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

ARCADI VOLODOS, piano

* This concert has been postponed to a future date, as a result of the Government's restrictions imposed to control the Covid-19 pandemic. Further information will be available later in the season.

Liszt

Sonetto del Petrarca No. 123 in A-flat, S. 161, No. 6

Liszt

La lugubre gondola, S. 200, No. 2

Liszt

St. François d'Assise: la prédication aux oiseaux, S. 175, No. 1

Liszt

Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S. 171

Schumann

'Marsch' and 'Abendmusik' from Bunte Blätter, Op. 99

Schumann

Humoreske in B-flat, Op. 20

Born in St Petersburg in 1972, Arcadi Volodos is amongst the most sought-after pianists of our day. Since making his New York debut in 1996, Volodos has performed throughout the world in recital and with the most eminent orchestras and conductors. Since his Gramophone Award-winning debut recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall, released by Sony Classical in 1999, Arcadi Volodos has recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums. These include revelatory interpretations of Schubert sonatas and Rachmaninov solo pieces, and live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, conducted by James Levine, and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. His Vienna Musikverein recital from 2010 was released on CD and DVD to rapturous international critical acclaim. Volodos Plays Brahms, released in April 2017 – an album of thirteen piano pieces by Johannes Brahms, including Opus 117 and 118 and a selection of Op. 76 – was immediately considered a landmark on the music scene, and has since been awarded the Edison Classical Award and the Diapason d’Or.

He has worked with, among others, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the New York Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre de Paris, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, collaborating with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, , Paavo Järvi, Christoph Eschenbach, Semyon Bychkov and Riccardo Chailly.

Piano recitals have played a central role in Volodos’s artistic life since he began his career. His repertoire includes major works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev and Ravel together with less often performed pieces by Mompou and de Falla. Volodos is a regular guest of the most prestigious concert halls of Europe and appears regularly in Berlin, Vienna, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Zurich, Brussels, Munich as well as at the Klavierfestival Ruhr, the Festival La Roque d’Anthéron and the Salzburg Festival.

GAUTIER CAPUÇON, cello, & JÉRÔME DUCROS, piano

Chopin

Introduction & Polonaise brillante in C, Op. 3

Chopin

Sonata in G minor, Op. 65

Franck

Sonata in A, FWV 8

Gautier Capuçon is one of the most celebrated cellists performing today. Acclaimed internationally for his expressive musicianship, exuberant virtuosity, and for the deep sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello, Capuçon performs regularly with the leading conductors and orchestras, including the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin, Vienna, Los Angeles and New York, and the symphony orchestras of Chicago, San Francisco and London. He regularly works with conductors such as Lionel Bringuier, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Valery Gergiev, Andris Nelsons, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. As a chamber musician, he performs annually in the major halls and festivals with partners such as Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Frank Braley, Renaud Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Artemis and Ébène Quartets.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography. His recordings include concertos by Shostakovich (Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev) and Saint-Saëns (Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France and Lionel Bringuier), the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley, and Schubert's String Quintet with the Ébène Quartet. His disk of Schumann works with Bernard Haitink, Martha Argerich and Renaud Capuçon was released in January 2019 to great critical acclaim.

Jérôme Ducros was born in Avignon in 1974 and began to study music at the age of six. As a soloist he appears with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lyons and the Paris and Lausanne Chamber Orchestras. He performs chamber music with Augustin Dumay, Michel Dalberto, Tabea Zimmermann, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Jerome Pernoo, Renaud Capuçon and Gautier Capuçon; and he regularly tours with the vocalists Diana Damrau, Angelika Kirchschlager, Ian Bostridge, Stéphanie d'Oustrac and Philippe Jaroussky. Has performed the world premieres of works by Henri Dutilleux, Philippe Leroux, Pierre Boulez and many other leading composers.

Jérôme Ducros has also achieved international success as a composer. His works include pieces for cello and piano, a piano trio, a trio for two cellos and piano, a piano quintet, song cycles and a concerto for piano and cello.

PAVEL HAAS QUARTET & BORIS GILTBURG, piano

Veronika Jarůšková, violin

Marek Zwiebel, violin

Jiří Kabát, viola

Peter Jarůšek, cello

(Photo credit: Marco Borggreve)

Shostakovich

Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57

Dvorák

Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81

Following their victory in the Prague Spring Festival Competition and Premio Paolo Borciani in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 2005, the Pavel Haas Quartet soon established themselves as one of the world’s most exciting contemporary chamber ensembles. Performing at the most renowned concert venues around the globe, the Pavel Haas Quartet has to date recorded six critically acclaimed CDs, which have received numerous prestigious awards.

In 2007, the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) named the Pavel Haas Quartet one of its Rising Stars, following which they were afforded the opportunity to give numerous high-profile concert appearances all over the world. Between 2007 and 2009, the Pavel Haas Quartet held the title of BBC New Generation Artist. In 2010, the ensemble was granted a classical music fellowship from the Borletti–Buitoni Trust. Recent highlights have included concerts at the Rudolfinum Hall in Prague as artist-in-residence of the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, performances at Edinburgh International, Schubertiade and East Neuk Festivals as well as at the Wigmore Hall, Paris Théâtre de la Ville, Brussels Bozar, Munich Herkulessaal, Rotterdam De Doelen, Florence Teatro della Pergola, Essen Philharmonie Essen, as well as tours of the US and Canada.

‘Truly exceptional … the range of Boris Giltburg’s playing - from colour to pacing to emotional shading and sheer heady propulsion - makes for compulsive listening’, declared the BBC Music Magazine. The Moscow-born, Israeli pianist is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter. Critics have praised his ‘singing line, variety of touch and broad dynamic palette capable of great surges of energy’ (The Washington Post) as well as his impassioned, narrative-driven approach to performance: ‘the interplay of spiritual calm and emphatic engagement is gripping, and one could not wish for a more illuminating, lyrical or more richly phrased interpretation’ (Suddeutsche Zeitung). At home in repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Shostakovich, in recent years he has been increasingly recognized as a leading interpreter of Rachmaninov: ‘His originality stems from a convergence of heart and mind, served by immaculate technique and motivated by a deep and abiding love for one of the 20th century’s greatest composer-pianists.’ (The Gramophone).

QUATUOR ÉBÈNE - Beethoven 250th (1770-2020)

Pierre Colombet, violin

Gabriel Le Magadure, violin

Marie Chilemme, viola

Raphaël Merlin, cello

Beethoven

Quartet in D, Op. 18, No. 3

Beethoven

Quartet in A minor, Op. 132

Founded in Paris in 1999, the Quatuor Ébène has established itself as one the most innovative and adventurous of all quartets performing in the major concert halls of the world. With their charismatic playing, their fresh approach to tradition and their open-mindedness with new forms, the musicians have won a string of major prizes and regularly receive five-star reviews for their concerts.

In 2005, the ensemble won the Belmont Prize of the Forberg-Schneider Foundation, and since then, the Foundation has worked with the musicians to make it possible for them to play priceless instruments from private collections. Awards for their recordings include the ECHO Klassik Prize, the BBC Music Magazine Award and the Midem Classic Award. Recent projects have included, in autumn 2014, the 90th birthday concert in Paris for Menachem Pressler (who performed for Camerata Musica in October 2011). In 2015 and 2016 the quartet focused on the genre of the song, collaborating with Philippe Jaroussky for the CD Mélodies françaises, which won the BBC Music Magazine Award in 2016, and they have also released a Schubert CD with Matthias Goerne (who performed for Camerata Musica in April 2018). The quartet has also released a critically acclaimed recording of the great Schubert Quintet in C with Gautier Capuçon (who also performs to Camerata Musica, later in this season).

In 2020, the Quatuor Ébène will be presenting the entire cycle of the Beethoven quartets to mark their own 20th anniversary and the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1770.