Beethoven’s Poetic Fourth Piano Concerto 2023-2024
Renowned for her exquisite artistry and refined technique, pianist Maria João Pires is back with the OSM.
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
Programme
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 DirectorRafael Payare’s prodigious musicianship, technical brilliance and charismatic presence on the podium have made him one of the world’s most sought-after conductors. A graduate of the celebrated El Sistema music education program in Venezuela, Mr. Payare began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. Since winning the prestigious Malko International Competition for Young Conductors in Denmark in 2012, Maestro Payare’s career has advanced rapidly. Since 2015, he has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor the late Lorin Maazel. He was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019 and in 2019, took up the position of Music Director of the San Diego Symphony. In recent years, Rafael Payare has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including those of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Chicago and Paris. He has also made important opera debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival, Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, and most recently at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In the 2022-2023 season, Payare became the ninth Music Director in the history of the OSM.
To consult:
rafaelpayare.com
Long biography
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.