Pianist Alessio Bax Releases Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 & Works for Solo Piano with Southbank Sinfonia on Signum Classics on May 18

Italian pianist Alessio Bax – “clearly among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public” (Gramophone) – announces the release of his latest Signum Classics album, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 & Works for Solo Piano, available May 18. For the new recording, Bax reunited with the UK’s Southbank Sinfonia and conductor Simon Over, his collaborators on Alessio Bax plays Mozart. His much-lauded discography for Signum Classics also includes Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and “Moonlight” Sonatas – picked as a Gramophone “Editor’s Choice” – and the new album once again features the master composer’s music, pairing some of his lesser-known solo works with the great “Emperor” Concerto. When Bax played the concerto with the same forces at the 2016 Incontri in Terra di Siena Festival, before launching his Artistic Directorship there last summer, Bachtrack admired his “beautifully crisp, sharp, satisfyingly phrased performance”:

“His capacity for softness and for evenness of touch came beautifully to the fore for the concerto’s many top-keyboard pianissimo flutterings, as his strong relationship with the orchestra also reaped dividends, producing satisfyingly sympathetic chamber pockets amidst the surrounding symphonic excitement.”

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 & Works for Solo Piano can be pre-ordered here, and a video of Bax discussing the new album is available here.

The album release comes amidst a full spring lineup for Bax that has already included a six-stop U.S. tour with Berlin Philharmonic principal flutist and renowned soloist Emmanuel Pahud, taking in Washington’s Kennedy Center, New York’s 92nd Street Y, and the San Francisco Performances series. The pianist also looks forward to presenting an Italian-themed solo recital program, also on May 18, at London’s Wigmore Hall, where he has appeared many times both as a soloist and in chamber settings, including three performances last season. In June he performs multiple programs at both the Great Lakes and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, as well as playing a gala with violinist Joshua Bell at Rhode Island’s Newport Festival. On July 28 he launches his second season as Artistic Director of Italy’s Incontri in Terra di Siena festival, hailed as “one of the most enjoyable musical enterprises of the Tuscan summer” (Financial Times, UK) and celebrating its 30th anniversary this season. As curated by Bax, the 2018 lineup includes tenor and superlative lieder interpreter Ian Bostridge and some of the world’s foremost musicians, including flutist Emmanuel Pahud, violinist Daishin Kashimoto, violist Lawrence Power, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, Bax’s wife and regular recital partner, pianist Lucille Chung, Bax himself, and many more. Finally, looking ahead to next season, Bax is delighted to be making his just-announced Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in the New Year playing Mozart’s Concerto in C minor, one of the works he recorded with the Southbank Symphony on Alessio Bax Plays Mozart.

Recent high-resolution photos of the pianist may be downloaded here.

 

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Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 & Works for Solo Piano
Signum Classics, released May 18

Repertoire List:
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73 “Emperor”
I. Allegro
II. Adagio un poco moto
III. Rondo 

Praeludium, WoO 55

Piano Sonata No. 27, Op. 90
I. Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck
II. Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen 

Contredanses, WoO 14
I. Contredanse in C
II. Contredanse in A
III. Contredanse in D
IV. Contredanse in B-flat
V. Contredanse in E-flat
VI. Contredanse in C
VII. Contredanse in E-flat
VIII. Contredanse in C
IX. Contredanse in A

Polonaise Op. 89

 

Alessio Bax: spring and summer engagements

April 6-8
Hartford, CT
Hartford Symphony Orchestra / Thomas Wilkins
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F

April 10
Waukesha, WI
Wisconsin Philharmonic / Alexander Platt
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2
Piazzolla: Libertango (with Lucille Chung)

May 14
Leeds, UK
Leeds Festival
Solo recital

May 15
Leeds, UK
Leeds Festival
Lang Lang International Music Foundation
Masterclass

May 18
London, UK
Leeds Festival
Wigmore Hall
Lunchtime recital

June 13-17
Detroit, MI
Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival

June 13 – Temple Beth El
Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat, KV 493 (with Ani Kavafian, Cindy Wu and Paul Watkins)

June 14 – Kirk in the Hills
Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (with James Tocco)
Ravel: Trio (with Ani Kavafian and Robert deMaine)

June 15 – Kirk in the Hills
Beethoven: “Archduke” Trio (with Philip Setzer and Robert deMaine)

June 16 – Seligman Performing Arts Center
Mozart: “Kegelstatt” Trio (with Kim Kashkashian and David Shifrin)

June 17 – Detroit Institute of Arts
Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 (with Paul Watkins)

June 30 – July 6
Seattle, WA
Seattle Chamber Music Festival

July 2 – Busoni: Violin Sonata No. 2 (with Benjamin Beilman at a pre-concert performance)
Ravel: Trio (with Augustin Hadelich and Efe Baltacigil)

July 5 – Beethoven: “Spring” Sonata (with Augustin Hadelich)

July 6 – Fauré: Quartet in G minor (with Andrew Wan, Jonathan Vinocour and Efe Baltacigil)

July 7-8
Fort Worth, TX
Mimir Festival 

July 15
Newport, RI
Newport Festival Gala (with Joshua Bell, violin) 

July 28–Aug 4
La Foce, Tuscany, Italy
Incontri in Terra di Siena Festival 

Sat, July 28
Locanda Dell’Amorosa
Domenico Zipoli: Pastorale
Josef Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C
Edward Elgar: Serenade
François Devienne: Flute Concerto No. 7 in E minor
Camerata Strumentale Città di Prato / Jonathan Webb
Antonio Lysy, cello
Emmanuel Pahud, flute

Sun, July 29
Granaio del Belvedere, piazzale, La Foce
“Porgy & Bess Revisited”
Nicolas Dautricourt, violin
Pascal Schumacher, vibraphone
Knut­Erik Sundquist, double bass

Tues, July 31
Teatro degli Avvaloranti, Città della Pieve
Francis Poulenc: Sonata for flute and piano, FP 164
Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasses
Claude Debussy: Violin Sonata in G minor
Claude Debussy: Syrinx for solo flute
Ernst von Dohnányi: Piano Quintet No. 2 in E-flat minor, Op. 26
Ian Bostridge, tenor
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Alessio Bax, piano

Wed, Aug 1
Teatro degli Arrischianti, Sarteano
Carl Nielsen: Chaconne for piano, Op. 32
Jean Sibelius: Selection of piano pieces
Ralph Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge
Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet
Johannes Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 18
Ian Bostridge, tenor; Leif Ove Andsnes, Alessio Bax, and Lucille Chung, piano
Daishin Kashimoto, Maja Avramović and Annabelle Meare, violins; Lawrence Power and Lise Berthaud, violas; Antonio Lysy and Christian Poltéra, cellos

Thurs, Aug 2
Cortile, La Foce
“Schubertiade”
Franz Schubert: Andantino varié for piano, op. 84, D823 for piano four hands
Franz Schubert: “Auf dem Strom,” D 943
Jörg Widmann: Idyll and Abyss
Franz Schubert: “Liebesbotschaft,” “Kriegers Ahnung,” “Ständchen,” “In die Ferne,” and “Abschied” from Schwanengesang
Franz Schubert: String Quintet in C, Op. 163, D956
Ian Bostridge, tenor; Leif Ove Andsnes and Alessio Bax, piano
Esther Hoppe and Daishin Kashimoto, violins; Lawrence Power, viola; Antonio Lysy and Christian Poltéra, cellos

Fri, Aug 3
Chiesa del Triano, Montefollonico
Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita for flute solo in A minor, BWV 1013
Ferruccio Busoni: Sonata for violin and piano No. 2, Op. 36a
Giovanni Bottesini: Gran Duo Concertante for violin, double bass and string quartet
Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen
Emmanuel Pahud, flute; Maja Avramović, Esther Hoppe, Daishin Kashimoto, and Annabelle Meare, violins; Lawrence Power, viola; Christian Poltéra, cello; Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, piano

Sat, Aug 4
Chiesa di Sant­Andrea, Castiglioncello del Trinoro
(Monteverdi Tuscany)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Sonata in G major, KV 301
Felix Mendelssohn: Bartholdy Violin Sonata in F major (trans. for flute by Pahud)
Claude Debussy: Sonata for cello and piano no. 1 in D minor
Johannes Brahms: Sonata for violin and piano no. 3 in D minor
Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, piano
Emmanuel Pahud, flute
Daishin Kashimoto, violin
Antonio Lysy, cello

 

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© 21C Media Group, April 2018