Matan Porat, Piano:
Variations on a Theme by Scarlatti
Monday, January 25, 2016 at 8:30pm
92Y - Buttenwieser Hall
The young Israeli pianist and composer Matan Porat makes his 92Y debut with the program from his latest recording, “Variations on a Theme by Scarlatti,” hailed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “a fantastic album that one should hear over and over again.” Mr. Porat begins and ends with the theme from Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Minor K32, written in 1739. In just under one hour, Mr. Porat plays compositions from Couperin to Debussy, Boulez to Porat’s own improvisation, all of which refer to the same Scarlatti motif. In the span of 24 pieces played in succession, Porat covers nearly 300 years of classical piano repertoire and illustrates the ubiquity of the popular tune over the past three centuries.
Matan Porat, piano
SCARLATTI: Sonata in D minor, K. 32
COUPERIN: Pièces de clavecin, III (19ème Ordre): La Muse-Plantine
JANÁČEK: Intimate Sketches: Just blind fate?
MENDELSSOHN: Lied ohne Worte, Op. 62, No. 1
GRIEG: Lyric Piece, Op. 12, No. 1
BARTÓK: Mikrokosmos, Book 6: From the Diary of a Fly
BRAHMS: Intermezzo in E minor, Op. 116, No. 5
CHOPIN: Mazurka in E minor, Op. 17, No. 2
BOULEZ: Notation, No. 11
SCHUMANN: Waldszenen, Op. 82: Vogel als Prophet
SATIE: Gnossienne No. 2
DEBUSSY: Preludes, Livre 1: Des pas sur la neige
BACH: Partita No. 1, BWV 825: Gigue
SHOSTAKOVICH: Dances of the Dolls, Op. 91b: Lyric Waltz
BEETHOVEN: Bagatelle in A-flat major, Op. 33, No. 7
BOULEZ: Notation, No. 4
MOZART: Gigue in G major, K. 574
LISZT: Années de pèlerinage: Vallée d'Obermann
LIGETI: Musica ricercata: V. Rubato. Lamentoso
KURTÁG: Játékok: Doina
BOULEZ: Notation, No. 8
SCRIABIN: Vers la flamme, Op. 72
PORAT: Improvisation
SCARLATTI: Sonata in D minor, K. 32
Tickets: $25 (35 & under), $30
Artist Website: Matan Porat
Buster Keaton’s “The General” with pianist Matan Porat
Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 7:30pm
92Y – Kaufmann Concert Hall
Part of “Seeing Music” Festival
Opening the Seeing Music Festival at the 92Y, pianist Matan Porat revives the nearly bygone art of accompanying silent film. Mr. Porat, one of the few artists who still invest in classical music improvisation, will recreate a musical score for solo piano to Buster Keaton’s epic cinematic masterpiece“The General.” The score is fully improvised for the length of the one hour fifty minute film. Mr. Porat’s live scoring of the 1926 comedy in Marlboro, Vermont was lauded by The New Yorker as "an astounding feat of creative musicianship."
Matan Porat, piano
KEATON: “The General”
Tickets: $25 (35 and under), $35, $45
Artist Website: Matan Porat
Brentano String Quartet & Gabriel Calatrava:
Bach’s “The Art of Fugue”
Saturday, January 30, 2016 at 8pm
92Y – Kaufmann Concert Hall
Part of “Seeing Music” Festival
“The Art of Fugue,” Bach’s late unfinished masterpiece, is one of the most analyzed and regarded works among musical academics worldwide. As a part of “Seeing Music” and commissioned by 92Y, the Brentano Quartet, engineer Gabriel Calatrava, and choreographer John-Mario Sevilla collaborate to produce a performance experience which illuminates the ways in which Bach inspires not only musicians, but visual artists as well. To physically articulate Bach’s contrapuntal masterpiece, Mr. Calatrava designed a moving installation inspired by Bach’s fugal lines, the strings on musical instruments, and the children’s game Cat’s Cradle. It will be operated by a corps of dancers responding to the music performed by the Brentano String Quartet. Calatrava reflects on the project, "My fascination with moving architecture inspired me to design a set piece that serves as both a work of art and a functional installation that reacts to music."
Brentano String Quartet
Gabriel Calatrava, art installation and set design (92Y commission)
John-Mario Sevilla, choreographer
BACH: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 with interlude for spoken voices by Itamar Moses (92Y commission)
Tickets: $25 (35 and under), $35, $45, $55, $65
Artist Websites: Brentano String Quartet, Gabriel Calatrava
Composers Inspired by Art with Pianist Garrick Ohlsson
Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 3pm
92Y – Kaufmann Concert Hall
Part of “Seeing Music” Festival
From opposite ends of Europe, the Spaniard Enrique Granados and Russian Modest Mussorgsky shared a commonality: a penchant for paintings. Highlighting the ways in which composers often draw their inspiration from the visual arts, Grammy Award-winning pianist Garrick Ohlsson plays Granados’s Goyescas Op. 11 and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Granados, a great admirer of Francisco Goya, echoes Goya’s vast artistic abilities, ranging from sensual and racy to sinister and bizarre. Finding his musical impetus from Viktor Hartmann’s drawings and watercolors, Mussorgsky wrote Pictures at an Exhibition to roughly imitate the experience of walking through a Hartmann exhibition. These paintings will be displayed before the performance and during intermission, giving audience members various perspectives on the ways art can influence music.
Professor Tim Barringer – Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art at Yale University – will give a pre-concert talk at 1:30pm on Goya and Hartmann's art, their relationship to music, and how the composers interpreted paintings into such vivid sonic portraits.
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
GRANADOS: Goyescas, Op. 11
MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition
Tickets: $25 (35 and under), $35, $45, $55
Artist Website: Garrick Ohlsson
Chamber Ensembles: Zukerman Trio
Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 7:30pm
92Y – Kaufmann Concert Hall
Pinchas Zukerman is a living musical legend. The illustrious violinist, also a successful violist, conductor, artistic director, chamber musician, and educator, brings his colleagues Amanda Forsyth, cello, and Angela Cheng, piano, together at 92Y for their “Chamber Ensembles” series. The widely celebrated Zukerman Trio perform two “nickname-worthy” chamber pieces – the Dvořák “Dumky” Trio, one of the composer’s most beloved works, as well as Beethoven’s “Archduke” Trio. The dumky, Slavic songs of lament interspersed with dances, and the Archduke Trio, written for the Archduke Rudolph of Austria, are in the worthy hands of the ensemble Limelight Magazine calls a “trio made in heaven.”
Zukerman Trio:
Pinchas Zukerman, violin
Amanda Forsyth, cello
Angela Cheng, piano
DVOŘÁK: Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90, “Dumky”
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, “Archduke”
Tickets: $25 (35 and under), $35, $45, $55
Artist Websites: Pinchas Zukerman, Amanda Forsyth, Angela Cheng
Beethoven Sonatas with Julian Rachlin, violin and Clifford Ross, video & stage installation
Saturday, February 6, 2o16 at 8pm
92Y – Kaufmann Concert Hall
Part of “Seeing Music” Festival
Beethoven’s violin sonatas are some of the most lush and colorful in the repertory. In a musical/visual collaboration between violinist Julian Rachlinand visual artist Clifford Ross, Mr. Rachlin plays four of Beethoven’s violin sonatas alongside elements of Mr. Ross’s brilliant abstract video, Hurricane Waves, which invites us to share his personal encounters with nature and the power of moving water. Commissioned by the 92Y, these two virtuosi in their respective fields create a modern-day interpretation of truly timeless music and imagery. Rachlin states, “It is always a thrill to be able to put creative minds together in order to cross genres and attempt something experimental. 92nd Street Y attendees are in for a real treat – to experience Beethoven Sonatas and Clifford Ross’ installation complimenting one another. I view Clifford as one of today’s most inspired artists, and am honored to join him for this project.”
Julian Rachlin, violin
Magda Amara, piano
Clifford Ross, video & stage installation (92Y commission)
BEETHOVEN:
Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12
Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 30
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”
Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96
Tickets: $25 (35 and under), $35, $45, $55
Artist Websites: Julian Rachlin, Magda Amara, Clifford Ross
Australian Chamber Orchestra, “The Reef”
Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 7:30pm
92Y – Kaufmann Concert Hall
Part of “Seeing Music” Festival
The Australian Chamber Orchestra sets a genre-defying soundtrack against spectacular projected images of the arid Australian desert, sky, and ocean at the Ningaloo Coast in a film that features some of the best surfers in the world. “The Reef,” a 100-minute film shot in remote Western Australia, is entirely underscored by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, weaving together repertoire as diverse as Rameau, Alice in Chains, Bach, Pete Seeger, and many in between. Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, himself a passionate surfer, believes that surfing itself is “the perfect intersection of mind, physical culture, and art.” Audience members are not just hearing a multi-genre concert, or viewing a film about surfing: they experience the two simultaneously as a brilliantly integrated performance piece.
CREATIVE TEAM
Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director & Violin
Mick Sowry, Writer, Producer & Director
Jon Frank, Director of Photography
Simon Yeo, Executive Producer
Mick Sowry & Jon Frank, Editors
Derek Hynd, Director of Surfing
Edward Saltau, Second Camera & IT
Joseph Nizeti, Music Technology & Artistic Assistant
FEATURED ARTISTS
Shelton Murray, Didgeridoo
Stephen Pigram, Voice & Guitar
Craig Johnston, Voice
Satu Vänskä, Voice
Jim Moginie, Guitar
Brian Ritchie, Bass Guitar
IAIN GRANDAGE / MARK ATKINS Immutable
S. PIGRAM (arr. Grandage) Being
A. PIGRAM / S. PIGRAM (arr. Grandage) Saltwater Cowboy
A. PIGRAM / S. PIGRAM / WASILIEV (arr. Grandage) Mimi
RICHARD TOGNETTI (real. Grandage) Heart of the Black Beast
RICHARD TOGNETTI Bathymetry
RICHARD TOGNETTI Beyond
GEORGE CRUMB God Music from Black Angels
RAMEAU Suite des Vents from Les Boréades
GEORGE CRUMB Electric Insects from Black Angels
LIGETI Ramifications
JS BACH (arr. Tognetti) Fugue from Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV1001
KILAR Orawa
ALICE IN CHAINS Them Bones
RACHMANINOV Vocalise
SHOSTAKOVICH (arr. Barshai) Allegro molto from Chamber Symphony, Op.110a
RICHARD TOGNETTI Dugong
RICHARD TOGNETTI Hypnosis
RICHARD TOGNETTI Visitation
RICHARD TOGNETTI Heston
RICHARD TOGNETTI Transfiguration
BEETHOVEN Cavatina from String Quartet No.13 in B-flat major, Op.130
Tickets: $25 (35 and under), $35, $45, $55
Artist Website: Australian Chamber Orchestra
Inon Barnatan, piano
Saturday, February 20, 2016 at 8pm
92Y – Kaufmann Concert Hall
Awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009, Inon Barnatan has already made a name for himself as one of the top Schubert interpreters of his generation. In the past five years, the Israeli-born pianist has released five recordings, two of which are all-Schubert, to international acclaim. Honored as the first artist-in-association of the New York Philharmonic, an appointment spanning three seasons, Barnatan has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphony Orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and in Europe. Mr. Barnatan includes Schubert in his 92Y program which explores a great breadth of artistry and technical prowess.
Inon Barnatan, piano
BACH: Chaconne (arr. Brahms)
SCHUBERT: Sonata in G major, D.894
LIGETI: Musica Ricercata
BRAHMS: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24
Tickets: $25 (35 and under), $35, $45, $55
Artist Website: Inon Barnatan
Sir András Schiff Selects: Young Pianists
Schaghajegh Nosrati, piano
Monday, February 22, 2016 at 8:30pm
92Y – Buttenwieser Hall
German-born Schaghajegh Nosrati has garnered international acclaim at competitions in Germany, Luxembourg and Indonesia; in 2014 she won second prize at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig. Her debut recording, released in early 2015, included all of Bach’s BWV 1080, “The Art of Fugue,” and was described as “an exceptionally mature debut” by WDR3 in Germany. Sir András says about Ms. Nosrati: “It is very rare that a young musician is dedicated to the music of Bach as Schaghajegh Nosrati is. She understands and plays this great music with astonishing clarity, purity and maturity.”
Now in its second season, “Sir András Schiff Selects: Young Pianists” reflects both 92Y and Sir András’s dedication to championing the next generation of performers by inviting promising young pianists, who have already garnered critical acclaim overseas, to make their US debuts at 92Y in programs of their choosing. This season, Sir András Schiff has hand-selected three pianists to perform in this intimate series in 92Y’s Buttenwieser Hall.
Schaghajegh Nosrati, piano
J.S. BACH: Contrapunctus 1-4 from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
MOZART: Sonata in D Major, KV 576
J.S. BACH: Contrapunctus 8-11 from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
BRAHMS: Fantasies, Op. 116
J.S. BACH: Contrapunctus 14 from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
Tickets: $15 (35 and under), $25, $30
Artist Website: Schaghajegh Nosrati