with works by Robert Schumann, Louise Farrenc, Ignaz Moscheles
Program:
Louise Farrenc: Sonata for violoncello and piano in B flat major, Op. 46
Robert Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 2, op 121 - arranged for violoncello by Steven Isserlis
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Ignaz Moscheles: Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 121
Steven Isserlis,violoncello
The British cellist Steven Isserlis, Commander of the British Empire, is celebrated worldwide for his astounding technique and his extraordinary musicality and creativity.
As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich as well as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
As a regular guest at Wigmore Hall, the 92nd St Y in New York and the Salzburg Festival, he gives recitals and chamber music concerts with partners such as Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, András Schiff, Stephen Hough, Olli Mustonen, Connie Shih and Richard Egarr. He likes to arrange his programs around particular themes, including explorations of Czech music, the cello's affinity with the human voice, music during the First World War in The Cello in Wartime and, most recently, the mutual inspiration of composers in Composers and their Muses.
Recent and upcoming highlights in German-speaking countries include concerts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Münchener Kammerorchester. He has performed recitals and chamber music programs at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Dresden Music Festival, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and the Kissinger Sommer.
Steven Isserlis' great interest lies in historical performance practice. He performs with the leading baroque orchestras and often conducts chamber orchestras himself from the cello. As an equally enthusiastic interpreter of contemporary music, he has worked with composers such as John Tavener, Wolfgang Rihm and György Kurtag and premiered numerous works.
Isserlis is also the author of several children's books and a regular guest contributor to Gramophone Magazine and the BBC. His latest book The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion, published by Faber & Faber, won the Presto Music Award for Book of the Year. He is in demand as a teacher, giving masterclasses at Kronberg Academy and as Artistic Director of the International Music Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall.
Isserlis' award-winning discography includes Bach's solo cello suites, recordings of the great cello concertos under Paavo Järvi, Beethoven's cello sonatas with Robert Levin, Lieux retrouvés with Thomas Adés and Haydn's cello concertos with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.
Isserlis has received the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, the Piatigorsky Prize, the Glashütte Original MusikFestspiel Prize and the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, among others. In 2013, he was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame - one of only two cellists to receive this honor in his lifetime.
Connie Shih
The Canadian pianist Connie Shih is repeatedly described as an exceptional artist. Born in Vancouver, she began playing the piano at the age of five as the youngest of three talented sisters. At the age of nine, she made her orchestral debut playing Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. At the age of 12, she was the youngest student of György Sebök and later continued her studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with Claude Frank, a student of Arthur Schnabel, and with Fou Ts'ong in Europe.
In 1993, Connie Shih was awarded the Sylva Gelber Prize for the most outstanding classical artist under the age of 30. In addition to international appearances as a soloist with orchestra, she has given numerous concerts in Canada, the United States, Iceland, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan and China.
As a celebrated chamber music partner, Shih has worked with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Maxim Vengerov, Isabelle Faust, Joshua Bell, Sir Simon Keenlyside and Tabea Zimmermann and has performed at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Bath Music Festival as well as at the festivals of Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Weill Hall (New York), Verbier, Lucerne and Kronberg. With her duo partner, cellist Steven Isserlis, she regularly performs worldwide to critical acclaim.
In the 2023/24 season, they will tour Asia, America and Europe as well as a five-day concert series dedicated to Gabriel Faure at Wigmore Hall with Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, Irène Duval and Blythe Teh- Engstroem .With Steven Isserlis she has recorded the critically acclaimed CDs "A Golden Cello Decade" (2022) Shortlisted for a Gramophone Award "Music from Proust's Salon" (2021) and "The Cello in Wartime" (2017) as well as the first recording of Carl Reinecke's sonatas for piano and cello and the Beethoven sonatas with cellist Manuel Fischer-Dieskau. The release of a new CD with Steven Isserlis is planned for next year.Connie's performances are frequently broadcast on television and radio by CBC (Canada), BBC (UK), SWR, NDR and WDR (Germany) as well as various other television and radio stations in North America, Asia and Europe.
Connie was a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz and the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. Since 2022 she has been Professor of Piano and Piano Chamber Music at the Mozarteum Salzburg. She also gives masterclasses at music institutes around the world and has lectured at the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy and at the Musiktage am Rhein. She is a lecturer at the Mozarteum Summer Academy.
