Musica Viva 2009
Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica
Adelaide Town Hall
Wednesday 11 February at 8.00pm
| Violin & Director | Gidon Kremer |
| Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra |
When Gidon Kremer won Moscow's highly coveted International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1970, conductor Herbert von Karajan dubbed him 'the greatest violinist in the world'. Audiences around the world still concur with this illustrious assessment for Kremer's sustained excellence across an unprecedented range of styles and forms.
To celebrate his 50th birthday, Kremer launched his own chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, hand-picked from the most promising young musicians in the Baltic States. Together they are a worldwide phenomenon renowned for superb craftsmanship and uniquely daring concert programs that set great classics in stark contrast to modern rarities.
Musica Viva is thrilled to welcome Gidon Kremer back to Australia for the first time in 23 years, accompanied by Kremerata Baltica in its premiere Australian appearance.
Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica's tour is presented in association with the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Gidon Kremer is a singularity - not only an incomparable performer and director, but also a point in the universe at which logic is dethroned by awe. CARL VINE
Miriam Allan & Ironwood
Adelaide Town Hall
Thursday 26 March at 8.00pm
MIRIAM ALLAN & IRONWOOD
| Soprano | Miriam Allan |
| Ironwood |
A protege of Dame Emma Kirkby, Australian soprano Miriam Allan has lived in London since 2003, performing with many of the finest orchestras and choirs in Europe and the United Kingdom as well as with her mentor. Allan is joined on this tour by Ironwood, a vital new ensemble formed by some of Australia's most acclaimed period music specialists.
Allan has devised a program of Baroque treasures, featuring a unique amalgam of arias from several of Purcell's stage works, including King Arthur and The Fairy Queen, and Handel's scintillating cantata Silete venti.
"Bright and clear, assured, fluid and agile yet warm - a description of the perfect soprano voice, and coincidentally the perfect description of Miriam Allan's."
CARL VINE
"Soprano Miriam Allan shone through in the darkest moments with her depictions of sublime hope and devotion."
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Katia Skanavi
Adelaide Town Hall
Thursday 7 May at 8.00pm
KATIA SKANAVI
| Piano | Katia Skanavi |
Katia Skanavi's prodigious gifts took her from her native Moscow at the age of 18 to traverse the globe. Excelling at numerous international competitions, she has since performed with many of the world's pre-eminent musicians including Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer and Kurt Masur, appeared with many of the world's great orchestras and played in some of the world's finest concert halls.
Skanavi relishes exploring composers in great depth including, most recently, Rakhmaninov and Chopin. On this, her premiere visit to Australia, she performs two of Chopin's signature works alongside sonatas by Schubert and Carl Vine.
"Katia Skanavi weaves a bewitching spell by paring away all superfluity in her performances to unveil the pure essence of the music."
CARL VINE
"Skanavi has enough technique to set the final pages of her curtainraiser ablaze.. these performances are never less than brilliant and characterful."
THE GRAMAPHONE
Tokyo String Quartet
Adelaide Town Hall
Tuesday 23 June at 8.00pm
| Violin | Martin Beaver |
| Violin | Kikuei Ikeda |
| Viola | Kazuhide Isomura |
| Cello | Clive Greensmith |
For thirty years the Tokyo String Quartet has been universally regarded as one of the supreme chamber ensembles of the world. Such stellar groups only retain their reputation through consistent periods of growth and reassessment, and its current configuration is widely considered to be the finest in its luminescent history.
The Quartet performs two classic programs on this tour, one pairing Haydn with Brahms, the other Beethoven with Mendelssohn. Each pair is contrasted with Carl Vine's fifth string quartet, commissioned for Musica Viva by its Patron, Kenneth Tribe AC.
"Superlatives like 'peerless' lose their potency by appearing too often in advertising material, but I can think of no better description of the Tokyo String Quartet."
CARL VINE
"The Tokyo is in a new era of musical power and finesse. The four players lavished tonal lustrousness and virtuosic ease."
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
Steven Isserlis & Denes Varjon
Adelaide Town Hall
Thursday 23 July at 8.00pm
| Cello | Steven Isserlis |
| Piano | Denes Varjon |
Steven Isserlis is acclaimed around the world for his musicality and technique alike, and over the years has developed a special rapport with Australian audiences. Accompanying him on this tour is duo partner, Hungarian pianist, Denes Varjon.
Isserlis has selected a brilliant collection of music for an event unique to Musica Viva: a program consisting entirely of music by Robert Schumann. He is passionate about everything he plays, but reserves his greatest passion for this composer. In 2000, Isserlis was awarded the Schumann Prize by the City of Zwickau in Germany, the composer's birthplace.
"Steven Isserlis plays every note perfectly, but he also plays every piece as though at that instant, for the very first time, he has just discovered the perfect truth within it."
CARL VINE
"He's the instrument's best ambassador."
THE TIMES
Elias String Quartet
Adelaide Town Hall
Thursday10 September at 8.00pm
| Violin | Sara Bitlloch |
| Violin | Donald Grant |
| Viola | Martin Saving |
| Cello | Marie Bitlloch |
The Elias String Quartet, consisting of French, Scottish and Swedish members, is resident at the Universities of Sheffield and York in northern England. This intense and brilliant young quartet spent a year studying with the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne and has received many honours at major international competitions, including multiple awards at the 2003 London International String Quartet Competition.
For its inaugural visit to Australia, the Quartet presents a quintessential selection of quartet repertoire ranging from the Baroque elegance of Purcell's Fantasias through to Carl Vine's String Quartet no 4.
"This stunning young quartet has emerged, unheralded and unexpected, as a complete surprise: sterling technique delivering beautifully formed interpretations."
CARL VINE
Jerusalem Quartet & Zvi Plesser
Adelaide Town Hall
Friday 13 November at 8.00pm
| Violin | Alexander Pavlovsky |
| Violin | Sergei Bresler |
| Viola | Amihai Grosz |
| Cello | Kyril Zlotnikov |
| Musica Viva Quartet In Residence 2006-09 | |
| Associate Artist | |
| Cello | Zvi Plesser |
It has been thrilling to watch the Jerusalem Quartet's youthful exuberance and electricity evolve to a higher level of perfection over its four years of residency with Musica Viva.
For the final tour as resident ensemble, the Quartet is joined by close friend and esteemed colleague Zvi Plesser, giving Musica Viva audiences the rare opportunity to hear Schubert's magnificent String Quintet.
The musicians will also perform the world premiere of Carl Vine's quintet commissioned by Julian Burnside, QC.
"The Jerusalem Quartet continues to ascend, delight and astound - always providing the most magical performances."
CARL VINE
"One of the best quartets in the world – tremendous!"
ENSEMBLE MAGAZINE
