Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout
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Date
- 18:00 / Cancelled 18:00 / Sold out Sunday, 18:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationPricing
25% – Under 30
10% – Over 65
Cartão Gulbenkian:
50% – Under 30
20% – Over 65
10% – 30 to 65
- Violin
- Harpsichord
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Isabelle Faust
Violin
Isabelle Faust captivates her audience with her compelling interpretations. She approaches each piece with the utmost respect and sensitivity towards its musical historical context and the historic use of instruments. By combining greatest possible authenticity with a contemporary perspective, she continuously manages to create meaningful encounters with a wide variety of works for a diverse audience.
After winning the renowned Leopold Mozart Competition and the Paganini Competition at a very young age, she soon gave regular performances with the world’s major orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonics, Boston Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Les Siècles and the Baroque Orchestra Freiburg.
This led to close and sustained collaborations with conductors like Andris Nelsons, Giovanni Antonini, François-Xavier Roth, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Jakub Hrusa, Klaus Mäkelä, Robin Ticciati oder Sir Simon Rattle.
Isabelle Faust's artistic curiosity encompasses all eras and forms of instrumental partnership. In addition to the great symphonic violin concertos, this includes Schubert's Octet on period instruments, Igor Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat" with Dominique Horwitz and György Kurtág's "Kafka Fragments" with Anna Prohaska. Isabelle Faust has shown great commitment to contemporary music from an early stage: her most recent world premieres include compositions by Péter Eötvös, Brett Dean, Ondřej Adámek and Rune Glerup. In May 2026, she will première a new work for violin and orchestra by the Slovenian composer Vito Žuraj.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season include concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre de Paris, the National Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Munich Philharmonic, among others. She will be touring with WDR Symphony Orchestra, Les Siècles and the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble.
This season she is Artist in Residence with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, where she can present the full range of her artistic work.
She can not only be heard as a soloist - most notably as part of her own recital programmes - but also as a chamber musician, with her long-term collaborators Alexander Melnikov and Kristian Bezuidenhout. Another highlight is a programme based on Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps, which she is set to peform on tour with Jean-Guihen Queyras, Jörg Widman and Pierre- Laurent Aimard.
Numerous recordings have been unanimously praised by critics and awarded the Diapason d’or, the Grammophone Award, the Choc de l’année and other prizes. The most recent recordings include György Ligeti’s Violin concerto (with Les Siècles under the baton of François-Xavier Roth), Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto (with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra), works for violin and orchestra by Pietro Locatelli (with Il Giardino Armonico) and works for solo violin by Biber, Matteis, Pisendel, Vilsmayr and Guillemain. Isabelle Faust presented further popular recordings among others of the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as violin concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven and Alban Berg under the direction of Claudio Abbado.
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Kristian Bezuidenhout
Harpsichord
Kristian Bezuidenhout has established himself as one of the most versatile and exciting musicians of our time, both as a keyboard player and conductor. Born in South Africa, he began his studies in Australia, completed them at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), and now lives in London. After initial training as a modern pianist with Rebecca Penneys, he explored early keyboards, studying harpsichord with Arthur Haas, fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson, and continuo playing and performance practice with Paul O’Dette. Kristian first gained international recognition at the age of 21 after winning the prestigious first prize and audience prize in the Bruges Fortepiano Competition.
Kristian is a regular guest soloist on fortepiano, harpsichord, modern piano with the world’s leading ensembles including Freiburger Barockorchester, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Mozarteum Orchester, Camerata Salzburg, Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Les Arts Florissants, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Chicago Symphony Orchestra & the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He has performed with celebrated artists including John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Bernhard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Frans Brüggen, Trevor Pinnock, Giovanni Antonini, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Isabelle Faust, Alina Ibragimova, Rachel Podger, Carolyn Sampson, Anne Sofie von Otter, Mark Padmore & Matthias Goerne.
In addition to his work as a soloist, he is increasingly in demand as a conductor, and continues to explore the music of the late 17th and early 18th Centuries with groups including the English Concert (Handel Chandos Anthems, Purcell Odes, Bach St. John Passion), Tafelmusik, Collegium Vocale, Juilliard 415, Kammerakademie Potsdam & Dunedin Consort (Bach St Matthew Passion). Kristian is Principal Guest Director of both Freiburger Barockorchester and English Concert. In 2025 he was made Associate Artist of the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
Kristian’s rich and award-winning discography of over 30 albums - mostly for Harmonia Mundi - includes the complete keyboard music of Mozart (Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, & Caecilia Prize); Schubert Die schöne Müllerin with Julian Prégardien; the complete Piano Concertos of Beethoven with the Freiburger Barockorchester; an ongoing cycle of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester (ECHO Klassik); Bach Violin Sonatas with Isabelle Faust; Mozart Violin Sonatas with Petra Müllejans and Beethoven & Mozart Lieder and Schumann Dichterliebe with Mark Padmore (Edison Award). In 2013 he was nominated as Gramophone Magazine’s Artist of the Year. Upcoming releases include two discs of Mozart Piano Concertos with Freiburger Barockorchester, recorded in 2024.
The 2025/2026 season sees Kristian perform as a soloist and direct a number of orchestras including Royal Northern Sinfonia, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Dunedin Consort, Kammerakademie Potsdam and Bochumer Symphoniker. Debuts include Norwegian Radio Orchestra, which he play-directs, as well as the Tampere Philharmonic and SWR Symphonieorchester, as soloist. He gives recitals across Europe with Isabelle Faust and Julian Pregardien and performances in North America /Canada, with regular partners Anne Sofie von Otter and Consone Quartet, as part of a residency at Bourgie Hall, Montreal.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
In a review published in The Guardian, Isabelle Faust’s partnership with Kristian Bezuidenhout for the interpretation of Bach sonatas was described as “exultant”. This luminous fit between the two musicians would also be transposed to the album published two years later, focussing on the same repertoire. Faust, say the musicians who collaborate with her, always raises the standards and quality of those who have the fortune to share the stage with her. With Bezuidenhout, the two form one of the most celebrated duos of our time.
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