United States Pianist Ian Hobson To Perform Brahms Series: Fourteen Recitals With Colleagues At The Dimenna Center September 10th Through November 14th, 2013
Photo Credit: Enid Farber
Internationally noted pianist and conductor Ian Hobson will perform fourteen recitals in a series devoted to the complete solo piano and chamber music with piano of Johannes Brahms, entitled, “Johannes Brahms: Classical Inclinations in a Romantic Age.” Mr. Hobson will be joined by a wide range of collaborators, including such noted musicians as Samir Golescu, Claude Hobson, Edward A. Rath, Jr., Rochelle Sennet, pianos; Andrés Cárdenes, Igor Kalnin, violins; Csaba Erdélyi, viola; Ko Iwasaki, Dmitry Kouzov, cellos; Bernhard Scully, horn, and J. David Harris, clarinet.
All fourteen recitals, which begin at 7:30 p.m., will be presented either at the DiMenna Center’s Benzaquen Hall or Cary Hall, 450 W 37th Street, New York on September 10, 12, 24, 26; October 1, 3, 8, 10, 22, 24; November 5, 7, 12, 14.
(Please see attached for schedule of programs).
Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets (brahmsseriesnyc.bpt.me) Single tickets are $30, $15 for students and seniors, a flex pass of any three concerts is $75, $37.50 for students and seniors, and all fourteen recitals are $300.
Pianist and conductor Ian Hobson is recognized internationally for his command of an extraordinarily comprehensive repertoire, his masterly performances of the Romantic masters, his deft and idiomatic readings of neglected piano music old and new, and his assured conducting from both the piano and the podium. In addition to being a lauded performer, Mr. Hobson is a dedicated scholar and educator who has pioneered renewed interest in the music of such lesser known masters as Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Hummel. He has also been an effective advocate of works written expressly for him by a number of today’s noted composers, including Benjamin Lees, John Gardner, David Liptak, Alan Ridout, and Roberto Sierra.
Most recently Mr. Hobson began recording the complete piano works of Robert Schumann for Zephyr Records in celebration of the composer’s bicentenary. Concurrently, he has completed a 10-recital series devoted to Schumann’s complete piano music which took place from September 2011 through April 2012 at the University of Illinois’s Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Hobson performed his Brahms series earlier this season at the Krannert Center.
A highlight of Mr. Hobson’s 2010-11 season was his 10-recital series The Heritage and Legacy of Chopin & Schumann at New York’s Dicapo Opera Theatre, in collaboration with piano authority David Dubal. The third recital in this series drew the following appraisal from Allan Kozinn of The New York Times:
Mr. Hobson devoted the first half to exploring the kinship between Beethoven and Schumann and the second to the musical connections between the virtuoso pianist and the composer Ignaz Moscheles and Chopin. As it turned out Moscheles was given only the most cursory glimpse – Mr. Hobson played two of his etudes, followed by all 12 of Chopin’s Opus 10 Etudes –but that was enough to demonstrate Chopin’s achievement…Mr. Hobson played the Moscheles pieces in the bright, showy spirit in which they were written and threw himself into Chopin ‘s Etudes with energy and a sense of shifting color and weight…If the Moscheles-Chopin juxtaposition was a matter of contrast, Mr. Hobson showed the Beethoven-Schumann link to be solid and direct. He opened the program with Beethoven’s Sonata No.28 in A (Op. 101) in a reading that that began as a calm rumination, with a velvety melodic line that sailed over the more involved accompaniment, and evolved into an impassioned, texturally dense torrent of assertive counterpoint.(September 1, 2010)
Mr. Hobson also performed the music of Chopin elsewhere: an all-Chopin recital in Istanbul in April 2010 and he opened the Baltic Festival in May 2010 with a performance of Paderewski’s Fantasie Polonaise, Op. 19, and further participated in the festival with two Chopin recitals. Mr. Hobson has also been engaged in recording a 16-volume edition of the complete works of Chopin for the Zephyr label. In addition to Chopin’s large body of work for solo piano, this series features performances by pianist/conductor Hobson and the Sinfonia Varsovia in all of Chopin’s works for piano and orchestra, plus Mr. Hobson’s collaboration as pianist with other artists in Chopin’s chamber music and songs. In this edition there are approximately 45 minutes of Chopin music never recorded before, making Mr. Hobson the first ever to record the composer’s entire oeuvre as a single artist.
Ian Hobson is an artist of prodigious energy and resource, having to date amassed a discography of some 60 releases, including the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Schumann and a complete edition of Brahms’s variations for piano. In the dual role of pianist and conductor, in 2007 Mr. Hobson recorded for the Zephyr label the four piano concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff with the Sinfonia Varsovia – a tour de force no other performer has matched. In addition, Mr. Hobson has recorded more than twenty albums for the Arabesque label featuring the music of Clementi, Dussek, Weber; the complete piano sonatas of Hummel, the complete solo piano transcriptions of Rachmaninoff, and Hobson’s Choice, a collection of the pianist’s favorite pieces exploring the multiple facets of virtuosity across the span of three centuries. Orchestral releases include works by Jean Françaix, Darius Milhaud, Camille Saint-Saëns, as well as Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat and William Walton’s Façade, with narrator William Warfield and the Sinfonia da Camera led by Hobson.
Mr. Hobson’s 2008 engagements included performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, an appearance with the Moscow Chopin Orchestra and a Wigmore Hall recital of works by Haydn, Schumann, Chopin, Ravel, and the eccentric early 19th century English genius, Samuel Wesley. For 2007 Mr. Hobson gave the world premiere of Benjamin Lees’s Third Piano Concerto (written for Hobson) with the Florida Orchestra, a work scheduled for a future CD release by Albany Records, along with the piano solo piece, 12 Mirrors – an expanded version of Mirrors premiered by Hobson in 1992. The pianist’s recent collaborations with Roberto Sierra have also resulted in several premieres: Reflections on a Souvenir (inspired by Gottschalk’s Souvenir de Porto Rico) at Wigmore Hall in 2006; the piano concerto, Variations on a Souvenir with the Puerto Rico Symphony led by Theo Alcantara in 2007; and Toccata in 2008. In 2009 Albany released an album highlighting Hobson as a conductor in Sierra’s Fandangos, and as a soloist in Reflections on a Souvenir and Variations on a Souvenir with Sinfonia da Camera led by Eduardo Diazmuñoz Mr. Hobson made his debut with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra as both conductor and soloist in 1996. To date, Maestro Hobson has been invited to lead the English Chamber Orchestra, the Sinfonia Varsovia (Carnegie Hall), the Pomeranian Philharmonic (Poland), the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra (Bass Hall), and the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra of Israel, among others. As a pianist and conductor, Hobson performs extensively with Sinfonia da Camera, the chamber ensemble he formed in 1984 and which quickly gained international recognition through its recordings. The ensemble celebrated its 25th anniversary season at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) in May 2009 with a world premiere performance of Moscheles’s Piano Concerto No.8, orchestrated by Hobson from notes scrawled by the composer on an original piano score. This recorded performance marks the final installment in Mr. Hobson’s four-volume set of Moscheles’s Piano Concertos and Other Works scheduled for release by Zephyr Records.
Mr. Hobson is also active as an opera conductor, with a repertoire that encompasses works by Cimarosa and Pergolesi, Mozart and Beethoven, and Johann and Richard Strauss. In 1997 he conducted John Philip Sousa’s comic opera, El Capitan, in a newly restored version with Sinfonia da Camera and a stellar cast of young singers. The recording was issued in 1998 as one of the inaugural releases for the Zephyr label founded by Mr. Hobson. A fervent advocate of George Enescu’s work, Hobson conducted and recorded the 2005 North American premiere of the operatic masterpiece, Oedipe, in a semi-staged version performed by Sinfonia da Camera on the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. The CD was released by Albany Records in 2006.
In addition, Mr. Hobson is a much sought-after judge for national and international competitions and has been invited to join numerous juries, among them the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (at the specific request of Mr. Cliburn), the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Poland, the Chopin Competition in Florida, the Leeds Piano Competition in the U.K., and the Schumann International Competition in Germany. In 2005 Hobson served as Chairman of the Jury for the Cleveland International Competition and the Kosciuzsko Competition in New York; in 2008 he was Chairman of Jury of the New York Piano Competition; and in 2010 he again served in that capacity of the newly renamed New York International Piano Competition.
One of the youngest ever graduates of the Royal Academy of Music, Mr. Hobson began his international career in 1981 when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, after having earned silver medals at both the Arthur Rubinstein and Vienna-Beethoven competitions. Born in Wolverhampton, England, he studied at Cambridge University (England), and at Yale University, in addition to his earlier studies at the Royal Academy of Music. A professor in the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Hobson received the endowed chair of Swanlund Professor of Music in 2000.
For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at 212-772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com
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JOHANNES BRAHMS: CLASSICAL INCLINATIONS IN A ROMANTIC AGE
A series of fourteen recitals with pianist Ian Hobson and colleagues
1. Tuesday, September 10, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Benzaquen Hall
Brahms:
Scherzo in E flat minor, Op. 4
Ian Hobson, piano
Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 23
for piano four hands
Ian Hobson, piano, Claude Hobson, piano
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Brahms : Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 1
Ian Hobson, piano
2. Thursday, September 12, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Benzaquen Hall
Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 2
Ian Hobson, piano
Hungarian Dances, Book 1: Nos. 1 – 5
arranged for solo piano
Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Hungarian Dances, Book 2: Nos. 6 – 10
arranged for solo piano
Ian Hobson, piano
Hungarian Dances, Book 3-4: Nos. 11 – 21
for piano four hands
Ian Hobson, piano, Edward A. Rath, Jr., piano
3. Tuesday, September 24, 2013, 7:30 p.m.,Benzaquen Hall
J.S.Bach/Brahms: Chaconne in D minor
arranged for piano left hand
Ian Hobson, piano
Brahms: Zigeunerlieder, Op. 103,
arranged by Theodor Kirchner for piano four hands
Ian Hobson, piano, Samir Golescu, piano
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Brahms : Theme and Variations in D minor arranged for piano from the B flat sextet for strings, Op. 18
Ian Hobson, piano
J.S.Bach/Brahms: Presto in G minor arranged for piano (two versions)
Ian Hobson, piano
Brahms: Six Baroque Movements
Ian Hobson, piano
Brahms: Three Little Pieces
Ian Hobson, piano
Brahms: Five Arrangements
Ian Hobson, piano
4. Thursday, September 26, 2013, 7 :30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9
Ian Hobson, piano
Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79
Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
Ian Hobson, piano
5. Tuesday, October 1, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 21, No. 1lkkk
Ian Hobson, piano
Four Ballades, Op. 10
Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Piano Pieces, Op. 76
Ian Hobson, piano
6. Thursday, October 3, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Waltzes, Op. 39 for piano four hands
Ian Hobson, piano, Rochelle Sennet, piano
Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op. 21, No. 2
Ian Hobson, piano
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Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47, arranged by Brahms for piano four hands
Ian Hobson, piano, Rochelle Sennet, piano
7. Tuesday, October 8, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Ian Hobson, piano
Horn Trio in E flat major, Op. 40
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Bernhard Scully, horn, Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Ian Hobson, piano
8. Thursday, October 10, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Ian Hobson, piano
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Igor Kalnin, violin, Csaba Erdélyi, viola, Ko Iwasaki, cello,
Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1in G minor, Op. 25
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Csaba Erdélyi, viola, Ko Iwasaki, cello,
Ian Hobson, piano
9. Tuesday, October 22, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Benzaquen Hall
Brahms: Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Ko Iwasaki, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Ko Iwasaki, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8 (revised version)
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Ko Iwasaki, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
10. Thursday, October 24, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
J. David Harris, clarinet, Dmitry Kouzov, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38
Dmitry Kouzov, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
——–
Brahms: Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 120
J. David Harris, clarinet, Ian Hobson, piano
Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99
Dmitry Kouzov, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
11. Tuesday, November 5, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Benzaquen Hall
Brahms: Scherzo from F-A-E sonata (Sonatensatz)
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Ian Hobson, piano
Piano Quartet No. 2 in A, Op. 26
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Csaba Erdélyi, viola, Ko Iwasaki, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60
Andrés Cárdenes, violin, Csaba Erdélyi, viola, Ko Iwasaki, cello, Ian Hobson, piano
12. Thursday, November 7, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Benzaquen Hall
Brahms: Fantasias, Op. 116
Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24
Ian Hobson, piano
13. Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Viola Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 120
Csaba Erdélyi, viola, Ian Hobson, piano
Piano Pieces, Op. 118
Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms-Erdélyi: Viola Sonata in D major arranged by Csaba Erdélyi from the Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 78
Csaba Erdélyi, viola, Ian Hobson, piano
14. Thursday, November 14, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Cary Hall
Brahms: Three Intermezzos, Op. 117
Ian Hobson, piano
Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Book 1
Ian Hobson, piano
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Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Book 2
Ian Hobson, piano
Piano Pieces, Op. 119
Ian Hobson, piano
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