Inon Barnatan Releases Beethoven Concerto Cycle, Performs with Chicago and Cincinnati Symphonies and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Tours Europe and the U.S. with Alisa Weilerstein in 2019-20

Pianist Inon Barnatan – honored as one of WQXR’s “19 for 19” influential musicians to watch this year and a longtime critical favorite in the works of Beethoven – pays homage to the revolutionary Classical master this season in honor of the 250th anniversary of his birth. With frequent collaborator Alan Gilbert conducting London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, he releases a complete cycle of Beethoven concertos on the Pentatone label in two volumes, one in the fall and one in the spring. He joins Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony for a recreation of Beethoven’s legendary 1808 concert, performing both the Choral Fantasy and Fourth Piano Concerto, which he also plays this season with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Tokyo Symphony. With his recital partner, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and violinist Guy Braunstein he plays Beethoven’s triple concerto twice, first with the Dresden Philharmonic and then with the Barcelona Symphony. Also with Weilerstein, he tours a program of Beethoven’s complete cello sonatas to San Francisco and other cities around the U.S., besides touring a program of Brahms and Shostakovich to London’s Wigmore Hall and venues in the Netherlands and Italy. Other high-profile orchestral performances for Barnatan this season include Mozart’s Concerto No. 23 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Ravel’s G-major Concerto with the Chicago Symphony, Brahms’s First Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra, and Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto with Alan Gilbert leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Rounding out the season, the pianist returns to Alice Tully Hall with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; plays Shostakovich with the Dover Quartet in Indianapolis; and plays solo recitals in Tokyo’s Toppan Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Oregon’s Portland Piano International, besides making his Baltimore recital debut in the Shriver Concert Hall Series and his solo recital debut in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.

Barnatan has had a longstanding collaborative relationship with Alan Gilbert – who praises him as “the complete artist: a wonderful pianist, a probing intellect, [and] passionately committed” – which included serving as the inaugural Artist-in-Association with the New York Philharmonic during the last three years of the conductor’s tenure with that orchestra. On October 18 the two artists release the first volume of a monumental collaboration: a recording of Beethoven’s complete piano concertos on the Pentatone label with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Barnatan considers each of the participants in this recording, from conductor to orchestra to fellow soloists to producer Adam Abeshouse, his “musical family,” having had multiple and meaningful collaborations with each for many years, and the set itself represents the culmination of years of work on the part of all participants. The second volume will be released in the spring of 2020. The complete set includes all five concertos, plus the triple concerto with Weilerstein and violinist Stefan Jackiw and Beethoven’s own transcription of his violin concerto for piano and orchestra. In live performance this season, Barnatan and Weilerstein are joined by violinist Guy Braunstein for two renditions of the triple concerto: with the Dresden Philharmonic conducted by Rafael Payare, and at Barcelona’s Beethoven250 Festival with the Barcelona Symphony under Kazushi Ono. The pianist also reunites with Gilbert at the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic this winter for a performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto.

In the spring Barnatan participates in a uniquely ambitious Beethoven celebration, when he joins conductor Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony to recreate Beethoven’s legendary 1808 Akademie concert, his last public performance as a concert pianist. The program included the premieres of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, while the nearly deaf composer himself played the premieres of his Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy, the works Barnatan will undertake in this monumental performance. The versatile pianist will also do something else Beethoven did during that concert in 1808: play a totally improvised work.

Barnatan also gives three more renditions of the Fourth Concerto this season: under the baton of Dan Ettinger with the Stuttgart Philharmonic, and with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in both Tokyo and Kawasaki. When the pianist performed the concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by composer and conductor Thomas Adès, at Tanglewood earlier this summer, the Boston Globe raved that “Inon Barnatan was an absolute delight,” and the New York Times wrote: “The superb Inon Barnatan … [captured] both the majestic and mercurial elements of this great work.”

Besides his Beethoven engagements, the pianist’s schedule is filled with a wide range of music from Baroque to contemporary. He joins conductor Nicholas McGegan and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in September for a “Mozart Under the Stars” performance of the ebullient Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, which he plays again the following month in Austria with the Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck. He plays Brahms’s First Piano Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra led by Jader Bignamini, and in January gives three performances throughout New Jersey of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, with the New Jersey Symphony led by Xiang Zhang. With conductor André de Ridder and the Chicago Symphony in the spring, he performs both Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Ravel’s jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in G, which he reprises later in the season with the San Diego Symphony. Barnatan made his Chicago Symphony debut with Gershwin’s Concerto in F, when the Chicago Tribune raved:

“His fingers were like perfectly timed pistons as he attacked coiled-spring rhythms, two-fisted chords and insidiously hummable tunes straight out of a smoke-filled Jazz Age night club. Brilliant pianistic technique served an utterly natural command of the Gershwin style: … pure delight.”

Gershwin also features prominently in Barnatan’s primary recital program this season, which explores the theme of “Songs Without Words,” combining works by Mendelssohn and Thomas Adès with Schubert and Gershwin. This is the program for his solo recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, his Baltimore recital debut in the Shriver Hall Concert Series, and the first of his two recitals at Portland Piano International. Barnatan’s second Portland performance is a version of a recital program he has perfected over the course of several seasons, titled “Variations on a Suite” and which takes its cue from the kind of dance suite popular in the Baroque period. Transformed by the pianist’s innovative imagination, each movement is by a different composer ranging from the Baroque to the 21st century, and the periods are in constant dialogue with each other. He pivots from Bach, Handel, Rameau and Couperin to pieces by Ravel, Ligeti, Barber and Adès which taker their inspiration from the Baroque antecedents, ending with Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel.

Along with Alisa Weilerstein, with whom Voix des Arts declares him to have “a level of musical symbiosis that transcends casual partnership,” Barnatan goes on two tours this season. In the fall they tour the UK, Netherlands, and Italy, including a date at London’s Wigmore Hall, with a program pairing works for cello by Brahms and Shostakovich with transcriptions from viola and vocal works by the same composers. In the spring they tour a program in the U.S. comprising all five of Beethoven’s cello sonatas, spanning all three of his stylistic periods.

A much sought-after chamber musician who is in the midst of his inaugural season as the new Music Director of the La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, Barnatan spent three seasons from 2006-9 as a member of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program, and has made frequent appearances on CMS programs ever since. This season he joins the group in Alice Tully Hall for a program that includes a Mendelssohn piano trio and an early violin sonata by Beethoven, as well as Shostakovich’s monumental Quintet in G minor, a milestone of chamber music that won the composer the Stalin Prize. That same piece is the vehicle for a performance in December with the Dover Quartet in Indianapolis, presented by the Ensemble Music Society.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has said of Barnatan that his “breathtaking charisma … comes from gorgeously turned out technique, a masterly sense of color, and an expressiveness that can question, weep, or shout joy from the rooftops.” The New York Times concurs, declaring him to be “one of the most admired pianists of his generation.”

High-resolution photos can be downloaded here.

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Inon Barnatan: 2019-20 season engagements

Sep 5
Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles Philharmonic / Nicholas McGegan
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488

Sep 27-29
Charlotte, NC
Knight Theater
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra / Christopher Warren Green
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1

Oct 4
Tenerife, Spain
Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife / Antonio Méndez
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Oct 10-11
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota Orchestra / Jader Bignamini
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1

Oct 17-18
Innsbruck, Austria
Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck / Kerem Hasan
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488

Oct 25-26
Dresden, Germany
Dresden Philharmonic / Rafael Payare
BEETHOVEN: Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C, Op. 56
With Alisa Weilerstein, cello; Guy Braunstein, violin

Oct 28
London, UK
Wigmore Hall
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
BRAHMS: Cello Sonata in D, Op. 78
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
BRAHMS: Songs (arr. Weilerstein/Barnatan)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Sonata, Op. 147 (arr. D. Shafran)

Oct 30
Milan, Italy
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
BRAHMS: Cello Sonata in D, Op. 78
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
BRAHMS: Songs (arr. Weilerstein/Barnatan)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Sonata, Op. 147 (arr. D. Shafran)

Nov 3
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Recital Hall
Het Concertgebouw
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
BRAHMS: Cello Sonata in D, Op. 78
SHOSTAKOVICH: Sonata, Op. 147 (arr. D. Shafran)

Nov 14
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall
MENDELSSOHN: Selections from Songs Without Words
ADÈS: Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face
GERSHWIN: Prelude No. 2
GERSHWIN: “I Got Rhythm” (arr. Wild) 

Nov 16
Portland, OR
Lincoln Hall Auditorium
Portland Piano International
MENDELSSOHN: Selections from Songs Without Words
ADÈS: Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face
GERSHWIN: Prelude No. 2
GERSHWIN: “I Got Rhythm” (arr. Wild)
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960

Nov 17
Portland, OR
Lincoln Hall Auditorium
Portland Piano International
BACH: Toccata in E minor, BWV 914
HANDEL: Allemande from Suite in E, HWV 430
RAMEAU: Courante from Suite in A minor
COUPERIN: L’Atalante
RAVEL: “Rigaudon” from Le tombeau de Couperin
ADÈS: Blanca Variations
LIGETI: Musica Ricercata Nos. 11 and 10
BARBER: Fugue from Sonata in E-flat minor
BRAHMS: Variations & Fugue on a Theme by Handel

Dec 11
Indianapolis, IN
Ensemble Music Society
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57
With Dover Quartet

Jan 3
Newark, NJ
New Jersey Performing Arts Center
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
Xian Zhang, conductor
CLARA SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto

Jan 4
Red Bank, NJ
Count Basie Center for the Arts
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra / Xian Zhang
CLARA SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto

Jan 5
Morristown, NJ
Mayo Performing Arts Center
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra / Xian Zhang
CLARA SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto 

Jan 24
Stuttgart, Germany
Stuttgarter Philharmoniker
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4

Jan 30
Stockholm, Sweden
Konserthus Stockholm
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concerto No. 3

Feb 6-8
Barcelona, Spain
Beethoven250 Festival
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra / Kazushi Ono
BEETHOVEN: Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C, Op. 56

Feb 14-15
Grand Rapids, MI
DeVos Performance Hall
Grand Rapids Symphony / Marcelo Lehninger
ANDREW NORMAN: Suspend, a fantasy for piano and orchestra

Feb 20 & 22
Naples, FL
Hayes Hall
Naples Philharmonic / Ludovic Morlot
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 2

Feb 29-Mar 1
Cincinnati, OH
Music Hall
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra / Louis Langrée
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4
BEETHOVEN: Choral Fantasy

Mar 4
Oxford, UK
St. John the Evangelist Church
J.S. BACH: Choral Preludes
MENDELSSOHN: Selections from Songs Without Words
MENDELSSOHN: Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14
ADÈS: Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960

Mar 5
London, UK
Wigmore Hall
Recital

Mar 12, 14 & 17
Chicago, IL
Symphony Center
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / André de Ridder
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G

Mar 28
Beverly Hills, MI
Seligman Performing Arts Center
Chamber Music Society of Detroit
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 1 in F Major, Op. 5 No. 1
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5 No. 2
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102, No. 1
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2

Mar 29
St. Louis, MO
Department of Music, Washington University in St. Louis
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
BEETHOVEN: complete cello sonatas

Apr 1
Denver, CO
Gates Hall – Newman Center
Friends of Chamber Music
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
BEETHOVEN: complete cello sonatas

Apr 4
San Francisco, CA
Herbst Theatre
Chamber Music San Francisco
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein

Apr 5
Walnut Creek, CA
Lesher Center
Chamber Music San Francisco
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein 

Apr 6
Palo Alto, CA
Oshman Family JCC
Chamber Music San Francisco
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein

Apr 24
New York, NY
Alice Tully Hall
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
BEETHOVEN: Sonata in D for Violin and Piano, Op. 12, No. 1
SHOSTAKOVICH: Quintet in G minor for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 57
MENDELSSOHN: Trio No. 1 in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 49
With Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin; Angelo Xiang Yu, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; Paul Watkins, cello

May 3
Baltimore, MD
Shriver Concert Hall Series
MENDELSSOHN: Selections from Songs Without Words
ADÈS: Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face
GERSHWIN: Prelude No. 2
GERSHWIN: “I Got Rhythm” (arr. Wild)
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960

May 16-17
San Diego, CA
Copley Symphony Hall
San Diego Symphony / Rafael Payare
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G

May 28 & 30
Rochester, NY
Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra / Ward Stare
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 1

June 12-13
Calgary, AB
Jack Singer Concert Hall
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra / Rune Bergmann
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73 (“Emperor”)

June 25
Tokyo, Japan
Toppan Hall
Solo recital 

June 29
Tokyo, Japan
Suntory Hall
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 

June 30
Kawasaki, Japan
Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4

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