Inon Barnatan Plays Rachmaninov in Pittsburgh and Tel Aviv, Tours with Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Opens New Venue in La Jolla this Winter and Spring

Inon Barnatan – “a true poet of the keyboard, refined, searching [and] unfailingly communicative” (London’s Evening Standard) – looks forward to key engagements on three continents this winter and spring. He plays Rachmaninov with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Chinese conductor Long Yu and with frequent collaborator Alan Gilbert and the Israel Philharmonic in Tel Aviv; plays Mozart with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in three U.S. cities, culminating at New York’s Alice Tully Hall; and along with the San Diego Symphony String Quartet opens the new venue The Conrad in La Jolla, California. He plays three more U.S. cities with the Calidore String Quartet, ending with a concert at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater; tours both in Europe and the U.S. with his longstanding collaborator, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, joined by violinist Sergey Khachatryan and percussionist Colin Currie; and returns to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Amongst all those engagements he finds time to play Beethoven with Gilbert and the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Schumann with Osmo Vänskä leading Miami’s New World Symphony, and Mozart with Northern Ireland’s Ulster Orchestra under Rafael Payare. It has also just been announced that Barnatan will be honored this season by New York’s WQXR as part of “19 for 19,” which it describes as “a group of artists we love that includes long-time heroes, established favorites and newcomers set for stardom.” The pianist performs at The Greene Space in Manhattan on January 31 to celebrate the launch of the initiative, which will involve collaborations across all WQXR’s platforms throughout the year.

Both Barnatan and Chinese conductor Long Yu make their debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony in January, performing Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto. The pianist’s Rachmaninov performances have earned him consistent critical praise, and after hearing him perform the first concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra in the spring of 2016, Minnesota’s Pioneer Press named the concert “best of season,” and found that while the pianist was more than a match for the “flamboyance and spectacle” of the piece, “he never pushed the schmaltz meter into the red, as he found welcome gentleness in the slow movement – engaging in heartfelt dialogues with the winds – and bubbling delicately on the flowing finale.”

Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto is the vehicle for Barnatan’s performance in February with Alan Gilbert leading the Israel Philharmonic. This follows the pianist’s triumphant rendition of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto under Gilbert last fall at the conductor’s new post in Hamburg with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. Indeed, Barnatan has already performed all five of the Beethoven concertos this season, recently recorded the entire cycle with Gilbert and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, performs the Fourth under Gilbert’s baton once again in March with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, and plays the Third the same month with Tennessee’s internationally lauded Iris Orchestra. When he played the Third Concerto for his Baltimore Symphony debut under Vasily Petrenko in 2016, the Washington Post declared that the “brilliant” performance “surpassed all expectations,” and “the poignant solos brought tears to the eyes because they were so tenderly wrought.”

Another Classical master also plays a big part in Barnatan’s upcoming schedule: he joins the Australian Chamber Orchestra for renditions of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 on a three-city tour of the U.S., culminating at New York’s Alice Tully Hall in April. The Washington Post praises the ACO as having “the energy and vibe of a rock band with the ability of a crack classical chamber group,” and the UK’s Guardian calls the orchestra “one of the wonders of the musical world.” Later in the spring Barnatan plays Mozart’s Concerto No. 20 in Northern Ireland, with Rafael Payare leading his Ulster Orchestra for their season finale concert.

The versatile Barnatan has long been in great demand as a chamber musician, and is a perennial favorite at the three-week La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, where he was recently appointed as the new Music Director, a post he takes up this coming summer. By way of a preview, he goes to La Jolla in April to perform in the inaugural concerts of The Conrad, the new performance hall built to be the festival’s primary venue, joined by the San Diego Symphony String Quartet and others.

More chamber music rounds out Barnatan’s busy winter and spring schedule. He joins the Calidore Quartet in January for a three-stop U.S. tour to Alabama, Ohio and San Francisco’s Herbst Theater of an all-Bach program, playing four keyboard concertos. In April he plays a varied program of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Tchaikovsky with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

Finally, the pianist plays two sets of concerts in February and May with his longstanding collaborator, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, joined by Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan and Scottish percussionist Colin Currie. The first set starts at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw before crossing the channel and culminating at London’s Wigmore Hall. The second comprises four stops in the U.S.: Chicago’s Harris Theater, the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk, Kansas City’s Folly Theater, and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Exploring the concept of transformation, the program is titled “Transfigured Night,” after Schoenberg’s early and atmospheric piece Verklärte Nacht, which will be heard in Edward Steuermann’s piano trio setting. Beethoven’s “Ghost” Trio, Rolf Wallin’s solo marimba piece Realismos mágicos, and a trio and percussion version of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 are also on the program, and the arranger for the Shostakovich is famed Russian pianist and pedagogue Victor Derevianko, one of Barnatan’s earliest teachers.

High-resolution photos can be downloaded here.

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Inon Barnatan: winter/spring 2019 engagements

Jan 18
Huntsville, AL
Huntsville Chamber Music Guild
Recital

Jan 19-29
Tour with Calidore String Quartet
ALL-BACH PROGRAM
Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052
Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058
Concerto No. 4 in A, BWV 1055
Concerto No. 5 in F minor, BWV 1056
Jan 19: Huntsville, AL (Huntsville Chamber Music Guild)
Jan 22: Akron, OH (Tuesday Musical Association)
Jan 29: San Francisco, CA (Herbst Theatre)

Jan 25-27
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra / Long Yu
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 1

Jan 26
Pittsburgh, PA
Heinz Hall
“Keyboard Masters” with Inon Barnatan 

Jan 31
New York, NY
Greene Space
Launch event for WQXR’s “19 for 19” 

Feb 8-11
Transfigured Night European tour
With Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Sergey Khachatryan, violin; Colin Currie, percussion
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in D, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”
ROLF WALLIN: Realismos mágicos for Solo Marimba
SCHOENBERG: Verklärte Nacht for Piano Trio (trans. Steuermann)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 15 for Piano Trio and Percussion (trans. Derevianko)
Feb 8: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Muziekgebouw)
Feb 9: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Feb 11: London, England (Wigmore Hall)

Feb 17, 19, 21
Tel Aviv, Israel
Israel Philharmonic / Alan Gilbert
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 2 

March 8
Miami Beach, FL
New World Symphony
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto

March 16
Memphis, TN
Iris Orchestra
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3

March 30, 31
Zurich, Switzerland
Tonhalle Orchester Zurich
Alan Gilbert, conductor
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, op. 58 

April 7
Blacksburg, VA
Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti, director and violin
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K. 414 

April 9
New York, NY
Alice Tully Hall
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti, director and violin
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K. 414 

April 11
La Jolla, CA
The Conrad
San Diego Symphony String Quartet
RAVEL: Le tombeau de Couperin (arr. for wind quintet)
RAVEL: La valse (piano solo)
DVOŘÁK: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81 

April 14
Carmel, IN
The Palladium
The Center for the Performing Arts
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti, director and violin
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K. 414

April 28
New York, NY
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Cho-Liang Lin, violin
Paul Neubauer, viola
Jakob Koranyi, cello
Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet
MENDELSSOHN: Lied ohne Worte in D for Cello and Piano, Op. 109 (1845)
SCHUMANN: Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tales) for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Op. 132 (1853)
BRAHMS: Sonata in E-flat major for Viola and Piano, Op. 120, No. 2 (1894)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Selections from Les saisons for Piano, Op. 37b (1875-76)
MENDELSSOHN: Trio No. 2 in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 66 (1845) 

May 6-10
Transfigured Night U.S. tour
With Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Sergey Khachatryan, violin; Colin Currie, percussion
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in D, Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”
ROLF WALLIN: Realismos mágicos for Solo Marimba
SCHOENBERG: Verklärte Nacht for Piano Trio (trans. Steuermann)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 15 for Piano Trio and Percussion (trans. Derevianko)
May 6: Chicago, IL (Harris Theater)
May 8: Norfolk, VA (Virginia Arts Festival)
May 9: Washington, DC (Kennedy Center)
May 10: Kansas City, MO (Folly Theater)

May 24
Ulster, N. Ireland
Ulster Orchestra
Rafael Payare, conductor
Season Finale
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20

 

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© 21C Media Group, January 2019