Kirill Gerstein & Mao Fujita in Recital

Experience an extraordinary evening of piano artistry as acclaimed pianist Kirill Gerstein appears with his brilliant protégé Mao Fujita at the Ark Hall, Tokorozawa Civic Cultural Centre. This special concert offers a rare glimpse into the powerful artistic bond between master and student. A recipient of the Gilmore Artist Award and professor at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule, Gerstein is internationally celebrated for his imaginative interpretations and distinctive blend of classical and jazz influences. Mao Fujita, silver medalist at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, has rapidly emerged as one of the most compelling pianists of his generation. Schubert: Variations Op. 46; Schumann: Andante and Variations Op. 46; Ravel: La Valse; Busoni: Duettino concertante based on Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19; Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances Op. 45; Debussy: Lindaraja; Rachmaninoff: Waltz for 4 Hands Op.11, No.4

Michael Nyman in Concert

The Michael Nyman Band live at Studio Halle: Michael Nyman, who is famous for his Oscar nominated film score for Jane Campion’s film “The Piano”, is without doubt one of the great contemporary composers. Fitting the theme of the Handel-Year 2009, Michael Nyman celebrated the German premiere of his newest composition “The Musicologist Scores” in Handel’s hometown Halle. In that piece the composer looks deeply into the subject of Handel’s work. Furthermore, many other of Nyman’s works were performed. All over the world the powerful, energetic playing of The Michael Nyman Band – developed under Nyman‘s leadership over a period of three decades – brings his works to sparkling life and has long since become a characteristic feature of his music.

Pierre Hantaï and Skip Sempé play Rameau’s “Symphonies for two harpsichords”

At the Chikurin Banquet Hall of Tokyo’s famous Gajoeng Hotel, Pierre Hantaï and Skip Sempé present their successful chamber music programme of Rameau’s “Symphonies for two Harpsichords”. It comprises transcriptions compiled from nine different works, among them Rameau’s first opera Hippolyte et Aricie, as well as Dardanus, Les Indes galantes, and the composer’s instrumental masterwork Pièces de clavecin en concert. Hantaï and Sempé, two artists situated at the forefront of today’s musical personalities in Renaissance and Baroque music, create a stunning atmosphere in this private recital. Recorded in the picturesque surrounding of extravagant Japanese-style murals and artworks preserved from the old Gajoen buildings – which used to be one of Japan’s first wedding complexes back in the 1930s –, this concert is a pleasure for both the eye and the ear.

Filippo Gorini plays The Art of Fugue

There is no doubt that Filippo Gorini is one of the great thinkers of our time, and his performance of Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) is not just a release: it is

a whole project. Bach’s unfinished masterpiece (BWV 1080) is of unspecified instrumentation, and there are many different attempts to realise it. It dates from Bach’s last decade, and comprises 14 Fugues and four Canons; the final Fugue, incomplete, is left hanging in the air, unforgettably. Gorini has spoken about letting that ending surprise him every time, even in the recording studio. Such a compositional exploration was unparalleled at the time. Bach’s writing in this piec is the absolute distillation of his contrapuntal thinking. Not a single note is wasted; the piece requires supreme concentration from its performer. Gorini is fascinated by the dialogue between the voices in contrapuntal music, a fascination that shines through every note. The performance is peaceful, and extremely profound; what Gorini himself refers to as a “timeless beauty”.

Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim & Boulez Ensemble

Mozart’s Gran Partita is a Serenade for thirteen instruments: twelve winds and double bass. The work in seven movements became world-famous far beyond the borders of classical music through Miloš Forman’s film Amadeus: Antonio Salieri’s first encounter with Mozart takes place at a performance of the Gran Partita. Igor Stravinsky’s highly original Octet combines woodwind and brass instruments. The three-movement composition, premiered in 1923 in Paris, is considered an important work in Stravinsky’s neoclassical style. Conducted by Zubin Mehta the Boulez Ensemble performs in the concentrated studio-like atmosphere of the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. PROGRAM: Stravinsky: Octet for Wind Instruments; Mozart: Serenade “Gran Partita”

Cameron Carpenter at Konzerthaus Berlin

The exceptional organist Cameron Carpenter has been a guest in many major venues worldwide. However, he has a particularly close friendship with the Konzerthaus Berlin, not least because in the 2017/18 season he was Artist in Residence with the Berliner Konzerthausorchester am Gendarmenmarkt, where he also performed with his specially built organ. This instrument was the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream. The International Touring Organ (ITO), which was made according to his plans, enables him to perform at almost any place in the world – a matter of course for most instrumentalists, but a revolution for Cameron Carpenter as an organist. Carpenter played with this huge instrument in a corona-empty concert hall. Works by J.S. Bach, François Couperin, G.F. Händel, Krzysztof Penderecki and Cameron Carpenter.

Beethoven – The Piano Trios

On the occasion of Beethoven’s 250th birthday Daniel Barenboim, Michael Barenboim and Kian Soltani present his trios for piano, violin and cello on a total of two concert evenings in the intimate Boulez Hall – including the curious and rarely played variations on the song “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu“. A celebrated concert pianist, Beethoven had various motives as a composer: his piano trios were to show his virtuosity as well as to experiment with musical forms and techniques that would bear fruit in other genres. All of this is illuminated in these special concert evenings by the three outstanding musicians, whose interplay provoked rave reviews: “Kian Soltani’s silky cello tone rises from zero to the highest longing in just a few bars. The unison unanimity with Michael Barenboim is just as beguiling. […] While violin and cello drift into timelessness over softly thundering, tremoloing piano bass, one literally gets into a trance” (Der Tagesspiegel). Daniel Barenboim’s “incontrovertible identification with the music ‘itself’” is as captivating as their whole interplay: “as vigorous as it was euphonious, as impetuous as it was sublime” (Seen and Heard International).

Daniel Barenboim plays Beethoven Piano Sonatas

Daniel Barenboim is one of the most accomplished Beethoven experts of our time. From the very beginning of his career, he has been intensively and repeatedly engaged with the composer’s manifold works. Barenboim marked the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth by recording his thirty-two piano sonatas at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal. The exceptional musician has been exploring Beethoven’s music for more than seven decades and his fifth complete survey of the sonatas arose from a period of deep immersion in Beethoven’s scores due to the cancellation of public concerts because of the coronavirus pandemic. With this sonata cycle, the great Daniel Barenboim has set himself a legacy!