Alessio Bax in 2013-14: Dallas Symphony, Lincoln Center recital, new CD, and more

This season, Alessio Bax – First Prize-winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu international piano competitions – looks forward to orchestral collaborations on three continents, a wealth of solo and chamber recitals, and the release of a new album. Having previously impressed the Dallas Morning News as “one of the most compelling pianists around,” and in his fourth appearance with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra led by Jaap van Zweden, Bax is soloist in Barber’s Piano Concerto, and makes his Los Angeles debut playing Mozart with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Hans Graf. Additional highlights in 2013-14 include Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov with the Berkeley Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and orchestras in Finland, Mexico, and Japan, as well as Beethoven on an English tour with London’s Southbank Sinfonia. In addition to solo appearances in Dallas and Tokyo, and on the heels of his five-country South American recital tour with Joshua Bell, he returns to Lincoln Center for Chamber Music Society concerts that include a solo recital of Beethoven and Mussorgsky as part of a new series in the Rose Studio, and a Great Performers duo recital with his wife, pianist Lucille Chung. The two also perform together in Washington DC, Hong Kong, Dallas, and Canada, as on their upcoming duo album, Bax & Chung, due for release in November from Signum Classics.
 
Concertos with Dallas Symphony, L.A. Chamber Orchestra, and more
Bax reunites with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden for three performances of Barber’s Piano Concerto, winner of the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Music (Sep 26-29). It was with the same concerto that the pianist made his Grant Park Music Festival debut this past summer under conductor Eugene Tzigane, and according to the Chicago Tribune’s John von Rhein:
 
“Bax had the measure of this knuckle-busting virtuoso piece. His winning account combined youthful bravura in the outer movements with an innate feel for the ebb and flow of melody in the central Canzone…, and the torrent of pianistic energy he unleashed in the explosive, toccata-like finale kicked up tremendous excitement. Let’s have him back.
“Barber’s tricky rhythmic interplay between piano and orchestra makes this score the very devil to coordinate properly. But under Tzigane’s firm, decisive leadership the orchestra came very close to matching Bax’s rhythmic acuity and propulsive drive. No wonder the pavilion audience [of 12,000] gave the performers a roaring, standing O.”
 
The pianist also looks forward to making his Los Angeles debut as soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Hans Graf, whom he joins for two renditions of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 (Nov 16-17). This concerto is one of a pair that Bax recorded for his 2013 Signum Classics release, Alessio Bax plays Mozart. Classic FM named the disc its “Connoisseur’s Choice,” and, as Audiophile Audition recognized, it helped consolidate the pianist’s reputation as “a performer of gossamer brilliance.” Support on Alessio Bax plays Mozart is provided by the Southbank Sinfonia and music director Simon Over; Bax rejoins Over and the orchestra for three performances of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto on tour in England this winter (Jan 30–Feb 2).
 
Harking back to his previous Signum Classics release, Alessio Bax plays Brahms – a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice” that proved him “an ideal Brahmsian” (Fanfare), Bax undertakes Brahms’s First Piano Concerto in dates with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra (May 20), the South Carolina Philharmonic (Jan 11), and Finland’s Tampere Philharmonic under Hannu Lintu, with whom he launches the new season (Sep 19). With another Finnish orchestra, the Kuopio Symphony, he turns to the great German composer’s Second Piano Concerto later in the fall (Nov 28).
 
The pianist’s busy orchestral line-up also includes performances of three Russian master works. Recognized for his “impassioned, world-class Rachmaninov” (Classics Today), Bax plays the composer’s Second Piano Concerto with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra led by Joana Carneiro (Oct 3) and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Japan’s Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra under Kazuyoshi Akiyama (March 14). And for dates in North Dakota (March 1) and Mexico (Feb 13), he plays Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.
 
Solo recitals at Lincoln Center and more
Bax, recipient of Lincoln Center’s 2013 Martin E. Segal Award, plays both solo piano and chamber music on his home turf under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) this season. His solo performances at New York’s Alice Tully Hall include Liszt’s “Dante” Sonata (Nov 24) and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, Op. 110 (Feb 7), as well as a new CMS recital series in the Rose Studio, where Bax couples Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (March 27). These two monumental works also serve as the vehicle for his upcoming recitals in Maine (March 21), Dallas (March 23), and the Music@Menlo series in Palo Alto, CA (May 11). After one of Bax’s appearances with CMS at Alice Tully Hall last season, the New York Times reviewer Steve Smith observed: “Alessio Bax started the concert alone with as satisfying an account of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp (“Moonlight”) as I have heard recently.” In January, Bax will record an all-Beethoven disc for Signum Classics, and his performance of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata for maestro Daniel Barenboim in the PBS-TV documentary Barenboim on Beethoven: Masterclasses is available as a DVD box set on the EMI label.
 
Chamber engagements, including new Signum Classics CD, and duo recitals with Lucille Chung
Bax is equally celebrated for his duo performances with his wife and fellow pianist, Lucille Chung. The UK’s Music and Arts magazine reports that “theirs is a marriage of wondrous colors and dextrous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one,” while, as Musical Toronto recently noted, they share “not just a remarkable technique, but an uncanny way of staying in perfect lock-step with each other.” November 19 brings the release of their new dance-themed Signum Classics album, featuring Stravinsky’s original four-hand version of Pétrouchka (the complete ballet) alongside Brahms Waltzes, Op. 39, and a selection of Piazzolla tangos in Bax and Chung’s own original arrangements. These same works figure prominently in the duo’s performing schedule this season, which takes them to Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series (Dec 15); Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC (March 9-10); Hong Kong’s Premiere Performances series (Nov 5); Dallas (Sep 22); and on a four-city Canadian tour (Oct 17-20). The couple also graces Salon de Virtuosi’s special celebration concert at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall (May 7), and plays double concertos by Mozart and Poulenc in a season-closing concert with the Plano Symphony Orchestra (April 5).
 
On Friday, September 20, Bax and Chung may be heard in performance and in conversation with host Fred Child on American Public Media’s nationally syndicated radio program Performance Today. A YouTube video from the session, featuring the couple’s unique take on Piazzolla’s Libertango, may be viewed here.
 
Recipient of the 2013 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, Bax has just returned from a five-country recital tour in South America’s premier venues with violinist Joshua Bell, including two sold out concerts at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. A reviewer for El País hailed their concert in Montevideo as a “memorable union of two ‘poets’ ”:
 
“We dare say this was the best concert of the season, it will be very difficult to surpass the musical quality of these two magnificent musicians. … Alessio Bax was the revelation of the night. His never-ending variety of colors and accents, always used in the most refined and eloquent way, are not born from a desire to show off, but the result of a truly knowledgeable command of the pianistic language and of a musical versatility that brings the expressive idiom of each composer to an intimate level. The excellent command of pedaling, the velvety touch, a sonority spanning all levels of intensity and brightness without any need to bang the keyboard, all attest to the prodigy of his art. It was undeniably a memorable concert. Bax deserves to be called ‘The Poet of the Piano’ in the way that Joshua Bell is ‘The Poet of the Violin’. Hopefully these two excellent artists will be back very soon.” 
Bax looks forward to a variety of additional chamber collaborations this season. He performs with Stefan Jackiw and Paul Watkins in Wichita Falls, TX (Oct 24); appears with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at home and on tour, including Boston’s Gardner Museum (Nov 22-24; Feb 7-9); plays piano trios with Elmar Oliveira and Jan Vogler in Seoul (Dec 8-9) and with David Finckel and Wu Han in Tokyo (Jan 7); appears at the Schubert Club in St. Paul, MN (Feb 17), and in Ridgewood, NJ (March 30); and gives a trio of chamber concerts presented by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (April 28; May 3, 6, & 10). He also partners violinist Chee-Yun in Maryland (May 18) and Dallas (May 3), where they previously struck the Dallas Morning News as “two musicians at the top of their games, responding vividly to the music and to each other.”
 
A masterclass at New York University (March 6) and educational residencies at Tokyo’s Kunitachi College (Oct 6-14) and Dallas’s Southern Methodist University (Oct 25-28) round out the versatile pianist’s full and varied season. A complete list of his upcoming engagements follows, and additional information may be found at his web site: alessiobax.com.
 
 
Alessio Bax: 2013-14 engagements
 
Sep 19
Tampere, Finland
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra / Hannu Lintu
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1
 
Sep 20
American Public Media’s “Performance Today”
Studio session with Lucille Chung, hosted by Fred Child
 
Sep 22
Dallas, TX
Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University
Recital with Lucille Chung
 
Sep 26, 27, 29
Dallas, TX
Dallas Symphony Orchestra / Jaap van Zweden
Barber: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
 
Oct 3
Berkeley, CA
Berkeley Symphony Orchestra / Joana Carneiro
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2
 
Oct 6-14
Tokyo, Japan
Kunitachi College
Residency
 
Oct 17
Toronto, ON
Women’s Musical Club
Recital with Lucille Chung
 
Oct 18
Perth, ON
Recital with Lucille Chung
 
Oct 19
Ottawa, ON
Ottawa Chamberfest
National Gallery
Recital with Lucille Chung
 
Oct 20
Prévost, QC
Recital with Lucille Chung
 
Oct 24
Wichita Falls, TX
Chamber Music Concert with Stefan Jackiw, violin, and Paul Watkins, cello
 
Oct 25-28
Dallas, TX
Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University
Teaching Project
 
Nov 3
Hong Kong
Premiere Performances
Family Concert with Lucille Chung, Foggy Sound Garden Shadow Puppet Theatre
 
Nov 5
Hong Kong
Premiere Performances
City Hall
Recital with Lucille Chung
 
Nov 16
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra / Hans Graf
Alex Theatre
Mozart: Piano Concerto KV 491
Nov 17
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra / Hans Graf
Royce Hall
Mozart: Concerto KV 491
 
Nov 22
Fairfield, CT
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Brahms: Schumann Variations (with Soyeon Lee, piano)
Liszt: Dante Sonata
 
Nov 24
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall
Brahms: Schumann Variations (with Soyeon Lee, piano)
Liszt: “Dante” Sonata
 
Nov 28
Kuopio, Finland
Kuopio Symphony Orchestra / Pietro Rizzo
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat
 
Dec 8-9
Seoul, Korea
Chamber Music Today
Tchaikovsky: Andante Cantabile from String Quartet No. 1; Davidoff: At the Fountain, Op. 2; Arensky: Trio No. 1; Rachmaninov: Trio in D minor
With Elmar Oliveira, violin and Jan Vogler, cello
 
Dec 15
New York, NY
Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series
Walter Reade Theater
Stravinsky: original four-hand version of Pétrouchka
Brahms: Waltzes, Op. 39
Piazzolla: Tangos
With Lucille Chung, piano
 
Jan 7
Tokyo, Japan
Private Chamber Music Concert
With David Finckel, cello and Wu Han, piano
 
Jan 11
Columbia, SC
South Carolina Symphony / Morihiko Nakahara
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor
 
Jan 30
London, UK
Southbank Sinfonia / Simon Over
St. John’s Waterloo
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
 
Feb 1
Kingston, UK
Southbank Sinfonia / Simon Over
Rose Theatre
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
 
Feb 2
Marlborough, UK
Southbank Sinfonia / Simon Over
Marlborough College
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
 
Feb 7
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall
Beethoven: Sonata Op. 110
Schubert: Sonata “Arpeggione” (with Andreas Brantelid, cello)
 
Feb 9
Boston, MA
Gardner Museum
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on Tour
 
Feb 13
Monterrey, Mexico
Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Leon / Jesús Medina
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
 
Feb 17
St. Paul, MN; Schubert Club
Accordo Series with Steven Copes, etc.
Beethoven: “Archduke” Trio
Taneyev: Piano Quintet
 
March 1
Minot, ND
Minot Symphony Orchestra / Scott Seaton
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
 
March 6
New York, NY
New York University
Masterclass
 
March 9-10
Washington, DC
Dumbarton Oaks
Recital with Lucille Chung
Stravinsky: original four-hand version of Pétrouchka
 
March 14
Hiroshima, Japan
Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra / Kazuyoshi Akiyama
Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
 
March 21
Orono, ME
University of Maine
Beethoven: “Hammerklavier” Sonata
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
 
March 23
Dallas, TX
Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University
Beethoven: “Hammerklavier” Sonata
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
 
March 27
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Solo Recital
Rose Studio
Beethoven: “Hammerklavier” Sonata
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
 
March 30
Ridgewood, NJ
Parlance Chamber Concerts
Ravel: Tzigane for violin & piano
Mendelssohn: Sonata No. 2 in D, Op. 58 for cello & piano
Brahms / Cziffra / Bax: Hungarian Dance No. 5 for solo piano
Arensky: Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32 for violin, cello, and piano
With Arnaud Sussmann, violin, and Nicholas Canellakis, cello
 
April 5
Plano, TX
Plano Symphony Orchestra / Hector Guzman
Mozart: Double Concerto
Poulenc: Double Concerto
With Lucille Chung, piano
 
April 28
Dallas, TX
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Chamber Concert
City Performance Hall
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 8 and 3
Haydn: Gypsy Trio
With Nathan Olson, violin, and Christopher Adkins, cello
 
May 3
Dallas, TX
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Chamber Concert
City Performance Hall
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 and 6
Haydn: Andante e Variazioni in F minor
With Chee-Yun, violin
 
May 6
Dallas, TX
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Chamber Concert
City Performance Hall
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 4 and 10
Schubert: Notturno
With Nathan Olson, violin, and Christopher Adkins, cello
 
May 7
New York, NY
Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
Birthday Celebration Concert for Charlotte White, Salon de Virtuosi
With Lucille Chung, piano
 
May 10
Dallas, TX
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Chamber Concert
City Performance Hall
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 7 & 9
With Alexander Kerr and Nathan Olson, violins
 
May 11
Palo Alto, CA
Music@Menlo Winter Series
Recital
Beethoven: “Hammerklavier” Sonata
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
 
May 18
Rockville, MD
Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington
Recital with Chee-Yun, violin
 
May 20
Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra / Heiichiro Ohyama
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor
 
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© 21C Media Group, September 2013