Thursday, November 1, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, pianos

PROGRAM

Béla BARTÓK (1881 –1945) Seven Pieces from Mikrokosmos for Two Pianos, BB 120 (Sz. 108) Bulgarian Rhythm (Vol. 4, No. 113) Chord and Trill Study (Vol. 3, No. 69) Perpetuum Mobile (Vol. 5, No. 135) Short Canon and Its Inversion (Vol. 5, No. 123) New Hungarian Folksong (Vol. 5, No. 127) Chromatic Invention (Vol. 6, No. 145) Ostinato (Vol. 6, No. 146)

Maurice RAVEL (1875 –1937) Sites auriculaires for Two Pianos Habanera Entre cloches

Harrison BIRTWISTLE (b. 1934) Keyboard Engine , A Construction for Two Pianos (Cal Performances Co-commission )

INTERMISSION

Olivier MESSIAEN (1908 –1992) Visions de l’Amen for Two Pianos Amen de la Création Amen des étoiles, de la planète à l’anneau Amen de l’agonie de Jésus Amen du Désir Amen des anges, des saints, du chant des oiseaux Amen du Jugement Amen de la Consommation

Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

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PROGRAM NOTES

Béla Bartók imitative piece (canon) based on a single exactly Seven Pieces from Mikrokosmos repeated theme (like “Row, Row, Row Your for Two Pianos, BB 120 (Sz. 108) Boat”) that at the mid-point is played again, but Béla Bartók’s creative personality was shaped by upside-down (inversion). (“Canon,” derived the field expeditions he made as a young man from the Greek for “a rule,” was the instruction with his friend and colleague Zoltán Kodály in early manuscripts by which all the voices in search of the indigenous music of his native were derived from the single notated melody.) Hungary: both published their research in some New Hungarian Folk Song (Vol. 5, No. 127) of the most important ethnomusicological is an arrangement of a native song from the studies of the 20th century; both allowed the southwestern Somogy region, on the Croatian influence of folk music to permeate their border. In the original solo piano version, original compositions; both were dedicated to Bar tók allowed that the melody could be played perpetuating the traditions they found and on a violin or even sung by the performer: encouraging a wider appreciation of them. is How high, green forest, spreads your highest tree? last concern led Kodály to develop a compre - How long since its last leaf fell silently ? hensive method of music education based on Chromatic Invention (Vol. 6, No. 145) is folk models that revolutionized the teaching modeled on Bach’s imitative Two-Part Inven - of the subject in Hungary. While Bartók did not tions , which he said “show a clear method not have as thorough an involvement in formal only of learning to play cleanly in two parts, but music education for younger students as Ko- also…of acquiring a cantabile style of playing.” dály, he did write a number of folk-inspired Ostinato (Vol. 6, No. 146) is a fiery dance works intended to foster in children the devel - number built on the incessantly propulsive opment of technical performing skills, musical rhythms indicated by its title, the Italian word understanding, and appreciation of Hungarian for “obstinate, stubborn.” culture. e best-known of Bartók’s pedagog - ical works is the Mikrokosmos (A World in Maurice Ravel Miniature , ca. 1926, 1932 –39), a collection of Sites auriculaires (Places Heard ) 153 graded pieces in six volumes for piano for Two Pianos based on folk idioms that progress from one- Maurice Ravel was the son of a cultured family. finger exercises to numbers of virtuoso diffi - His father, Pierre-Joseph Ravel, though a prize culty. In 1939 –40 he arranged seven of the winner in piano at the Geneva Conservatory as Mikrokosmos for two pianos for himself and a young man, chose mechanical engineering his wife, Ditta Pásztory-Bartók, retaining their as his vocation and met his wife while building form and substance but enriching their textures railroad lines in the Basque region of southern and contrapuntal interplay. France. Maurice was born on March 7, 1875 Bulgarian Rhythm (Vol. 4, No. 113) is one of in Ciboure, near Biarritz; a few months later the several pieces in the Mikrokosmos based on that family moved to Paris. Encouraged by his fa - Balkan country’s bracing, uneven dance meters. ther, young Maurice showed a precocious tal - e Chord and Trill Study (Vol. 3, No. 69) ent for music, and he was sent for piano lessons consisted in the original piano version of just to the noted teacher Henri Ghys in 1882; five the former to which Bartók gave an almost years later he was studying harmony and com - symphonic breadth by adding the latter in the position, and trying his hand for the first time two-piano arrangement. at creative work. Perpetuum Mobile (Perpetual Motion , Vol. 5, Ravel was admitted to the Paris Conser va - No. 135) is a breathless exercise in crushed toire in 1889, but his academic career proved harmonies. to be less than meteoric. His piano teachers Short Canon and Its Inversion (Vol. 5, No. 123) thought him gied but lazy and overly self- extracts remarkable musical expression from indulgent in his playing, and he repeatedly two of the art’s most recondite techniques: an failed the exams in harmony. He le the school

20 PROGRAM NOTES

aer the spring term in 1895, having completed Ravel’s daintily picturesque music.” British pi - just two songs and a Sérénade grotesque for anist and duo-piano specialist Anthony Gold - piano and abandoned hopes of a career as a stone added that Ravel’s evocative music “could concert pianist. (Ravel was short and slight, hardly be lazier, rooted to the spot by one note barely five feet tall, and his small hands were repeated over and over again in an obsessive poorly suited to the physical requirements of rhythm.” a virtuoso.) During the following months, Entre cloches (Among Bells ) is a sound pic - he became something of a dandy (he once ture of a village Sunday morning, with mighty remarked that he “would rather have been peals calling the faithful to worship, a still Beau Brummel than Maurice Ravel”), im - passage of devotional thought at the center, and mersed himself in Baudelaire and Verlaine and an tintinnabulous benediction that fades into Mallarmé and other modern writers, cultivated the distance, or perhaps into the memory, at friendships with Satie and Chabrier and the pi - the close. anist Ricardo Viñes, and composed the Menuet antique for solo piano and the Habanera for two Harrison Birtwistle pianos in 1895. (e Menuet antique was his Keyboard Engine , first published score.) He apparently planned A Construction for Two Pianos the Habanera as part of a set of three pieces, Harrison Birtwistle, born in Accrington, Lan - but did not write Entre cloches for it until 1897 cashire in 1934, entered the Royal Manchester and never did get around to the projected third College of Music in 1952 on scholarship as a movement. He paired Habanera and Entre clarinetist. ere he met composers Peter Max- cloches under the title Sites auriculaires (Places well Davies and Alexander Goehr and pianist Heard or perhaps Places Remembered through John Ogdon, and together they formed the New Sound )—and had Viñes and Marthe Dron play Music Manchester Group, which was largely them at a Société nationale de Musique concert dedicated to the performance of works by on March 5, 1898. e Sites auriculaires , in an Schoen berg and his followers. Aer leaving the adventurous idiom, challenging to perform, RCM, Birtwistle served as a military bandsman unfamiliar and insufficiently rehearsed, went before moving to London to study clarinet with poorly (Viñes admitted they “made a mess Reginald Kell at the Royal Academy of Music. of it”), and the work in that form remained He worked for a time as a professional clar - unpublished during his lifetime, though Ravel inetist and taught at the Cranborne Chase did use the Habanera intact as the third section School in Dorset, but by the mid-1960s he had of his Rapsodie Espagnole , created simultane - turned his attention principally to composition. ously in versions for two pianos and for orches - He spent a year as a visiting fellow at Princeton tra in 1907 –08. University in 1966, and upon his return to Eng - Ravel headed the manuscript of the Haba - land founded a contemporary music group— nera with the first line of “À une Dame Créole” the Pierrot Players—with Maxwell Davies. from Baudelaire’s Fleurs de mal (1857, Flowers When Davies assumed sole directorship of the of Evil ): “Au pays parfumé que le soleil ca - Pierrot Players in 1970 and changed their name resse”—“In the perfumed country that the sun to e Fires of London, Birtwistle established caresses,/I knew, under a canopy of crimson an experimental ensemble, Matrix, with fellow trees/And palms from which indolence rains clarinetist Alan Hacker. Aer teaching at into your eyes,/A Creole lady whose charms Swarthmore College and the State University were unguessed.” Musicologist Louise Liebich of New York at Buffalo from 1973 to 1975, wrote of the Habanera , “e dancers accom - Birtwistle went back to London, where he pany their singing with indolent and alluring was music director of the newly established gestures. eir graceful movements, the sway - National eatre until 1983. He has also served ing of the arms and hips, the switch of the skirts as Composer-in-Residence with the London and gliding of the feet, are subtly evoked by Philharmonic (1993 –98), Henry Purcell Pro -

20B PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES fessor of Music at King’s College, University Olivier Messiaen of London (1994 –2002), Endowed Chairholder Visions de l’Amen for Two Pianos in Music Composition at University of Ala - Olivier Messiaen, one of towering figures of bama School of Music (2001 –02), and Director modern French music, was born in 1908 in the of Composition at London’s Royal Academy of ancient southern town of Avignon to Pierre Music (1997 –2009); he is currently Visiting Messiaen, a professor of literature noted for Professor at the RAM. Birtwistle’s many honors his translations of Shakespeare, and the poetess include the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Cécile Sauvage. Olivier entered the Paris Con - des Lettres (1986), Grawemeyer Award from servatoire at the age of 11 to study with com - the University of Louisville (1987), British poser Paul Dukas, organist Marcel Dupré, and knight hood (1988), Siemens Prize (1995), other of that school’s distinguished faculty, Companion of Honour (2001), and honorary winning several prizes for harmony, organ, im - doctorates from seven British universities. provisation, and composition before graduating Keyboard Engine , subtitled “A Construction in 1930. e following year he was appointed for Two Pianos,” was composed in 2017 –18 for chief organist at the Trinité in Paris. In 1936 Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefan ovich Messiaen joined with André Jolivet, Yves on a co-commission from Cal Performances, Baudrier, and Daniel Lesur to form La Jeune the Aldeburgh Festi val, Carnegie Hall, and Köln- France, a group of young French composers Musik GmbH. In a note for the first perfor mance pledged to returning substance and sincerity to of Keyboard Engine , given at the Aldeburgh the nation’s music, which they felt had become Festival in Suffolk, England on June 18, 2018, trivialized and cynical. Messiaen was appointed Paul Griffiths wrote, “ere is a sense, the com - to the faculties of the Schola Cantorum and the poser suggests, of a machine that is in hectic ac - École-Normale that same year. Called up for tivity but stationary. We are not being taken military service at the outbreak of hostilities in anywhere; we are observing wild action, though 1939, he was captured the following summer this constructed whirlwind can be interrupted and imprisoned at Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, by gentle contrapuntal song.” As with many Silesia. ere he wrote his Quartet for the End of machines, Birtwistle’s Keyboard Engine requires Time for the musical instruments available a wide variety of components. Some tiny ones, among his fellow musician-prisoners (clarinet, simple, nearly motionless and almost inaudible, violin, cello, and piano); the work’s extraordi - become glimpsed for just seconds; some pow - nary premiere was given at the camp in 1941. erful ones achieve sufficient scale to drive a He was repatriated later that year, resuming major part of the mechanism. None seems to his position at the Trinité and joining the staff move with ease. Some start forcefully and then of the Conservatoire as professor of harmony, grind to a halt; others need winding up to get where his students came to include such im - up to speed. ey occur sequentially, maybe portant musicians as Boulez, Stockhausen, and even randomly (some of Birtwistle’s early works Xenakis. In addition to his teaching duties in were built from a dra score scissored into Paris, Messiaen gave special classes in Budapest, pieces, reassembled, and threaded together Darmstadt, Saarbruck, and Tanglewood. He again with new musical tissue), but there is the was a member of the French Institute, Academy cumulative sense that they could all operate of Beaux Arts de Baviere of Berlin, Santa Cecilia simultaneously, and that the piece is rather like Academy of Rome, and American Academy of a close-level burrowing into a machine whose Arts and Letters. He died in Paris in 1992. individual parts are encountered on the way Almost like a musical monk from Medieval through. Keyboard Engine does not so much times, Messiaen’s life, works, and religion are end as simply stop, perhaps run out of fuel, per - indivisible. “e foremost idea I wanted to ex - haps going on infinitely beyond the compass of press in music, the one that’s the most impor - this challenging, intriguing work. tant because it stands above everything else,” he wrote, “is the existence of the truths of the

2 PROGRAM NOTES

Catholic faith. I have the good luck to be a was for the organization’s third concert, on Catholic; I was born a believer and so it happens May 10, 1943, that Tual asked Messiaen to pro - that the Scriptures have always made a deep vide his new work. He began the piece early that impression on me. A number of my works are year and worked on it with inspired speed, therefore intended to illuminate the theological notifying Tual on March 15 that the score was truths of the Catholic belief. at is the first as - finished. Messiaen wrote the part for Piano II pect of my work, the noblest, probably the most for himself and conceived Piano I for Yvonne useful, the most valid, and the only one perhaps Loriod, a brilliant 19-year-old student at the that I shall not regret at the hour of my death.” Paris Conservatoire whom he was to marry in Few of his compositions, however, are specifi - 1961, following the death of his long-incapaci - cally liturgical, Messiaen having chosen rather tated wife. (Loriod came to be considered to address the widest possible audience in the the foremost interpreter of her husband’s piano concert hall (and, with his huge music drama works. ey both mentored French pianist Saint-François d’Assise of 1983, the opera house) Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who is among today’s in the most varied and colorful style devised by greatest champions of Messiaen’s music.) any mid-20th-century composer. Messiaen ex - Arthur Honegger attended the premiere of plained: “God being present in all things, music Visions de l’Amen and reviewed it for the jour - dealing with theological subjects can and must nal Comoedia : “I must say that this work by be extremely varied…. I have therefore…tried Olivier Messiaen seems to me to be a remark - to produce music that touches all things with - able one, of great musical richness and of true out ceasing to touch God.” grandeur in its conception. e fact that it is Soon aer Messiaen was released from his written for two pianos lends a certain auster - war-time imprisonment late in 1941, he was ap - ity…. but what does this matter given the po - pointed to the faculty of the Paris Conservatory. etic power, the constantly exalted level of the ough Messiaen had his freedom, Paris was musical discourse, and the quality of the musi - then occupied by the Nazis and conditions cal invention that is affirmed so impressively?” made carrying on his creative work difficult, so When the score was published in 1950, Mes- he welcomed an offer from the Concerts de la siaen wrote a detailed introductory note for it Pléide the following autumn to write a large- that speaks of the transcendent musical and scale composition for two pianos. e occupa - spiritual qualities he tried to embody in its tion had thoroughly disrupted life in Paris seven vast frescoes: during those years and not least in music, since “Visions de l’Amen was conceived and writ - concerts were limited and tightly controlled, ten for two pianos, demanding the maximum and performances were forbidden of works by force and diversity of sound from these instru - Jews, by those who had fled the country or to ments. I have entrusted rhythmic difficulties, the Vichy “Free Zone” in the south, or even of chord clusters, all that is velocity, charm, and unpublished scores by French composers. In tone quality to the first piano, and the principal 1942 filmmaker Denise Tual and musicologist melody, thematic elements, and all that express André Schaeffner organized the Concerts of the emotion and power to the second. Pleiades for reasons almost as much subversive “I. Amen of the Creation . God said, ‘Let there as musical, and scheduled the first events for be light!’ and there was light (Genesis). Piano I spring 1943, not in a conventional hall but has bell sounds and complex rhythms. Piano II in the Galerie Charpentier, where admission expresses the theme of Creation, the main would be strictly by invitation only to exclude theme of the work, in grand and solemn chords. undesirable Germans or known collaborators. e whole piece is a crescendo: it begins pi - (e Concerts de la Pléide managed to organ - anissimo, in the mystery of that primeval neb - ize 11 programs during the occupation.) e ula that already contains the potential of light. programming was largely French and modern, All the bells quiver in this light, the light that is including some banned compositions, and it also life.

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“II. Amen of the Stars, of the Ringed Planet . to merge into each other, and nothing remains A savage and brutal dance. e stars, suns, and but the harmonious silence of Heaven. Saturn rotate violently. God called them, and “V. Amen of the Angels, Saints, and Birdsong . they said, ‘Amen, here we are’ (Baruch). Piano II Song of the purity of the Saints: Amen. e ex - exposes the theme of the planets’ dance. is ultant calling of the birds: Amen. All the angels theme begins with five notes that are the sub - fell before the throne on their faces: Amen stance of the piece. ere are three develop - (Revelation). e song of the angels and saints, ments. A varied recapitulation of the planets’ stripped of inessentials and very pure, is fol - dance concludes the movement. lowed by a middle section based on birdsong, “III. Amen of the Agony of Jesus . Jesus suffers giving rise to more brilliant keyboard writing. and weeps. ‘O My Father, if it be possible, ese are true songs of nightingales, black - let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not birds, finches, and blackcaps mingled in a as I will, but as ou wilt’ (St. Matthew). He turbulent yet pleasant texture. A varied reca - accepts: ‘y will be done, Amen.’ Jesus is alone pit u lation of the song of the Saints is followed in the Garden of Gethsemane, face to face with by a short coda based on birdsong. his agony. ere are three musical motifs: “VI. Amen of the Judgment . ree notes, first, the curse of the Father on the sins of the frozen like the bell of Judgment. ‘Verily, I say world that are represented by Jesus at this mo - to you, Accuser, get thee hence.’ An intention - ment; secondly, a cry; and last, a heart-rending ally short and harsh piece. lament on four notes of various rhythms. “VII. Amen of the Consummation . Consum- e theme of Creation is recalled; then a long mation, Paradise. e life of the bodies in glory, silence, broken by pulsations, evokes the in a carillon of light, ‘the shining light that suffering of this hour—an unspeakable suffer - shineth more and more’ (Proverbs). Amen. ing expressed only slightly by the dripping Piano II takes up the theme of Creation and of blood. turns it into a long chorale of glory, Piano I “IV. Amen of Desire . ere are two themes surrounding it (in the lowest and highest reg - of desire. e first, slow, ecstatic, and yearning isters simultaneously) with a ceaseless carillon with deep passion: here the soul is torn by a of chords and brilliant, scintillating rhythms, terrible love that appears carnal, but there is in ever-closer rhythmic canon. Jewels of the nothing carnal about it, only a paroxysm of the Apocalypse ring, collide, dance, color, and per - thirst of Love. e two principal voices seem fume the Light of Life.” —© 2018 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music in a number of residencies, with projects at of our time and as a significant interpreter of New York’s Carne gie Hall and Lincoln Center, piano repertoire from every age, Pierre-Laurent Vien na’s Konzerthaus, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated Frank furt’s Alte Oper, the Lucerne Festival, the career. A visionary and pioneering artist re - Mozart eum Salzburg, Cité de la Musique in nowned for his musical insights, in 2017 he Paris, the Tanglewood Festival, and London’s received the prestigious International Ernst von Southbank Centre. Aimard was the artistic di - Siemens Music Prize in recognition of a life rector of the Aldeburgh Festival from 2009 to devoted to the service of music. 2016; his final season there was marked by a Aimard performs throughout the world each performance of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux season with major orchestras under conductors with the concerts programmed from dawn to including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Eötvös, midnight. Sir Simon Rattle, and Vladimir Jurowski. He is season, Aimard continues his three-year has been invited to curate, direct, and perform residency at Southbank Centre, curating a

22 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

weekend dedicated to the music of Stock - which was written for Aimard. rough his hausen. A milestone event celebrating the evo - professorship at the Hochschule Köln as well as lution of conventional pianism, Aimard also numerous series of concert lectures and work - takes the project to the Lucerne and Berlin fes - shops worldwide, he sheds an inspiring and tivals. As artist-in-residence at the Royal Con - very personal light on music of all periods. cert gebouw this season, Aimard tours with the During the 2008 –09 season Aimard was an Orchestra to the Washington Center for the associate professor at the College de France, Performing Arts and to Naples. He is also in Paris and he is a member of the Bayerische residence at the Edinburgh International Festi - Akademie der Schönen Künste. He was the val and Konzerthaus Vienna. Other highlights recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s include recitals at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg Instrumentalist Award in 2005 and was named and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall Moscow; Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America Mes siaen’s complete Catalogue d’oiseaux in in 2007. In 2015 he launched a major online Frank furt; and performances of the Goldberg resource centered on the performance and Varia tions at Philharmonie de Paris, Auditor- teaching of Ligeti’s piano music with filmed ium de Lyon, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert maste r classes and performances of the Études Hall, Her kule ssaal der Residenz in Munich, and and other works by Ligeti in collaboration with at the Palais des Beaux Arts where he is Portrait Klavier-Festival Ruhr. For more information, Artist this season. A recital tour dedicated to visit www.explorethescore.org. classical modernism and centered on the US Aimard has made many highly successful premiere of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Keyboard recordings. In 2017 he signed an exclusive Engine , composed for Aimard and Stefanovich contract with Pentatone records. His first and co-commissioned by Cal Performances, recording of the complete Catalogue d’oiseaux , sees the duo perform at Carnegie Hall and re leased last spring, has been highly praised in Chicago as well as here at UC Berkeley. by critics and audiences worldwide and hon - Orchestral performances include concerts at ored with awards including the prestigious Teatro alla Scala with Orchestra Sinfonica German Preis der deutsche Schallplattenkritik. Nazio nale della Rai, San Francisco Symphony, His recent Elliott Carter recording was honored Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle Or - with the BBC Music Magazine Jury Award chester Zürich, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, earlier this year. Aimard received a Grammy in and a tour of Germany and Belgium with the 2005 for his recording of Ives’ Concord Sonata Chamber Orchestra of Europe. and songs, and he was also presented with Ger - Born in Lyon in 1957, Aimard studied at the many’s Schallplattenkritik Honorary Prize in Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod and 2009. Aimard’s recording of Murail and Ben - in London with Maria Curcio. Early career jamin with the Bayerischer Rundfunk won the landmarks included winning first prize in the 2017 Gramophone award in the contemporary 1973 Messiaen Competition at the age of 16 and music category. his appointment, three years later, by Pierre For more information on Pierre-Laurent Boulez as the Ensemble Intercontemporain’s Aimard, visit http://pierrelaurentaimard.com. first solo pianist. Aimard has had close collaborations with Known for captivating interpretations of a wide many leading composers, including Ligeti, repertoire, Tamara Stefanovich performs at Kurtág, Stockhausen, Carter, Boulez, and the world’s major concert venues. including the George Benjamin. Recent seasons have in - Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall Tokyo, and cluded the world premieres of Harrison Birt - London’s Royal Albert and Wigmore halls. She wistle’s piano concerto Responses; Sweet disorder features in international festivals such as La and the carefully careless , as well as Carter’s last Roque d’Antheron, Salzburger Festspiele, Styri - piece, Epigrams for piano, cello, and violin, arte Graz, and Beethovenfest Bonn. Stefa novich

22B PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS has appeared with orchestras including the She also made an extensive US recital tour Cleveland and Chicago symphonies, London marking the 90th birthday of Pierre Boulez and Symphony and London Philhar monic orches - garnering exceptional reviews. tras, Bamberger Sym phon i ker, Britten Sinfonia, Tamara Stefanovich has collaborated with Deutsche Kammer philhar monie Bre men, and conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Osmo Swedish Chamber Or chestra. Vänskä, and Susanna Mälkki, as well as leading e 2018 –19 season will see Stefanovich composers including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eöt - debut with the hr-Sinfonieorchester under vös, and György Kurtág. She regularly leads ed - Jona than Stockhammer, giving the world pre - ucational projects at London’s Barbican Centre, miere of Zeynep Gedizliogu’s new piano con - the Kölner Philharmonie, and the Klavier- certo. She returns to the Stavanger Symphony Festival Ruhr, such as the innovative online Orchestra under Christian Eggen and the project of interactive pedagogical analyses of Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Boulez’ Notations (www.explorethescore.org). Michael Schønwandt for performances of Hans Stefanovich is cofounder and curator of e Abrahamsen’s Le, alone . Together with the Clearing, a newly created festival at the Portland Asko|Schönberg Ensemble Stefanovich will International Piano Series. celebrate Reinbert de Leeuw’s 80th birthday. Her discography includes the Grammy-nom - At the start of the season she joins forces with inated recording of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the Lucerne Festi - Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra with Pierre- val Orchestra for performances of Zimmer - Laurent Aimard, Pierre Boulez, and the London man’s Dialogue at the Lucerne Festival and Symphony Orchestra for Deutsche Grammo- Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Recitals with phon. Stefanovich has also recorded for the AVI Stockhausen’s Mantra lead the duo to the Ulti - and Harmonia Mundi labels, including new ma Festival Norway, Musikfest Berlin, and Lon- piano solo works by omas Larcher. Her latest don’s Southbank Centre. e duo’s current tour recording, of Hans Abra ham sen’s Concerto for includes concerts in New York (Carnegie Hall), Piano and Orchestra and 10 studies for piano Chicago (Or chestra Hall), and Chapel Hill with the WDR Sym phonie orchester Köln, was (Memorial Hall). Further recitals see Stefano - released by Winter & Winter. She has also vich perform in Cyprus, Linz, Mainz, London, recorded Quasi una fantasia and the Double and Barcelona. Concerto with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble Recent engagements have included per - and Reinbert de Leeuw/Jean-Guihen Queyras formances with the Symphonieorchester des for ECM’s complete recording of Kurtág’s works Bayer ischen Rundfunks, MDR Sinfonie - for ensemble. e recording recently received a or chester Leipzig, WDR Sinfoniesorchester five-star review in the Guardian . Köln, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and For more information on Tamara Stefano - Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. vich, visit www.tamara-stefanovich.com.

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