January 31, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Guest Conductor Yakov Kreizberg makes his Oregon Symphony debut with Mahler’s heroic Symphony No. 1 in D major, “Titan,” in a concert that also features pianist Piotr Anderszewski making his Symphony debut performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major on March 1, 2 and 3 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. This concert is funded by a grant from the E. Nakamichi Foundation and the Jackson Foundation, with media support provided by The Oregonian.
Kreizberg, the current Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, has just been appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Netherlands Philharmonic and Netherlands Chamber Orchestras and will begin his new appointment this September. According to The Times of London, “Yakov Kreizberg’s platform manner says it all…His gestures are expressive, yet economical and precise. The orchestra, the notes of the score, the music’s soul: all appear under his total control.” He has performed extensively in Europe with some of the world’s finest ensembles, including the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich and the NHK Symphony. Kreizberg has also appeared with a number of American orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Boston Symphony, and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.
Anderszewski, the 2002 winner of the Gilmore Artist Award, has appeared with orchestras worldwide, including the Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony, Orchestre National de Paris, Vienna Radio Symphony, the London Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Warsaw Philharmonic and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, among others. He is currently a Virgin Classics label artist, and has recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations with them. This recording went on to win a Diapason d’Or and Le Choc Monde de la Musique in France. Anderszewski’s latest release on the Virgin label is a disc of Mozart piano concerti with the Sinfonia Varsovia featuring Anderszewski as both player and director. His future recording plans include a solo Bach disc of the first, third and sixth Partitas.
Kreizberg and Anderszewski open the concert with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, continuing the Symphony’s Beethoven piano concerto cycle. This concerto, although published before the second Piano Concerto in B-flat major, was in fact written after that work. Beethoven chose to publish this larger and grander work first, in order to establish himself as a composer of merit who could write magnificent and challenging music for the piano. After intermission Kreizberg leads the Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major, “Titan.” Mahler considered this first symphony a symphonic poem with a loose programmatic element (which he later repudiated) that traces the life, death and resurrection of a man. Listen for spooky quotes of “Frère Jacques” in the third movement and the powerful closing fourth movement, an appropriate ending for a symphony every bit as epic as its title implies.
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Violinist Ron Blessinger will lead a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Guest Conductor Yakov Kreizberg will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINKfm102.
Audience members are invited to stay for a 15-20 minute panel discussion with Symphony staff and guest artists. Media support for “Sunday Post-Concert Discussion” is provided by KBPS Classical 89.9 FM.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, March 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, March 3 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $16 to $72 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets may also be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply. Group sales are available for this concert and can be arranged by contacting Jeannine York at 503-416-6375.
.The Russian-born conductor Yakov Kreizberg has established a superb international reputation both in the opera house and on the concert podium. Appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Netherlands Philharmonic and Netherlands Chamber Orchestras as of September 2003, he is currently Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra. At the end of the 2000/01 season he relinquished the post of Generalmusikdirector of the Komische Oper Berlin, having established a fine reputation in a wide variety of repertoire including Berthold Goldschmidt’s “Der gewaltige Hahnrei,” Verdi’s “La Traviata,” Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades,” Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “König Hirsch” by Hans Werner Henze. In 1997 he took the Komische Oper on a very successful tour of Japan and was awarded the ‘Kritikerpreis für Musik’ by the Verband der Deutschen Kritiker for his work with the company.
Yakov Kreizberg was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 1995-2000. His tenure in Bournemouth attracted much critical acclaim and his successful tours with the orchestra included USA, Germany, a mini-residency at the Musikverein in Vienna and concerts at the Concertgebouw.
Born in St Petersburg, Yakov Kreizberg started taking piano lessons at the age of five. He studied conducting privately with Ilya A. Musin, (the renowned Professor of Conducting from the St. Petersburg Conservatory), before emigrating to the United States in 1976. There he was awarded conducting fellowships at Tanglewood with Bernstein, Ozawa and Leinsdorf, as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, where he was invited back as assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas. Rapidly establishing a strong reputation in the United States, Mr. Kreizberg won the Eugene Ormandy prize from the University of Michigan and in 1986 was awarded first prize in the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York. From 1985 to 1988 he was Music Director of Mannes College Orchestra in New York and from 1988 to 1994 held a highly successful tenure as General Music Director of Krefeld / Mönchengladbach Opera House and the Niederrheinischer Sinfoniker.
Yakov Kreizberg's career has taken on international breadth with a wide range of engagements as guest conductor with orchestras in Europe and elsewhere, including the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony (including a tour to Japan in 2003/04), WDR Köln, NDR Hamburg, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic (with whom this season he will tour Japan), Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Israel Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Swedish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich and NHK Symphony.
Yakov Kreizberg regularly visits the BBC Proms; following a highly successful debut in August 1993 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he returned in Summer 1994 with the Australian Youth Orchestra, as part of their European tour, conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in August 1995 and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on many occasions.
Yakov Kreizberg’s list of North American engagements is impressive and includes the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Chicago, San Francisco, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, St Louis, Boston, Indianapolis, Washington National, Montreal and Toronto Symphony Orchestras.
In addition to his performances at the Komische Oper, Yakov Kreizberg has conducted for Canadian Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and English National Opera. His outstanding debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera when he conducted “Jenufa” received great critical acclaim (to quote The Sunday Times ‘one of the most sensational debuts here in living memory’) and led to a reinvitation for the 1995 Glyndebourne Festival to conduct “Don Giovanni” and a return in Summer 1998 to conduct “Katya Kabanová.”
Piotr Anderszewski is among the most compelling of the current generation of pianists. Since launching his international career at London's Wigmore Hall in 1991 with a recital featuring Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Mr. Anderszewski has continued to capture the attention of critics and audiences worldwide with his distinctive interpretations and commanding technique.
In April 2002, Piotr Anderszewski became the recipient of the 2002 Gilmore Artist Award. Only the fourth pianist to have been so honored, the Gilmore Artist Award is made to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who desires and can sustain a career as a major international concert artist.
Mr. Anderszewski's worldwide orchestral engagements have included performances with the Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony, Orchestre National in Paris, Vienna Radio Symphony, the London Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Warsaw Philharmonic and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, among others. He made his U.S. orchestral debut during the 2000-01 season with the Detroit Symphony and his New York orchestral debut last summer at the Mostly Mozart Festival. Among the distinguished conductors with whom Mr. Anderszewski has collaborated are Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Markus Stenz, Claus Peter Flor, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Christopher Hogwood, Charles Dutoit and Emmanuel Krivine.
Mr. Anderszewski has appeared in recital in most of the major European venues, from London’s Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls to the Théâtre des Champs Elysees and Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and Vienna's Musikverein. His recitals in Chicago and Ann Arbor in the fall of 2001 were enthusiastically received and he returned to Chicago in June 2002, replacing Daniel Barenboim on the Chicago Symphony’s Piano Recital Series.
In addition to England's Cheltenham Festival, Mr. Anderszewski's festival appearances have included Norway's Bergen International Festival; Scotland's Edinburgh International Festival; and, in France, La Roque d'Anthéron Festival International de Piano. His 2001-02 season included performances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonic de Radio France and the BBC Symphony; recitals at Tokyo's Opera City Hall and at the Lucerne Festival; and summer festival appearances in England, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal.
In 2002-03, Mr. Anderszewski is scheduled to make his debuts with the orchestras of Atlanta, Cincinnati, Montreal and Oregon and he will also perform in recital in San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Highlights of his 2002-03 season in Europe include performances with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Camerata Salzburg and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, recitals in Paris, Vienna, Hamburg and Budapest as well as throughout Italy and the UK.
Piotr Anderszewski's first disc – featuring works by Bach, Beethoven and Webern – won the Polish Critics' Prize and an all-Bach disc for Harmonia Mundi was issued early in 1999. He has also recorded two sonata discs with Viktoria Mullova for Philips Classics. In 2000, he became an exclusive Virgin Classics artist and in May 2001, his first release on that label – Beethoven's Diabelli Variations – coincided with a film by the renowned Bruno Monsaingeon in which Anderszewski’s particularly personal relationship with the work is captured on a similar format to that of Monsaingeon’s film of Glenn Gould’s Goldberg Variations. The disc earned a Diapason d’Or and Le Choc Monde de la Musique in France and is receiving major critical recognition in the UK and the US. His latest release for Virgin is a disc of Mozart piano concerti with the Sinfonia Varsovia featuring Anderszewski as both player and director. Future recording plans include a solo Bach disc of the first, third and sixth Partitas.
In May 2001, Piotr Anderszewski was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s “Best Instrumentalist” Award. This award was given for his concerto and chamber music performances throughout the UK, in particular at the 2000 Cheltenham Festival, where he was artist in residence. He joins an illustrious list of previous winners including Murray Perahia, Itzhak Perlman, and Andras Schiff. He has also received the prestigious Szymanowski Prize for his interpretation of that composer’s music and has been the recipient of support from the Miami-based Patrons for Exceptional Artists Foundation.
Born in 1969 to Polish-Hungarian parents, Mr. Anderszewski began playing the piano at the age of six and studied at the Lyon and Strasbourg Conservatories, the University of Southern California, and the Chopin Academy in Warsaw.