Advance Program Notes Emanuel Ax, piano Thursday, March 24, 2016, 7:30 PM

These Advance Program Notes are provided online for our patrons who like to read about performances ahead of time. Printed programs will be provided to patrons at the performances. Programs are subject to change.

OPUS 3 ARTISTS presents Emanuel Ax piano

Piano Sonata no. 8 in C Minor, op. 13, Pathetique Beethoven I. Grave—Allegro di molto e con brio (1770-1827) II. Adagio cantabile III. Rondo. Allegro

Six Variations on a Theme in F Major, op. 34 Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata no. 16 in G Major, op. 31, no. 1 Beethoven I. Allegro vivace (1770-1827) II. Adagio grazioso III. Rondo. Allegretto—Presto

INTERMISSION

Polonaise in C Major, op. 89 Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata no. 23 in F Minor, op. 57, Appassionata Beethoven I. Allegro assai (1770-1827) II. Andante con moto III. Allegro ma non troppo—Presto

Supported in part by gifts from family and friends in memory of David A. West

Steinway Piano

Exclusive Management: Opus 3 Artists 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North New York, NY 10016 www.opus3artists.com About Emanuel Ax Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at the were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. Additionally, he attended where he majored in French. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series and captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first International Piano Competition in . In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

Three prominent duo collaborations will be carried through Ax’s current season. Beginning with the release of sonatas by Fauré and Strauss on the Deutsche Grammophon label, Ax will partner with long-time friend and colleague Itzhak Perlman for concerts in Kansas City, Ravinia, Dallas, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and La Jolla in the first half of the season. A return visit to Japan will be followed by concerts in Paris, Berlin, Rome, Tel Aviv, and Amsterdam. As an annual guest with the New York Philharmonic he will play Brahms with Alan Gilbert, in addition to return visits to orchestras in Houston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, and duos in Philadelphia and New York with violinist in a program of Mozart sonatas. Long- standing partner Yo-Yo Ma will join him in Norfolk, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Carnegie Hall where they will program all the Beethoven sonatas for cello and piano. Solo recitals in Tokyo, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Boston will culminate in Carnegie Hall as part of the hall’s 125th anniversary celebrations in May.

Two projects were featured in the second half of the 2014-15 season for Ax, the first being a two-week Celebrate the Piano festival with the Toronto Symphony that he curated, which encompassed performances by multiple pianists, including Ax, exploring the many facets of the piano. The second was a European tour with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin that began with a joint appearance in Carnegie Hall. Throughout the season he returned to the orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Washington, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Montreal, and Ottawa. Recitals took him to Vancouver, San Francisco, and the mid-west, ending in Lincoln Center’s Tully Hall. In Europe, he returned to the Berlin Philharmonic followed by a tour to Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, and London, performing Winterreise with Simon Keenlyside, as well as both Brahms Concerti in Amsterdam and Paris with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Sir . Other European orchestras last season featured the London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, and the National Orchestras of Toulouse and Lyon.

A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, recent releases include Mendelssohn Trios with Yo-Yo- Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by , and discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. Ax has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. His other recordings include the concertos of Liszt and Schoenberg, three solo Brahms albums, an album of tangos by Astor Piazzolla, and the premiere recording of ’s Century Rolls with the Cleveland Orchestra for Nonesuch. In the 2004/05 season Ax also contributed to an International Emmy Award-winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust, which aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013 Ax’s recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year (19th century music/piano).

In recent years Ax has turned his attention toward the music of 20th-century composers, premiering works by John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof Penderecki, , and Melinda Wagner. Ax is also devoted to chamber music and has worked regularly with such artists as Young Uck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, , Peter Serkin, , and the late .

Ax resides in with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki. They have two children together, Joseph and Sarah. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia Universities. For more information, please visit www.EmanuelAx.com. Engagement Activities Thursday, March 24, 2016, 6:30 PM LUDWIG UNCHAINED: EXPLORING THE MANY FACES OF BEETHOVEN Richard Masters, PhD, assistant professor of piano, School of Performing Arts, Virginia Tech As a prelude to Emanuel Ax’s concert, Richard Masters investigates the many connections that exist between the pieces on Ax’s all-Beethoven program, explaining the German’s style and the creative evolution found in his work. Cube

Thursday, March 24, 2016 Q&A WITH EMANUEL AX Visiting artist Emanuel Ax participates in a question and answer session with Virginia Tech music students.

Special thanks to Richard Masters In the Galleries

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DATAStream February 25, 2016–May 7, 2016 Ruth C. Horton Gallery, Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery, Sherwood Payne Quillen ‘71 Reception Gallery, and Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor

DIANA COOPER: GRAND LOBBY WALL MURAL February 11, 2016-Spring 2018 Grand Lobby

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