Conductor Marek Janowski, who was recently named to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Otto Klemperer Endowed Guest Conductor Chair, returns to Pittsburgh for two weeks of BNY Mellon Grand Classics programs this Fall.
Violinist Arabella Steinbacher makes her PSO debut under Janowski on Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, October 26, at 2:30 p.m. at Heinz Hall, performing Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. This week's program opens and closes with two works that were inspired by the writings of William Shakespeare: Berlioz's King Lear Overture and Richard Strauss' tone poem, Macbeth.
The following week, on Friday and Saturday, October 31 and November 1, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, November 2, at 2:30 p.m., Janowski leads pianist Jonathan Biss in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major, K.482. (Biss recently recorded this work for the EMI Classics label.) Completing this program is Strauss' An Alpine Symphony, a musical depiction of a day spent climbing the mountains in the Alps. Portions of both concerts will be recorded for release at a later date on the PentaTone label.
Concert preludes begin one hour prior to the performance in the Heinz Hall auditorium; free and open to all concert ticketholders.
MAREK JANOWSKI has been Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2002 and in 2005 he was also appointed Musical Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. He is in demand as a guest conductor throughout the world, working on a regular basis in the USA with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (where he holds the Otto Klemperer Guest Conducting Chair), the Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in Europe with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchester der Tonhalle Zurich, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen and the NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg.
There is not one world-renowned opera house where he has not been a regular guest since the late '70s, from the Metropolitan Opera New York to the Bayerischer Staatsoper Munich; from Chicago and San Francisco to Hamburg; from Vienna and Berlin to Paris. Between 1984 and 2000, as Musical Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Marek Janowski led the orchestra to international fame as the leading orchestra in France. From 1986 to 1990, in addition to his work in France, Janowski held the position of Chief Conductor of the Gurzenich-Orchester in Cologne, and between 1997 and 1999 he was also First Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. From 2000 to 2005, Janowski served as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and from 2001 to 2003 he also held the position of Chief Conductor with the Dresdner Philharmonie.
Since her extraordinary and unexpected debut in Paris in March 2004, when she stepped in on short notice for an ailing colleague and performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Sir Neville Marriner, German violinist ARABELLA STEINBACHER has become a fast-rising star on the international concert scene. The Stuttgarter Zeitung has proclaimed, "Doubtless a single violin performance recently has been as moving and exceptional as the concert debut of the Munich violinist Arabella Steinbacher. Of her essence: natural and with placid contemplation, distinguished and musically aesthetic, both elegant and rich in tone, while intelligently interpreted."
In November 2007, Ms. Steinbacher made her debut as soloist with a major American orchestra, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi. Born in Munich in 1981 to a German father and a Japanese mother, Arabella Steinbacher began studying the violin at the age of three. At nine, she became the youngest violin student of Ana Chumachenko at the Munich Academy of Music. In 2001, she won the sponsorship prize of the Free State of Bavaria and in the same year she was awarded a scholarship by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. Arabella Steinbacher plays the "Booth" Stradivari (1716) generously provided by the Nippon Music Foundation.
Twenty-eight-year-old American pianist JONATHAN BISS has already proved himself an accomplished and exceptional musician with a flourishing international reputation through his orchestral, recital, and chamber music performances in North America and Europe and through his EMI Classics recordings. Noted for his prodigious technique, intriguing programs, artistic maturity and versatility, Mr. Biss performs a diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven, through the Romantics to Janacek and Schoenberg as well as works by contemporary composers, including commissions from Leon Kirchner and Lewis Spratlan.
Since he made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2001, Jonathan Biss has appeared with the foremost orchestras of the United States and Europe. He is a frequent performer at leading international music festivals and gives recitals in major music capitals both here and abroad. U.S. orchestral appearances this season include debuts with the Detroit Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and his return engagements include the Indianapolis, National, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's Schumann/ Mendelssohn Festival in May 2009. Following the release of his EMI Classics recording of Mozart Piano Concertos 21 and 22 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, he joins Orpheus at Carnegie Hall in December and will play both concertos in a February tour with the orchestra in nine European cities. -- www.pittsburghsymphony.org
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