Pianist Inon Barnatan’s 2016-17 Season Includes Debuts in Leipzig, Chicago, Baltimore and Seattle, Plus Tours of U.S. and Europe
Pianist Inon Barnatan – “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” (New York Times) – opens the 2016-17 season playing Mozart with the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco. Following a summer recital in New York that marked his Mostly Mozart debut and a series of high-profile festival appearances that included the Seattle, Santa Fe, Delft and Aspen Festivals, Barnatan makes five more debuts throughout the new season: with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under the baton of New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by Jesús López-Cobos; the Baltimore Symphony, under Vasily Petrenko; the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Ludovic Morlot; and in Australia, with the Queensland Symphony. In his final season as the orchestra’s inaugural Artist-in-Association, he returns to the New York Philharmonic, with Manfred Honeck on the podium. He also embarks on three tours: of the U.S., with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields; of Europe, with his frequent recital partner, cellist Alisa Weilerstein; and of the U.S., performing a trio program with Weilerstein and clarinetist Anthony McGill, including a concert at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Barnatan’s season is rounded out by concerto performances in the U.S. with the Jacksonville, Spokane, Fort Worth, Asheville, Nashville, New Jersey, and San Diego Symphonies; a complete Beethoven concerto cycle in Marseille, France; concerto engagements with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony; and solo recitals in Georgia, Oregon, Indiana, Louisiana and Tel Aviv, Israel, as well as at London’s Wigmore Hall.
The pianist launches his third and final season as the New York Philharmonic’s inaugural Artist-in-Association this year. When Music Director Alan Gilbert announced that appointment he called Barnatan “the complete artist: a wonderful pianist, a probing intellect, passionately committed, and a capable contemporary-music pianist as well.” Barnatan is currently featured on a new CD, released this summer, of Gilbert leading an all-star orchestra of 44 superlative musicians in an account of Olivier Messiaen’s monumental and otherworldly twelve-movement, 90-minute orchestral masterpiece, Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars…”); the notoriously challenging piano part includes two movements scored for solo piano. Gilbert and Barnatan are also presently in the process of recording Beethoven’s complete piano concertos with London’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields, representing the first time that ensemble will have captured the full cycle on disc. Continuing their musical partnership, Gilbert will conduct Barnatan in Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto for the pianist’s debut with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig (Oct 20–22). The final performance in Leipzig will be followed by a special “talk and performance” event for which both soloist and conductor join German TV personality Malte Arkona. Back in New York, completing his Artist-in-Association tenure with the New York Philharmonic, the pianist performs Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto under the baton of Manfred Honeck. The three-year Artist-in-Association appointment has seen the pianist appear as soloist in subscription concerts, take part in regular chamber performances, and act as ambassador for the orchestra.
Barnatan rejoins the Academy of St Martin in the Fields for a ten-city tour of the U.S., from Florida to California. He leads the orchestra from the keyboard, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and a new concerto by British composer Alasdair Nicolson. The pianist enraptured audiences with Mozart’s Concerto No. 17 in May, giving a “lively and wonderfully expressive” (LA Times) Disney Hall debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. He plays more Mozart this season with Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg’s New Century Chamber Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony under Hans Graf, and the Nashville Symphony under Vassily Sinaisky.
In January Barnatan embarks on a nine-city U.S. tour with his frequent recital partner, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Anthony McGill. Their program juxtaposes Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat and Brahms’s Clarinet Trio in A minor with the world premiere of short stories by the young, Grammy-nominated American composer Joseph Hallman. Stops on the tour include Princeton, NJ; Washington, DC; and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. Barnatan and Weilerstein tour together again later in the spring, this time to Europe, with concerts featuring another Hallman piece, DreamLog, which was composed for them “in bits and pieces” between 2013 and 2015 and given its world premiere during another tour in the spring of its completion. Upon the release last October of their Decca recording, Rachmaninov & Chopin: Cello Sonatas, a glowing review in Voix des Arts praised the pair as having “a level of musical symbiosis that transcends casual partnership,” and called the disc “a ravishing recording of fantastic music.” Sinfini Music named it an “Album of the Week,” and Barnatan was singled out for his “great musical insight,” “marvelous variety of tone” and “irresistibly mercurial lightness of touch” by BBC Music.
Rounding out Barnatan’s season are a number of solo recitals around the U.S., in Tel Aviv, and in London. The pianist has long been known as a particularly thoughtful programmer, choosing pieces that both stand alone and connect to one another in a variety of ways. Thus, for recitals this season in Georgia, Oregon, Indiana and Tel Aviv he will play Brahms’s arrangement for left hand of German Baroque master J.S. Bach’s Chaconne in D; a set of Variations by Brahms on a theme composed by Bach’s great contemporary Handel; and Ligeti’s Musica ricercata, one of the movements of which is an homage to Italian Baroque master Frescobaldi. As the New York Times reported following Barnatan’s Mostly Mozart debut, which included Bach, Handel, Ligeti, and much more: “Barnatan showed why he is one of the most admired pianists of his generation. … He played everything brilliantly.”
High-resolution photos can be downloaded here.
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Inon Barnatan: 2016-17 engagements
Sep 15-18
New Century Chamber Orchestra / Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Music Director & Concertmaster
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 13
Sep 15: Berkeley, CA (First Congregational Church)
Sep 16, 17: San Francisco, CA (Herbst Theatre)
Sep 18: San Rafael, CA (Osher Marin Jewish Community Center)
Sep 25
Morrow, GA
Spivey Hall at Clayton State University
BACH: Chaconne in D minor (arr. Brahms)
SCHUBERT: Sonata in G, D. 894
LIGETI: Musica ricercata
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24
Sep 30; Oct 1 & 2
Jacksonville, FL
Jacksonville Symphony / Courtney Lewis
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2
Oct 8-9
Spokane, WA
Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox
Spokane Symphony Orchestra / Eckart Preu
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2
Oct 14-16
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3
Oct 20-22
Leipzig, Germany
Leipziger Gewandhausorchester / Alan Gilbert
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 2
Oct 27, 29
Seattle, WA
Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Ludovic Morlot
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3
Nov 4-5
Nashville, TN
Nashville Symphony Orchestra / Vassily Sinaisky
MOZART: Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
Nov 13
Corvallis, OR
Corvallis OSU Piano International: Steinway Piano Series
BACH: Chaconne in D minor (arr. Brahms)
LIGETI: Musica ricercata
HANDEL: Chaconne in G, HWV 435
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Handel
Nov 17
West Lafayette, IN
Loeb Playhouse at Purdue University
SCHUBERT: Sonata in G, D. 894
BACH: Chaconne in D minor (arr. Brahms)
LIGETI: Musica ricercata
BRAHMS: Variations on a Theme by Handel
Nov 20
New Orleans, LA
Musical Arts Society of New Orleans
Solo recital
Nov 26-27
Newark, NJ
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra / Hans Graf
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 21
Dec 1
Marseille, France
Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille / Lawrence Foster
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concertos 2, 3 and 4
Dec 2
Marseille, France
Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille / Lawrence Foster
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concertos 1 and 5
Jan 5-8
San Diego, CA
San Diego Symphony / Andrew Gourlay
ANDREW NORMAN: Suspend
COPLAND: Piano Concerto
Jan 18-29
Trio Tour with Alisa Weilerstein & Anthony McGill
BEETHOVEN: Clarinet Trio in B-flat, Op. 11
JOSEPH HALLMAN: short stories
BRAHMS: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
Jan 18: Princeton, NJ (McCarter Theatre Center)
Jan 19: Washington, DC (Kennedy Center, Fortas Chamber Music Concerts)
Jan 21: Durham, SC (Duke Performances)
Jan 22: Baltimore, MD (Shriver Hall Concert Series)
Jan 23: University Park, PA (Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State)
Jan 24: New York, NY (Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall)
Jan 26: Urbana, IL (Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
Jan 27: Kalamazoo, MI (Fontana Chamber Arts)
Jan 29: Ann Arbor, MI (University Musical Society)
Feb 3-5
Fort Worth, TX
Bass Performance Hall
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra / Christoph König
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 3
Feb 11
Asheville, NC
Asheville Symphony / Daniel Meyer
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 2
Feb 15-18
New York, NY
David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic / Manfred Honeck
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1
Feb 26-March 7
Recital Tour with Alisa Weilerstein
BEETHOVEN: Sonata in C for Piano and Cello, Op. 102, No. 1
BARBER: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 6
BEETHOVEN: Sonata in D, for Piano and Cello, Op. 102, No. 2
CHOPIN: Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 65
Feb 27: Elmau, Germany
Feb 28: Salzburg, Austria (Mozarteum Salzburg)
Mar 6: Alicante, Spain (Sociedad de Conciertos de Alicante)
Mar 7: London, UK (Wigmore Hall)
March 13-April 2
Tour with Academy of St Martin in the Fields
March 18: Miami, FL
March 19: West Palm Beach, FL
March 23: Joplin, MO
March 25: Huntsville, AL
March 26: Athens, GA
March 28: Tucson, AZ
March 29: Scottsdale, AZ
March 31: Santa Monica, CA
April 1: Aliso Viejo, CA
April 2: Stanford, CA
April 26
Stanford, CA
Stanford University
Bing Concert Hall
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
DEBUSSY: Sonata for Cello and Piano
CHOPIN: Cello Sonata, Op. 65
HALLMAN: DreamLog
RACHMANINOFF: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op.19
April 29
Stamford, CT
Palace Theatre
Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
April 30
Englewood, NJ
Bergen Performing Arts Center
Recital with Alisa Weilerstein
Works by Beethoven, Britten, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Bernstein, de Falla, and Britten.
May 6
Tel Aviv, Israel
Tel Aviv Conservatory
BACH: Chaconne in D minor (Arr. Brahms)
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 31, Op. 110
LIGETI: Musica ricercata
BRAHMS: Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel, Op. 24
May 25-30
Chicago, IL
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Jesús López-Cobos
GERSHWIN: Piano Concerto in F major
June 9
Brisbane, Australia
Queensland Symphony Orchestra / Muhai Tang
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto
June 23-24
Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong Philharmonic/ Jaap van Zweden
MOZART: Piano Concert No. 23
June 27
London, UK
Wigmore Hall
Solo recital
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© 21C Media Group, September 2016