Beethoven’s Poetic Fourth Piano Concerto
Renowned for her exquisite artistry and refined technique, pianist Maria João Pires is back with the OSM to perform Beethoven’s Concerto no. 4, that decidedly singular masterpiece of the piano repertoire. This program also celebrates the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth with two of the composer’s post-Romantic works: the eminently lyrical tone poem Transfigured Night, and Pelleas und Melisande, with its impressive aural density amplified by powerful dramatic tension.
Renowned for her exquisite artistry and refined technique, pianist Maria João Pires is back with the OSM to perform Beethoven’s Concerto no. 4, that decidedly singular masterpiece of the piano repertoire. This program also celebrates the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth with two of the composer’s post-Romantic works: the eminently lyrical tone poem Transfigured Night, and Pelleas und Melisande, with its impressive aural density amplified by powerful dramatic tension.
Artists
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Rafael Payare, conductor
Maria João Pires, piano
Program
Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht [Transfigured Night], op. 4
Beethoven, Piano Concerto no. 4 in G major, op. 58
Intermission (20 min.)
Schoenberg, Pelleas und Melisande, symphonic poem, op. 5 (41 min.)
Rafael Payare
Music DirectorDistinguished by innate musicianship, a gift for communication, and an irresistibly joyous spirit, conductor Rafael Payare began playing horn in Venezuela’s El Sistema program at age 14 and started his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. Since winning Denmark’s prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2012, his career has advanced rapidly. He was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019; has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor the late Lorin Maazel, since 2015; became Music Director of the San Diego Symphony in 2019, and three years later became Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In recent years, Payare has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including those of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Hamburg, and Paris, besides making important opera debuts at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Glyndebourne Festival; Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera; and the Royal Danish Opera.
Maria João Pires
PianoLisbon-born Maria João Pires gave her first public performance at the age of four and began formal studies with Campos Coelho and Francine Benoît, continuing in Germany with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel. In addition to concerts, she has recorded for Erato and Deutsche Grammophon for 35 years.
Since the 1970s, Pires has devoted herself to the influence of art in life, community and education, and to finding new ways of socially implementing this influence.
In 1999, she created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts (Portugal), where she offers interdisciplinary workshops to both professional musicians and amateurs. Belgais concerts and recordings will be shared with the international digital community.
In 2012, she initiated two the Partitura Choirs, to develop choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and the Partitura Workshops. Taking place in Belgium, they aim to create positive dynamics between artists of different generations outside of competitions, a notion gaining worldwide attention.