Yefim Bronfman: Summer 2009
The Grammy Award-winning
pianist Yefim “Fima” Bronfman
continues his juggernaut tour of American and European music festivals at the
opening of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2009 season at the Saratoga Performing
Arts Center on August 5. In
Saratoga, Bronfman joins maestro Charles Dutoit for Brahms’s Piano Concerto No.
2. Fima’s appearance at Saratoga
follows a whirlwind tour of American music festivals, which included performances
at the openings of Ravinia and Tanglewood, a recital, and orchestral concerts
at the Aspen Festival.
Following his concert with
the Philadelphia Orchestra, Fima makes a return to the Tanglewood Music
Festival (Aug 14) before moving on to Europe for the Edinburgh and Helsinki
Festivals, and to the Lucerne Festival, where he is in residence as this year’s
Artiste Étoile. “This is a summer
that I have been planning and looking forward to for a long time,” the pianist
comments. “I will be visiting top
festivals around the world and collaborating with many of my favorite
conductors and orchestras. It’s a
summer I will remember for many years to come.”
Fima is first classical
music celebrity to judge TV’s Iron Chef America
On Sunday, August 9, Fima
makes his Food Network debut as the first classical music celebrity to judge the
popular cooking competition Iron Chef America on the Food Network. A connoisseur of food and wine, Fima enjoyed the opportunity
to witness two great chefs battle for the winning spot using the show’s
top-secret ingredient. “I have always
been an enormous fan of Iron Chef America as well as many other Food Network shows, so it was a great thrill for
me to sit at the judge’s table for an Iron Chef battle,” said Bronfman during
another great meal at this summer’s Aspen Music Festival. “Great food and wine has become a hobby
of mine as I travel around the world playing concerts. It was a great honor to be invited to
experience meals created by an Iron Chef and challenger in Kitchen Stadium.”
Bronfman tours Europe
with Salonen Concerto
Bronfman and Esa-Pekka
Salonen will continue to perform the conductor/composer’s Piano Concerto
throughout the summer. The
concerto was written for Bronfman and premiered with the New York Philharmonic
in 2007. Since then, Bronfman has
performed the work nearly a dozen times throughout North America and Europe,
including a recording for Deutsche Grammophon with the composer conducting the
Los Angeles Philharmonic. This
summer, the pair will perform the piece at Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival and – in
the composer’s native country for the first time – at the Helsinki
Festival. Maestro Salonen and
Bronfman will also give the piece its Swiss premiere as part of the pianist’s
Artiste Étoile residency at the Lucerne Festival.
Bronfman is Artiste
Étoile at the Lucerne Festival
Bronfman will end the summer
with an impressive two-week residency at the Lucerne Festival. During his residency as Artiste Étoile,
Bronfman will perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Zubin Mehta and the
Vienna Philharmonic, Berg’s Kammerkonzert with Pierre Boulez and the Academy Orchestra, and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s
Piano Concerto with the composer conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. “The orchestral concerts include what I
feel to be the perfect pairing of an orchestra, conductor, and repertoire,”
explains Bronfman. “Maestro Mehta
and I have done countless concerts together, but Brahms with him and Vienna is
a dream, and having Maestro Boulez for the Berg is a personal triumph for me. He was conducting the first time I heard
the piece, and I was completely overwhelmed by that performance. For the last 20 years, I have wanted to
play that piece with Pierre Boulez. Thanks to the Lucerne Festival, that is now possible.”
The other two concerts
Bronfman will perform at the festival are a solo recital and a chamber music
concert; both will feature music by the young German composer and clarinetist
Jörg Widmann. On his solo recital,
Bronfman will play the European premiere of Widmann’s Eleven Humoresques, which was commissioned for him by Carnegie Hall and
premiered there last May. Widmann
will join Bronfman as a performer in the September 5 chamber music recital.
Yefim Bronfman: summer
2009 engagements:
August 4
Saratoga
Springs, NY: Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Saratoga
Chamber Music Festival
Brahms:
Sonata in E-flat major (Chantal Juillet, violin)
Tchaikovsky:
Dumka for solo
piano
Dvorák:
String Quintet in G major
August 5
Saratoga
Springs, NY: Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Philadelphia
Orchestra / Charles Dutoit
Brahms:
Piano Concerto No. 2
August 14
Lenox, MA:
Tanglewood Music Festival
Boston
Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas
Rachmaninoff:
Piano Concerto No. 3
August 19
Edinburgh,
Scotland
Philharmonia
Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Salonen:
Piano Concerto
August 21
Helsinki,
Finland
Philharmonia
Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Salonen:
Piano Concerto
August 25
Lucerne,
Switzerland: Lucerne Festival
Philharmonia
Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Salonen: Piano
Concerto
August 29
Lucerne,
Switzerland: Lucerne Festival
Lucerne Festival
Academy Orchestra / Pierre Boulez
Berg: Kammerkonzert
August 31
Opatija,
Croatia
Solo
recital
September 2
Dubrovnik,
Croatia
Solo
recital
September 5
Lucerne,
Switzerland: Lucerne Festival
Chamber
concert
Jörg
Widmann, clarinet
September 7
Lucerne,
Switzerland: Lucerne Festival
Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra / Zubin Mehta
Brahms:
Piano Concerto No. 2
September 8
Hanover,
Germany
Recital
September
13
Lucerne,
Switzerland: Lucerne Festival
Solo
recital
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© 21C Media Group, August 2009