Jeremy Denk makes surprise Carnegie Hall debut (March 27)

Jeremy Denk will make his unexpected Carnegie Hall main stage recital debut this Sunday, March 27, when he steps in for Maurizio Pollini who has cancelled due to illness. For Sunday’s program, Denk will play two iconic works: Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord,” and Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Denk has played both works in recent Zankel Hall performances to great critical acclaim, and his recording of Ives’s “Concord” Sonata was included in critics’ top-10 lists of 2010 across the country. The New York Times hailed his recent traversal of the Goldberg Variations at Zankel Hall in February as “a commanding performance, with virtuosity aplenty,” and when he played the “Concord” Sonata in November 2008 the same paper wrote that he brought “a rare combination of command and spontaneity” to his “dynamic” performance.
 
Just last week, Denk made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut when he stood in for Martha Argerich, who was scheduled to perform Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto under Gustavo Dudamel.  Of this performance, Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times commented, “Denk unravels mysteries. He commands an impressive clarity of tone and thought. He brings out delicious details. In many passages his fingers catch the sparkle in his eye.”
 
Jeremy Denk records Bach and Ives
 
Jeremy Denk Plays Ives, the album the pianist released in October 2010 on his own Think Denk Media label, dominated the year-end top-ten lists of many of the country’s foremost music critics.  Choosing Denk’s Ives disc as one of the “10 best classical albums of 2010,” Washington Post critic Anne Midgette marveled: “Denk’s piano playing mingles urbanity with unabashed beauty.  … Downright seductive.”
 
Denk’s new Bach album, released in January by the boutique Azica label, presents three of the composer’s six keyboard partitas: Nos. 3 in A minor, 4 in D, and 6 in E minor.  For many of today’s pianists, Bach’s partitas are the most compelling of all the composer’s many suites, being technically demanding and ambitious in scale.
 
 
Jeremy Denk’s spring 2011 engagements
 
 
March 27
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall/ Stern Auditorium
Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass., 1840-60”
Bach: Goldberg Variations
 
March 29
Houston, TX
Menil Collection
Da Camera of Houston
Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass., 1840-60”
 
April 1 & 2
Indianapolis, IN
Hilbert Circle Theater
Indiana Symphony Society / Mark Wigglesworth
Mozart: Concerto for Piano No. 21 in C, K. 467
 
April 9 & 10
Columbus, OH
Southern Theater
ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus / Timothy Russell
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
 
April 16
Sleepy Hollow, NY
Sleepy Hollow High School
Friends of Music Concerts
Recital:
Bach: Toccata in D; Toccata in G-sharp minor
Liszt: Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata
Ligeti: Études, Book 1
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
 
April 17
Coral Gables, FL
Maurice Gusman Hall
Sunday Afternoons of Music
Solo recital
Repertoire: TBD
 
April 21
Madison, WI
University of Wisconsin at Madison
Wisconsin Union Theater
Recital
Repertoire: TBD
 
April 29
Kalamazoo, MI
Wellspring Theater
Fontana Chamber Arts
Ives: Piano Sonata No. 1
 
May 13-15
Detroit, MI
Orchestra Hall
Detroit Symphony Orchestra / Peter Oundjian
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, K.467
 
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