Pieter Wispelwey, Cello Caroline Almonte, Piano
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PIETER WISPELWEY PIETER WISPELWEY, CELLO CAROLINE ALMONTE, PIANO BEETHOVEN WEDNESDAY 16 AUGUST 7pm Elisabeth Murdoch Hall with Caroline Almonte, piano 6.15pm free pre-concert talk with Zoe Knighton DURATION: Three hours with one 20-minute interval and a second 15-minute interval BACH 3 THURSDAY 17 AUGUST 7pm Elisabeth Murdoch Hall 6.15pm free pre-concert talk with Zoe Knighton DURATION: Three hours with one 20-minute interval and a second 10-minute interval BRAHMS FRIDAY 18 AUGUST 7pm Elisabeth Murdoch Hall with Caroline Almonte, piano 6.15pm free pre-concert talk with Zoe Knighton DURATION: One hour & 35-minutes with one 20-minute interval These concerts are being recorded by ABC Classic FM as part of a live-to-air broadcast. Melbourne Recital Centre acknowledges the people of the Kulin nation on whose land this concert is being presented. ELISABETH MURDOCH HALL GREAT•PERFORMERS•••••••2017 Photo: John Gollings PIETER WISPELWEY WELCOME EUAN MURDOCH, CEO Wominjeka, welcome to this On behalf of everyone gathered extraordinary trio of concerts by one in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall tonight, 5 of the world’s greatest cellists, Pieter I extend our appreciation to Pieter Wispelwey. He’s simply one of the most and Caroline for sharing this wonderful interesting musicians on the scene, music with us. Thank you to the Legal with a curiosity and wit to match his Friends of Melbourne Recital Centre formidable technical facility. for their generous support of these concerts as the Great Performers Over three nights we’ll hear the Series Partner, thanks also to members complete cello and piano works of the Great Performers Leadership of Beethoven and Brahms, with Circle and The Langham, a longterm Melbourne-based pianist Caroline partner of the program. Our donors Almonte at the Steinway. These duos enable the Centre to make great are a vital part of cello repertoire, and performance accessible to more some of the most eloquent utterances Victorians. of those two great Bs. The music of the third B – Bach – is, aptly, the central Most of all, thank you for joining us panel of this triptych. Pieter is a this evening. It is a delight to be able renowned interpreter of Bach’s six to enjoy these concerts with you in suites for unaccompanied cello, both such a sublime setting. on the Baroque cello and, as we’ll hear, on the modern cello (in this case his Warm regards, 1760 Guadagnini). Playing just one or two of these almost spiritually powerful works in concert is challenging enough. Pieter is performing all six in one Euan Murdoch, evening, a rare and epic undertaking. CEO, Melbourne Recital Centre PIETER WISPELWEY IN PROFILE PIETER WISPELWEY, CELLO Photo: Mark Chew ‘A concert never works like a well-fitting shoe,’ cellist Pieter Wispelwey once said in an interview with Gramophone. ‘There’s always something disappointing or which doesn’t work. On the other hand, while performing you’re always trying to be on the edge, things happen which you hadn’t thought of - that could go beyond certain expressions and you find new meanings; a greater intensity behind the elements’. Danger and discovery are baked into the core of this mini-festival. On three successive nights, the Dutch cellist will perform the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven and Brahms, and the solo cello suites by Bach. This is a project of truly epic scope, ‘a milestone week’, says Wispelwey, who finds the Melbourne Recital centre to be his perfect home, ‘a stunningly beautiful place to perform and listen to music’. Wispelwey is that rarity in the classical music world, a truly openhearted, regenerative musician. Musicians ‘must work as creative artists’, he has said in a past interview, handling existing material with imagination, addressing traditions with a dose of skepticism, and encouraging ‘alternative approaches’ in order ‘to keep your mind fresh.’ GREAT•PERFORMERS•••••••2017 PIETER WISPELWEY One way that Wispelwey sees these human being, and internal movements evergreen works with new eyes is to were different aspects of a personality. tour and record them on instruments ‘When you present a shy character, of the period. These experiences push say the Allemande of the First Suite, him ‘to evoke the explosivity, the that shy persona can go through freshness of early instruments’, even certain experiences and react in when playing on modern instruments certain ways, and that will be different (as in these Melbourne Recital Centre in each performance.’ concerts), to capture ‘the excitement of how the first performance must Wispelwey’s playing balances elements have felt’. he admires in his teachers. Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma was ‘more of a At heart, Wispelwey is a passionate Lied singer’, playing with the sort of communicator. Central to his approach ‘inflection and words’ that is essential is to ‘reach out’ to the listener with for Bach, where ‘speech and rhetoric’ 7 his playing, and not to ‘shy away from are central. And English cellist William making things larger than life’. In a Pleeth ‘could display a raw, sensual, video for Strad magazine, Wispelwey burning passion’, believing ‘that music says that ‘music can be about anything, has a larger message that we must about individual emotion, about unearth and convey with every fiber traumas, elation. About panoramas, of our being’. landscapes. Lake and ocean, or forest, or mountain. It is rock, it is fire’. How does Wispelwey think his playing changed over the years? ‘I now Brimming with enthusiasm, Wispelwey approach with more freedom’, he uses Brahms’ F major sonata as an has said in a past interview, giving example. ‘It is a rocky piece, awesome, ‘more expression, more personal powerful, great, heroic, fierce’, he interpretation, and maybe also more says in the video, struggling to find personal involvement’. His playing now superlatives, full of ‘storm, foam’. has ‘more spice, also pepper and salt, Contrasting it with the E minor and also herbs. A more sophisticated sonata, ‘easy to play for both cello cocktail’, he adds with a laugh. and piano’, the F major is ‘challenging, uncompromising, revolutionary’. TIM MUNRO © 2017 An essential part of Wispelwey’s approach is to understand each work’s character. He talks of Bach’s Cello Suites as if each were a distinct ABOUT THE ARTISTS PIETER WISPELWEY, CELLO Pieter Wispelwey is equally at ease on Tiberghien and Alasdair Beatson and the modern or period cello. His acute he appears as a guest artist with a stylistic awareness, combined with a number of string quartets including truly original interpretation and a the Australian String Quartet. phenomenal technical mastery, has won the hearts of critics and public Wispelwey’s career spans five alike in repertoire ranging from continents and he has appeared as J.S. Bach to Schnittke, Elliott Carter soloist with many of the world’s leading and works composed for him. orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St Paul’s Highlights of the 2016 - 2017 season Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony, have included a play-direct project Yomiuri Nippon, Tokyo Philharmonic, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony, Sydney Symphony a performance of the complete Bach Orchestra, London Philharmonic, suites at Auditorium de Lyon and the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC City Recital Hall in Sydney, Scottish Symphony, Orchestra of the performances of Tavener’s Svyati Age of Enlightenment, Academy of with the Flanders Radio Choir and Ancient Music, Gewandhaus Orchester two recitals at King’s Place in London Leipzig, Danish National Radio as part of their ‘Cello Unwrapped’ Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra season. Pieter will also give this series and Camerata Salzburg. Conductor of extraordinary recitals here at collaborations include Ivan Fischer, Melbourne Recital Centre as part Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, of the Great Performers Series, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jeffrey Tate, performing the complete Bach Suites, Kent Nagano, Sir Neville Marriner, Beethoven’s complete works for cello Philippe Herreweghe, Vassily Sinaisky, and piano, and the two cello sonatas Vladimir Jurowski, Louis Langrée, by Brahms over the course of three Marc Minkowski, Ton Koopman and consecutive evenings. Sir Roger Norrington. Pieter Wispelwey enjoys chamber With regular recital appearances in music collaborations and regular London (Wigmore Hall), Paris (Châtelet, duo partners include pianists Cédric Louvre), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw, GREAT•PERFORMERS•••••••2017 PIETER WISPELWEY ‘ Intelligent, penetrating musicianship and lyrical commitment.’ THE GUARDIAN (U.K.) Muziekgebouw), Brussels (Bozar), Pieter Wispelwey’s impressive Berlin (Konzerthaus), Milan (Societta discography of over 20 albums, del Quartetto), Buenos Aires (Teatro available on Channel Classic, Onyx Colón), Sydney (Sydney Opera House), and Evil Penguin Classics, has attracted Los Angeles (Walt Disney Hall) and New major international awards. His most York (Lincoln Center), Wispelwey has recent concerto release features the established a reputation as one of C.P.E. Bach Cello Concerto in A major the most charismatic recitalists on with the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the circuit. whilst he is also midway through an 9 imaginative project to record the In 2012 Wispelwey celebrated his 50th complete duo repertoire of Schubert birthday by embarking on a project and Brahms. Other recent releases showcasing the Bach Cello Suites. He include Lalo’s Cello Concerto, recorded the complete Suites for the Saint-Saen’s Concerto No.2 and the third time, released on the label ‘Evil