like a father to him. Instead of playing in public Czerny always chose to teach ten to twelve hours a day and compose at night. His compositions include 24 Masses, 4 Requiems, Symphonies, Concertos and Overtures as well as about 300 Chamber Music pieces, Choir Pieces and many Etudes for Piano for a total of more then 2000 works. Some of the musicians that affected him most were Sigismund Thalberg and the famous composer Franz Liszt. Czerny was the first pianist to play Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto. He also composed two 4-Piano Concertant.
Claude Achille Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Les Jeux, Bale, L. 126 (Arrangement: Maarten Bon)
Debussy composed his Ballet, Les Jeux, at the request of famous Ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinski. He dedicated this piece to the wife of his agent, Jacques Durand in Paris. The ballet was fist performed in Paris’ Champs-Elysees on May 15th, 1913 with the conductor Pierre Monteux with choreography by Nijinski. In this modern ballet the dancing constantly changes rhythms and melodies. The composed used woodwinds in a more powerful way and created a different sound. The Ballet was not a big success with Nijinski’s choreography. It was first performed as an orchestra piece on March 1914, Gabriel Pierne as conductor.
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
Bolero (Arrengement: Jacques Drillon)
Ravel promised dancer Ida Rubinstein to compose a piece of ballet music. First he thought about Albeniz’s Ýberia but later on he started working on the 16-measure melody he had in mind. Bolero was first staged in Paris November 22nd, 1928 with choreography by Bronislava Nijinskaya. There is no real story to the ballet, only a Spanish girl in traditional costumes in a smokey Spanish Tavern who is dancing passionately on the table. After a while all the other dancers join in. With the constantly accelerating melody and the same continuous rhythm, this piece mesmerizes the audience. It is one of the most well known and enjoyable all compositions.