ROCKPORT CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL: STEVEN ISSERLIS, cello CONNIE SHIH, piano
When:
Friday, Jun 28, 2024 7:30p -
9:00p
Friday, Jun 28, 2024 7:30p -
9:00p
Where:
Shalin Liu Performance Center
37 Main Street
Rockport, MA 01966
Admission:
$50.00
Hosted by:
Categories:
Festivals & Fairs, Music
Event website:
https://eventvesta.com/events/68281/t/tickets
World renowned British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. He is joined by pianist and 1993 Sylva Gelber Awardee Connie Shih, to perform works by Beethoven, Fauré, Boulanger and Adès.
PROGRAM
BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5, No. 1
BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2
NADIA BOULANGER: Trois pièces
FAURÉ: Sonata No. 2, Op. 117
ADÈS: Lieux retrouvés
"No cellist alive can match the eloquent intent of Steven Isserlis’s line. Every phrase he threads through the warm embrace of Connie Shih’s pianism is articulated." - BBC Magazine"
STEVEN ISSERLIS, cello
Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster.
As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, and plays with many of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras. His interest in authentic performance has included collaborations with period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
He has recorded the Chopin Cello Sonata with Dénes Várjon for Hyperion using one of Chopin’s own pianos. Recent seasons have featured a performance with Sir Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, using Beethoven’s own cello; and performances and recordings with Robert Levin (selected for the Deutsche SchallplattenPreis) of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano using original or replica fortepianos. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, he has performed and recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach as well as sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti.
Mr. Isserlis is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, and Stephen Hough’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Left Hand (Les Adieux). In 2016, he gave the UK premiere of Olli Mustonen’s Frei, aber einsam at the Wigmore Hall.
His recording of J.S. Bach’s complete Solo Cello Suites for Hyperion met with the highest critical acclaim and was Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year and Critics’ Choice at the Classic BRITS. Other recent releases include a Grammy-nominated album of sonatas by Martinů, the Brahms Double Concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and concertos by Haydn and C.P.E. Bach, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. His recent recording Cello in Wartime is a WWI-inspired disc performed on a travel cello (now known as “the Trench Cello”) like the one played in the trenches by WWI soldier Harold Triggs.
Mr. Isserlis’s many honors include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, and he is one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. He gives most of his concerts on the Marquis de Corberon (Nelsova) Stradivarius of 1726, kindly loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.
CONNIE SHIH, piano
The Canadian pianist Connie Shih is considered one of Canada’s most outstanding artists. In 1993 she was awarded the Sylva Gelber Award for most outstanding classical artist under age 30. At the age of nine, she made her orchestral debut with Mendelssohn’s first Piano Concerto with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
As soloist, she has appeared with orchestras throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe. She has performed countless solo recitals worldwide as well as chamber music performances with many world-renowned musicians. To critical acclaim, she appears regularly in recital with cellist Steven Isserlis and has performed at concert venues across Germany with the cellist Manuel Fischer-Dieskau, with whom she recorded the first-ever CD of the Sonatas for Piano and Cello by Carl Reinecke and the complete Beethoven sonatas.
Ms. Shih’s performances are frequently broadcast via television and radio on CBC, BBC, SWR, NDR and WDR, as well as on other various television and radio stations in North America and Europe.
