Nelson Freire and Nicholas Angelich on the PianoForte Recital Series, John Pizzarelli, and Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks; Tango Buenos Aires, David Dubal on Paganini, Liszt, and Wagner; and Gilbert Kaplan Asks "Did New York Kill Gustav Mahler?"
For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs are available. Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00 and Sunday noon-5:00. Student and group discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949. Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
Friday, March 4, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Nicholas Angelich, Piano
Nicholas Angelich, who has been a regular visitor to the Metropolitan Museum in recent seasons with the Capuçon-Angelich Trio, performs a solo program, his only New York recital of the season: Bach/Busoni Choral Prelude in G Minor, BWV 659; Bach's English Suite No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 807; and selected Nocturnes and Etudes of Chopin.
Born in the United States in 1970, Nicholas Angelich began studying piano at the age of five. Two years later he played his first concert, performing Mozart's Concerto K. 467. Mr. Angelich entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris at age 13, where he studied with Aldo Ciccolini, Yvonne Loriod, and Michel Beroff, and won first prize for piano and chamber music. Mr. Angelich is a prizewinner of numerous piano competitions, including the International Piano Competition R. Casadesus in Cleveland and the International Piano Competition Gina Bachauer in Utah. In June 2003, he received the "International Klavierfestival Ruhr - Young Talent Award" from Leon Fleischer.
In his 2010-2011 season Mr. Angelich makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut under Stephane Deneve. During the 2009-2010 season Mr. Angelich performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, and made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 under Yannick Nezet-Seguin. In July 2009 Mr. Angelich made his BBC Proms debut with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, also under Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and the pianist collaborated with Maestro Nezet-Seguin again in August 2009 at the Mostly Mozart Festival, performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20. In the 2007-2008 season Vladimir Jurowski invited him to play in the season-opening concert of the Russian National Orchestra, and Nicholas Angelich made his debut with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur in 2003.
An impressive interpreter of the classical and romantic repertoire, Mr. Angelich has also gained recognition for his interpretation of contemporary music, including works by Stockhausen, Boulez, Tanguy, and Pierre Henry, who dedicated his composition Concerto for Piano without Orchestra to Mr. Angelich. Nicholas Angelich's chamber collaborations include critically acclaimed performances with Dimitri Sitkovetsky, Joshua Bell, Gérard Caussé, Alexander Kniazev, Jian Wang, Paul Meyer, the Ysaye and Prazak Quartets, and Gautier and Renaud Capuçon. His recording of the Brahms Trios with the Capuçons for Virgin Classics was awarded the German Record Critics' Award. Mr. Angelich has also released recordings for harmonia mundi, Lyrinx, and Mirare, which feature works by Beethoven, Liszt, Ravel and Rachmaninoff. Tickets: $45
Friday, March 11, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Nelson Freire
The famed Brazilian pianist makes another return to the Metropolitan Museum after two highly praised appearances in the PianoForte series; his only New York recital of the season, a program featuring Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words; Brahms's Sonata No. 3 in F Minor; 12 of Prokofiev's Visions Fugitives; and two works by Liszt, Ballade No. 2 in B Minor and Hungarian Rhapsody.
This performance is part of a North American recital tour that also includes stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Quebec, and Seattle.
Born in Brazil, Nelson Freire began piano studies at the age of three with Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, who had worked with a pupil of Liszt. He made his first public appearance at age five with Mozart's Sonata in A major, K. 331. In 1957, after winning the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition with his performance of Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto, the president of Brazil presented him with a financial scholarship that allowed him to study with Bruno Seidlhofer, teacher of Friedrich Gulda, in Vienna. Seven years later, Freire won the Dinu Lipatti Medal in London, as well as first prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon.
Nelson Freire's international career began in 1959 with recitals and concerts in the most important cities in Europe, the United States, South and Central America, Japan, and Israel. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Fabio Luisi, Hans Graf, Eugene Jochum, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Rudolf Kempe (with whom he toured the United States and Germany several times with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), John Nelson, Václav Neumann, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, David Zinman, and Hugh Wolff.
Recent performances have included a return to the Boston Symphony in the fall of 2010 to perform the Schumann Piano Concerto with Maestro Kurt Masur. In 2008-2009 Mr. Freire performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Baltimore Symphony, the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony, and had recitals in San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York City, where he played a solo recital of works by Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, and Debussy to a near-sold-out house at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Tickets: $50
Saturday, March 12, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Tango Buenos Aires
One of Argentina's great cultural treasures is an ensemble that has become known throughout the world as an authentic and uncompromising representative of the tango.
Tango Buenos Aires has become one of Argentina's great cultural exports, known throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Far East. Tango Buenos Aires was created for the "Jazmines" festival at the famous Buenos Aires cabaret Michelangelo by renowned composer and tango director Osvaldo Requena. The company met with tremendous success and was immediately added to the season of the General San Martin Municipal Theatre. The company traveled to the U.S. in 1986 to perform at a Latin-American festival in Central Park's Delacorte Theater, and subsequently toured the entire country. Since that time, the ensemble has toured internationally. Cristian Zárate, leader of the Orquesta Color Tango and one of Argentina's most prominent tango musicians, is the group's current music director.
Tickets: $45
Friday, March 18, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks – "The Roaring Twenties"
The veteran swing band take to the stage for a program celebrating "The Roaring Twenties," recapturing the hot stomps of the speakeasies and the music of Tin Pan Alley, as well as the great American songbook.
Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks are renowned on the New York scene for their commitment to preserving and authentically presenting 1920s and '30s jazz and popular music. Formed in 1976, this dynamic band performs at black-tie galas at such venues as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Waldorf Astoria, and the Rainbow Room. Vince Giordano has also been invited to perform at the Smithsonian, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and jazz festivals around the world. Early appearances with Leon Redbone and on A Prairie Home Companion, and in Francis Ford Coppola's film The Cotton Club, led to working with Dick Hyman's orchestra in half a dozen Woody Allen soundtracks, then as a bass player in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. Giordano and the band have been featured in the films Finding Forrester, The Aviator; The Good Shepherd, The Savages, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, and Public Enemies. Other recording projects include soundtracks for HBO's Grey Gardens and Boardwalk Empire. A big-band historian and collector, Giordano has more than 60,000 scores in his collection.
Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, bandleader Vince Giordano began his odyssey into the world of music at the age of five. The discovery of a slew of 78 rpm records in his grandmother's attic ignited the flame. He began music on the violin but switched to tuba in the seventh grade, then added the string bass and bass saxophone. The ambitious Giordano joined the musicians union at age 14 and started playing with Dixieland banjo bands around Long Island. He became interested in the music of Bix Beiderbecke and studied with Bill Challis, the legendary arranger for the Paul Whiteman and Jean Goldkette Orchestras. Vince joined the 22-piece Navy Show Band after high school, then toured Europe with Eddie Davis, played in New York with Tony Parenti and Max Kaminsky, and toured with Clyde McCoy.
Tickets: $45
Thursday, March 31, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. - John Pizzarelli Quartet
One of today's foremost jazz guitarists performs his interpretations of jazz standards with his quartet.
This concert is presented in conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum exhibition Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York, on view February 9 – July 4, 2011.
Using performers like Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Joao Gilberto and the songs of composers from Richard Rodgers and George Gershwin to James Taylor, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Lennon & McCartney as touchstones, the world-renowned jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli has established himself as one of the prime interpreters of the Great American Songbook and beyond, bringing to his work the cool jazz flavor of his brilliant guitar playing and singing.
He has been called "hip with a wink" by Town & Country, "madly creative" by the Los Angeles Times and "the genial genius of the guitar" by The Toronto Star. He often performs with his wife, singer/actress Jessica Molaskey, and his father, guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli; they were labeled "the First Family of Cool" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "the von Trapps on Martinis" by The New Yorker. According to The New York Times, "the Pizzarelli-Molaskey duo are as good as it gets in any entertainment medium."
After a recent smash success with the Boston Pops, he was hailed by the Boston Globe for "reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and re-popularizing jazz." Pizzarelli started playing guitar at age six, following in the tradition of his father. After playing in pickup groups and garage bands through high school he began exploring jazz with his father as a teenager, and was able to perform with a number of great jazz musicians who would be a major influence on his work, including Benny Goodman, Les Paul, Zoot Sims, Clark Terry and Slam Stewart. John went out on his own after recording "My Blue Heaven" for Chesky Records in 1990, then toured extensively, playing clubs and concert halls, opening for such greats as Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, and Rosemary Clooney. In 1993, he was honored to open for Frank Sinatra's international tour and then joined in the celebration for his 80th birthday at Carnegie Hall, bringing down the house singing "I Don't Know Why I Love You Like I Do" with his father accompanying him.
Tickets: $45
Also in March 2011 – The following music lectures:
Wednesdays, March 2, 9, 16, 2011, at 2:30 p.m. - David Dubal: "The Devil, The Lover and The Mystic: Three Romantic Apparitions"
Pianist, teacher, writer, and broadcaster David Dubal explores the lives and work of three larger-than-life composers in lectures illustrated with performances by students from The Juilliard School.
March 2: Niccolò Paganini, 1782-1840: "The Devil Tunes Up"
March 9: Franz Liszt, 1811 – 1886: "Don Juan and Abbé, A Tribute for His 200th Anniversary"
March 16: Richard Wagner, 1813-1883: "The Supreme Egoist, 'The World Owes Me What I Need'"
Tickets: $23
Friday, March 25, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. - Gilbert Kaplan: "Did New York Kill Gustav Mahler?"
After three years in New York, Gustav Mahler died at age 50. Join Gilbert Kaplan, one of the leading authorities on Mahler, for the story of this turbulent time: Mahler's triumphs at the Metropolitan Opera; his controversial appointment as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic; his powerful final symphonies; his battles with Toscanini for supremacy at the Met; and his famous encounter with Sigmund Freud. Mahler's wife Alma later claimed it was New York that killed Gustav Mahler. What really happened here?
Tickets: $25
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January 24, 2011
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