Joyce Yang Reunites with Takács Quartet for Dvorák at Lincoln Center (March 19), Highlighting Decade of “Mesmerizing Music Making” Together
On March 19, Joyce Yang – “one of the great chamber players of her generation” (Theater Jones) – joins the Takács Quartet for Dvorák’s A-major Piano Quintet in the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center. As the New York Times observes, “Alongside her burgeoning career as a soloist and concerto performer, the pianist Joyce Yang has also demonstrated impressive gifts as a chamber musician.” Her close rapport with the Grammy Award-winning quartet dates back a full decade to the 2005 Cliburn Competition, where at just 19 she not only took Silver Medal but also – in her first collaboration with the Takács – won the prize for best chamber music performance.
“The first thing that occurred to me when they called my name as a semi-finalist at the Cliburn was ‘Yes!!!!!! I get to play with the Takács!’” says Yang about the distinguished quartet, now celebrating its 40th anniversary season. “It was an incredible perk to be able to play with them as part of the competition process.” That first auspicious collaboration would launch a musical relationship that has continued to blossom ever since, with regular appearances together in the great piano quintet repertory. Music-Web International characterizes the partnership as “mesmerizing music making from all hands,” while the Washington Post wrote of a 2010 performance of Schumann’s Piano Quintet:
“Yang’s skill at melding her keyboard tone with the strings suggested musical maturity well beyond her 23 years of age. Together these five players gave luminous voice to Schumann’s magical slow movement, and finished the piece with an infectious exuberance.”
Of the appeal of working with the Korean-born pianist, Takács first violinist Edward Dusinberre explains:
“She delights in chamber music. When you’re on stage with her, you feel that if you change a subtle dynamic thing or want to move the music forward a little bit, she’s always going to be right there. It feels alive. That’s one of the things we really love about her playing.”
The feeling is mutual. Yang says, “It’s really a dream scenario for me. Takács is an ensemble that can go in any direction. I always feel free to do exactly what is true at the moment, and I am never in doubt that they will come with me.”
Two days before their upcoming appearance at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Yang and the quartet also perform the Dvorák Quintet for the Sarasota Concert Association in Florida (March 17).
Another of Yang’s major collaborators is violinist Augustin Hadelich, with whom she reunites for a four-state spring tour encompassing San Francisco, where they showcase Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 and André Previn’s Tango, Song and Dance (March 22), and Dallas, where their program concludes with Kurtág’s Tre Pezzi and the Franck Sonata (April 4). All four works will be on an upcoming Avie recording, for which she and Hadelich head into the studio together this June. This follows the trio of albums that Yang released in quick succession last year: her second solo title for Avie Records, Wild Dreams, on which she plays Schumann, Bartók, Hindemith, Rachmaninoff, and arrangements by Earl Wild; Brahms and Schumann Piano Quintets with the Alexander Quartet; and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which was hailed as “a performance that marks her out as an enormous talent” (International Record Review).
To round out her spring line-up, the pianist looks forward to returning to the Van Cliburn Foundation for a solo recital (April 7), and reprising Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with orchestras in Erie, PA (March 7), Las Vegas (April 26), and Victoria, BC (May 9, 10). Having previously performed a complete Rachmaninoff cycle with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Edo de Waart, Yang is justly renowned for her interpretations of the Russian composer’s concertos; this past July, the New York Times praised her “sumptuous, powerful, subtle performance” of his First Concerto with the New York Philharmonic.
A complete list of Joyce Yang’s upcoming engagements follows. Additional information may be found at her web site, including Timeline photos leading up to her Cliburn competition Silver Medal: www.pianistjoyceyang.com. High-resolution photos may be downloaded here.
Joyce Yang: upcoming engagements
Feb 12
Montreal, Canada
I Musici de Montréal
Hindemith: Four Temperaments
Liszt: Malédiction
Feb 21
East Providence, RI
Rhode Island Philharmonic / Larry Rachleff
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467
Feb 27 & 28
Toledo, OH
Toledo Symphony Orchestra
Peristyle Theater
Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
March 7
Erie, PA
Erie Philharmonic / Daniel Meyer
Warner Theater
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
March 14 & 15
Melbourne, FL
Brevard Symphony Orchestra
King Center for the Performing Arts
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
March 17
Sarasota, FL
Sarasota Concert Association
Dvorák: Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81
With the Takács Quartet
March 19
New York, NY
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Great Performers Series, Alice Tully Hall
Dvorák: Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81
With the Takács Quartet
March 22
San Francisco, CA
Chamber Music San Francisco
Marines’ Memorial Theater
Stravinsky: Suite Italienne
Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor
Janácek: Violin Sonata
Previn: Tango, Song and Dance
With Augustin Hadelich, violin
March 27 & 28
Grand Rapids, MI
Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra / Kynan Johns
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467
March 31
Charlottesville, VA
Tuesday Evening Concert Series
With Augustin Hadelich, violin
April 4
Dallas, TX
Chamber Music International
Stravinsky: Suite Italienne
Albéniz: Iberia (selections)
Kurtág: Tre Pezzi
Franck: Sonata in A Major
With Augustin Hadelich, violin
April 7
Fort Worth, TX
Van Cliburn Foundation
Solo recital – honoring the retirement of jury chair John Giordano
April 18 & 19
Wichita, KS
Wichita Symphony
Century II Concert Hall
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
April 26
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas Philharmonic
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
May 3
Rockville, MD
Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington
With Augustin Hadelich, violin
May 9 & 10
Victoria, BC
|Victoria Symphony Orchestra
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
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©21C Media Group, February 2015