Arcadi Volodos
Pianomania!
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Tuesday, 20:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationPricing
50% – Under 30 years old
15% – Over 65 years old
- Piano
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Arcadi Volodos
Piano
Born in St Petersburg in 1972, Arcadi Volodos began his musical studies with lessons in singing and conducting. He did not begin serious training as a pianist until 1987 at the St Petersburg Conservatory before pursuing advanced studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Galina Egiazarova and in Paris and Madrid.
Since making his New York debut in 1996, Volodos has performed throughout the world in recital and with the most eminent orchestras and conductors. He has worked with, among others, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre de Paris, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the Boston and Chicago Symphony orchestras, collaborating with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Paavo Järvi, Christoph Eschenbach, Semyon Bychkov and Riccardo Chailly.
Piano recitals have played a central role in Volodos’s artistic life since he began his career. His repertoire includes major works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev and Ravel together with less often performed pieces by Mompou, Lecuona and de Falla.
Volodos is a regular guest of the most prestigious concert halls of Europe. In the season 2021 he will appear at the Philharmonie in Paris, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Salzburg Festival, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Tonhalle in Zurich, Latvian National Opera in Riga and at Dresden, Granada, Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Verbier and Ljubliana Festivals.
Since his Gramophone Award-winning debut recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall, released by Sony Classical in 1999, Arcadi Volodos has recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums. These include revelatory interpretations of Schubert sonatas and Rachmaninoff solo pieces, and live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, conducted by James Levine, and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Volodos Plays Liszt, released in 2007, attracted numerous prizes, while his Musikverein recital from 2010 was released on CD and DVD to rapturous international critical acclaim. His 2013 solo album Volodos Plays Mompou, devoted to works by the Spanish composer Frederic Mompou received a Gramophone Award and the Echo-Preis.
Volodos Plays Brahms is the last recording published in April 2017, an album of thirteen piano pieces by Johannes Brahms, including Opus 117 & 118 and a selection of op. 76. Immediately considered a landmark on the music scene, the album has been awarded in November 2017 with the Edison Classical Award and the Diapason d’Or and recently with the prestigious Gramophone Award 2018 as the best instrumental recording of the year. In October 2019 Sony Classical released his latest recording Volodos Plays Schubert including Sonate D959 and Minuets D334, D335 and D600, which received the Edison Classical Award (2020) in the category Solo Instrumental.
Homage to Alicia de Larrocha
Federico Mompou
Scènes d’enfants
1. Cris dans la rue
2. Jeux sur la plage
3. Jeu II
4. Jeu III
5. Jeunes filles au jardin
Federico Mompou
Música callada (selection)
1. Primer cuaderno – I. Angelico
2. Primer cuaderno – II. Lent
3. Cuarto cuaderno – XXVII. Lento molto
4. Cuarto cuaderno – XXIV. Moderato
5. Cuarto cuaderno – XXV. (untitled)
6. Segundo cuaderno – XI. Allegretto
7. Segundo cuaderno – XV. Lento-plaintif
8. Cuarto cuaderno – XXII. Molto lento e tranquilo
9. Segundo cuaderno – XVI. Calme
10. Primer cuaderno – VI. Lento
11. Tercer cuaderno – XXI. Lento
12. Cuarto cuaderno – XXVIII. Lento
— INTERMISSION 20 min —
Alexander Scriabin
Еtude No. 2 in F-sharp minor, op. 8
Еtude No. 11 in B-flat minor, op. 8
Prelude No. 14 in E-flat minor, op. 11
Prelude No. 1 in B major, op. 16
Prelude No. 4 in E-flat minor, op. 16
Prelude No. 3 in B major, op. 22
Prelude No. 1 in B-flat minor, op. 37
Poème No. 1- Masque, op. 63
Poème No. 2 – Étrangeté, op. 63
Poème No. 2 op. 71
Danse No. 2 – Flammes Sombres, op. 73
Sonata No. 10, op. 70
Vers la flamme, op. 72
Though only choosing to focus on piano at the age of 16, Arcadi Volodos never intended that his natural virtuosity should only serve to compensate for this late decision. No fan of the endless rehearsal of the same pieces, believing that robotic repetition kills spontaneity, he prefers to prepare mentally for his performances. He will bring two composers to Gulbenkian Música that are particularly dear to him: Scriabin, whose work he says is “a faithful and inextricable portrait of his mystical evolution”. Through Mompou’s music, he pays homage to the legendary pianist Alicia de Larrocha, and seems to have direct access to the mind of the composer.
Main Sponsor Gulbenkian Música
Piano Series Sponsor
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