Past Concerts 2011 to the present (click the year, below right, to navigate back from the most recent)

Dame MITSUKO UCHIDA, piano

Dame Mitsuko Uchida is Visiting Fellow in Chamber Music at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, in the academic year 2015-16.

Please note the revised running order for this concert.

Mozart

Rondo in A minor, K. 511

Schumann

Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 11

Schubert

Four Impromptus, D. 899

Legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida brings a deep insight into the music she plays through her own quest for truth and beauty. Renowned for her interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez for a new generation of listeners.

Highlights this season include a performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski at the BBC Proms, the Berlin Philharmonic with Simon Rattle, as well as play-directing Mozart concerti with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom she will return to the Salzburg Mozartwoche. Since 2011 Uchida has been recording Mozart’s Piano Concerti with the Cleveland Orchestra live in concert and directing from the piano. The first release won a Grammy Award in 2011. The latest release (August 2014) features piano concerti K. 456 and K. 459, and Uchida will record the next instalment in 2016. Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including The Gramophone Award for Best Concerto.

ARTEMIS QUARTET & MARKUS GROH, piano

Vineta Sareika, violin

Gregor Sigl, viola

Eckart Runge, cello

Markus Groh, piano

Bach-Piazzolla

Partita in Memoriam Friedemann Weigle

Schumann

Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 47

Brahms

Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60

The Berlin-based Artemis Quartet was founded in 1989 at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, and is recognised today as one of the foremost quartets in the world. Since its successful debut at the Berlin Philharmonie in 1999, the quartet has performed in all the great music centres and at international festivals in Europe, the USA, Japan, South America and Australia. In 2003, the Beethoven-Haus Society awarded the Artemis Quartet an honorary membership in recognition of its interpretations of Beethoven's works. Their 'Beethoven Complete' project was awarded the prestigious French Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros.

The Artemis Quartet has had an exclusive recording contract with Warner/Erato (formerly Virgin Classics/EMI) since 2005 and can boast of an extensive discography. Their recordings have been recognized with the prestigious Gramophone Award as well as the Diapason d’Or and the ECHO-Klassik (twice). Their latest recording of Mendelssohn’s works was released in the spring of 2014.

Pianist Markus Groh gained immediate world attention after winning the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in 1995, a competition that includes among its previous winners Vladimir Ashkenazy and Dame Mitsuko Uchida. Since then his remarkable musical imagination and astonishing technique have confirmed his place among the finest pianists in the world. He has performed with the Bamberg Symphony, Beijing Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Hague Residentie Orkest, Helsinki Philharmonic, London Symphony, Orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Mozarteum Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Osaka Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, and the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Jesus Lopez Cobos, Ivan Fischer, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Hans Graf, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Christoph König, Fabio Luisi, Juanjo Mena, Ludovic Morlot, Kent Nagano, Jonathan Nott, and Stefan Sanderling.

BELCEA QUARTET and TILL FELLNER, piano

Corina Belcea-Fisher, violin

Axel Schacher, violin

Krzysztof Chorzelski, viola

Antoine Lederlin, cello

Beethoven

Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131

Brahms

Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34

Established in 1994, the Belcea Quartet is now established as one of the leading quartets in the world. They consistently receive critical acclaim for their performances and possess an impressive and wide-ranging discography. Their most recent release, a double disc of the late Schubert Quartets and the String Quintet with Valentin Erben for EMI, was nominated for a Gramophone Award.

The Belcea Quartet won the Gramophone Award for best debut recording in 2001. Their discography for EMI includes Brahms’ String Quartet Op. 51 No.1 and second String Quintet with Thomas Kakuska; Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson with Ian Bostridge; Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Thomas Adès and Corin Long; a double disc of Britten’s string quartets, which won a MIDEM Cannes Award; Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ and ‘Hoffmeister’ quartets; and the complete Bartók quartets, for which the Quartet was awarded the title Chamber Music Ensemble of the Year by Germany's prestigious Echo Klassik Awards and nominated for a 2008 Gramophone Award.

Austrian pianist Till Fellner’s international career was launched in 1993 when he won First Prize at the renowned Clara Haskil Competition in Vevey, Switzerland. Over a period of more than two decades, he has become a sought-after guest with many of the world’s most important orchestras and at the major music centres of Europe, USA and Japan, as well as numerous festivals. In the past few years he has dedicated himself to two milestones of the piano repertoire: the forty-eight preludes and fugues that comprise the Well-Tempered Clavier of Johann Sebastian Bach and the thirty-two piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Till Fellner has also collaborated with Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, among many others. The Belcea Quartet has invited him to celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2015 with performances of Brahms’ piano quintet in major cities throughout Europe and a subsequent recording.

ISABELLE FAUST, violin, and ALEXANDER MELNIKOV, piano

Schumann-Brahms-Dietrich

The F-A-E Sonata (1853)

Brahms

Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78

Brahms

Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100

Brahms

Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

Isabelle Faust is one of Europe's most distinguished violinists, a prodigious talent who has won five-star reviews for her concert performances and recordings alike. Faust captivates her listeners through her insightful and faithful interpretations, based on a thorough knowledge of the historical context of the works as well as her attention to current scholarship. After winning the prestigious Leopold Mozart and Paganini competitions early in her career, she was soon invited to appear with the world's leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo. She continues to be one of the most sought-after violinists in the world, having worked with renowned conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Mariss Jansons, Giovanni Antonini, Philippe Herreweghe, Daniel Harding and Bernard Haitink.

Her recording of the Beethoven and Berg violin concertos with the late Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart received a Diapason d'or'(France), Echo Klassik (Germany), Gramophone Award 2012 (UK) and the Record Academy Award (Japan). Faust has made over a dozen critically-acclaimed recordings for Harmonia Mundi, spanning concertos, quartets, quintets and solo recitals. I n 2010, her recording of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin was awarded a Diapason d'Or de l'Annee. She also won a Diapason d'Or and a Gramophone Award for her recording of Beethoven's Sonatas for Piano and Violin with recital partner Alexander Melnikov.

Alexander Melnikov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Naumov. His most formative musical moments in Moscow include his early encounter with Svjatoslav Richter, who thereafter regularly invited him to festivals in Russia and France. As a soloist, Melnikov has performed with orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philadelphia Orchestra, NDR Sinfonieorchester, HR-Sinfonieorchester, Russian National Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and the NHK Symphony, under conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Teodor Currentzis, Charles Dutoit, Paavo Järvi, Philippe Herreweghe and Valery Gergiev. His recording of the complete Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Award, Choc de classica and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and was also named by the BBC Music Magazine as one of the '50 Greatest Recordings of All Time'.

LA VENEXIANA, directed by CLAUDIO CAVINA, in Trinity College Chapel

MONTEVERDI AND THE ART OF THE MADRIGAL

Monica Piccinini, soprano

Francesca Cassinari, soprano

Claudio Cavina, alto and harpsichord

Raffaele Giordani, tenor

Salvo Vitale, bass

Gabriele Palomba, theorbo

TICKETS FOR THIS CONCERT ARE NOW ON SALE

Monteverdi

‘Ohimè il Bel Viso’ (Libro VI, 1614)

Monteverdi

‘O Come Sei Gentile’ (Libro VII, 1619)

Monteverdi

‘Lamento di Arianna’ (Libro VI, 1614)

Monteverdi

‘Gira il Nemico Insidioso’ (Libro VIII, 1638)

Monteverdi

‘Batto, Qui Pianse Ergasto’ (Libro VI, 1614)

Monteverdi

Romanesca: ‘Ohimè dov’è il Mio Ben’ (Libro VII, 1619)

Monteverdi

‘Lamento Della Ninfa in Genere Rappresentativo’ (Libro VIII, 1638)

Monteverdi

‘Addio Florida Bella’ (Libro VI, 1614)

Monteverdi

‘Misero Alceo’ (Libro VI, 1614)

Monteverdi

‘Non è di Gentil Core’ (Libro VII, 1619)

Monteverdi

‘Parlo Miser, O Taccio’ (Libro VII, 1619)

Monteverdi

'T’amo Mia Vita’ (Libro V, 1609)

Monteverdi

‘Zefiro Torna’ (Libro VI, 1614)

Please note the special prices for the concert by La Venexiana in Trinity College Chapel on Tuesday 5 May 2015:

Band A: £25 (Concessions £19), Chapel Premium (first half of the stalls, closest to the stage)

Band B: £20 (Concessions £15), Chapel (second half of the stalls)

Please also note that all seats are in the Chapel proper and with a view of the stage; no seats are located in the Antechapel, or have a view obscured by the organ screen.

La Venexiana has established a new style in Italian early music performance: a warm, truly Mediterranean blend of textual declamation, rhetorical colour and harmonic refinement, in marked contrast to the English choral tradition. Founded by the countertenor Claudio Cavina, they take their name from the anonymous comedy La Venexiana (‘The Venetian Girl’) of c.1537. They aim to incorporate the theatrically, attention to language, and exultation of contrasts between refined and popular, sacred and profane, which abound not only in this comedy, but in the madrigal repertoire of Sigismondo d'India, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Luca Marenzio, Barbara Strozzi, Gesualdo da Venosa and Claudio Monteverdi.

Acclaimed for their interpretations madrigals and opera alike, they have been the recipients of the Cannes Classical Award, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, BBC Classical Music Award Gramophone Award (in both 2001 and 2008) and Gramophone's Editor Choice.

'In their Monteverdi Editions, La Venexiana bring a dramatic delivery of the words and a uniquely Italian blend of solo voices to this glorious music, unrivalled on disc.' The Sunday Times

''The performances crackle with theatricality, the ensemble playing is first rate and the singing...is outstanding.' The Guardian

TAKÁCS QUARTET

Schubert

Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703

Debussy

Quartet in G minor, Op. 10

Beethoven

Quartet in F, Op 59. No. 1 ‘Razumovsky’

Student tickets go on sale on Monday 1 December 2014

Recognised as one of the world's great ensembles, the Takács Quartet plays with a unique blend of drama, warmth and humour, combining four distinct musical personalities to bring fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire. The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics' Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The quartet's award-winning recordings include the complete Beethoven Cycle on the Decca label. In 2005 the Late Beethoven Quartets won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award, Album of the Year at the Brit Awards and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of the early and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, another Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy. In 2012, Gramophone announced that the Takács was the only string quartet to be inducted into its first Hall of Fame, along with such legendary artists as Jascha Heifetz, Leonard Bernstein and Dame Janet Baker.

RAFAŁ BLECHACZ, piano

Mozart

Sonata in D, K. 311

Beethoven

Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, ‘Pathétique’

Chopin

Trois Valses, Op. 64

Chopin

Trois Mazurkas, Op. 56

Chopin

Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44

Student tickets for this concert are now on sale (see below for the link)

In October 2005, Rafał Blechacz emerged as the unquestionable winner of the 15th Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland (to underscore his distinguished performance among the remaining Competition participants, the international jury decided not to award the 2nd prize). All the special prizes of the Competition went to him as well: Polish Radio Prize for the best performance of the mazurkas, Frédéric Chopin Society Prize for the best performance of the polonaise, National Philharmonic of Poland Prize for the best performance of the concerto, and the Krystian Zimerman Prize for the best performance of the sonata. He also won the Audience Award.

Born in 1985 in Nakło nad Notecią, Bydgoszcz province, Poland, Blechacz began his piano lessons at the age of five. He continued his piano education at the Artur Rubinstein State School of Music in Bydgoszcz.

The victory of 2005 in Warsaw opened for him the doors of the world’s most renowned concert halls such as, the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Berliner Philharmonie, Herkulessaal in Munich, Alte Oper in Frankfurt-am-Main, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Tonhalle in Zurich, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, La Scala in Milan, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, just to name a few.

He performed with the best symphonic orchestras under the direction of such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Pavo Järvi, Fabio Luisi, Kent Nagono, Andris Nelsons, Viktor Pablo Perez, Trevor Pinnock, Mikhail Pletnev, Jerzy Semkow, John Storgards, Antoni Wit, and David Zinman.

In May 2006 he was invited to sign an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon becoming the second only Polish artist, after Krystian Zimerman, who had enlisted under this prestigious classical music label.