Dubai, UAE
When Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5, he not only wrote one of the most important contributions to the repertoire, but — continuing the path traced by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s concertos — marked the peak of the genre at the time. With this work, Beethoven went far beyond the conventions of his epoch. Written amidst the deafening thunder of the Napoleonic Wars, Beethoven’s concerto is a tableau of troubled and changing times across the scale of a symphony.
Severin von Eckardstein is among the leading German pianists of his generation, and, with a long record of solo concerts and performances on major stages around the world, is considered one of the most profound piano virtuosos of our times. Playing with analytical precision, he not only reproduces the works he chooses to perform, he gifts his interpretations, especially his performances of Beethoven’s music, with a unique transcendence.
While many composers wrote piano concertos, only a few took up the task of creating concertos for the cello. When Johannes Brahms read the score of Antonín Dvořák’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, he was astonished by its beauty and acknowledged that he would have written a cello concerto himself, had he only known that it was possible to compose for the instrument like that. As is the case with Dvořák’s famous Symphony No. 9, popularly known as the “Symphony from the New World”, the composer wrote his cello concerto during his appointment as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York. In contrast to his symphony, Dvorak’s concerto does not show significant influences by American music. Even so, the fact that the famous score was created in America was proof that the New World had conquered a solid place on the map of classical music. Times, indeed, had changed. Gary Hoffman, a renowned master of musical detail, plays the solo part in Antonín Dvořák’s concerto, alongside the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra led by cellist and conductor, Dmitry Yablonsky.
The performance opens with ‘Xamm’, a dark and powerful symphonic piece by contemporary composer Albert Garzia, inspired by Patrick Süskind’s novel ‘Das Parfum’ (“Perfume”).
SEVERIN VON ECKARDSTEIN
GARY HOFFMAN
Grammy nominated conductor, cellist and conductor Dmitry Yablonksy was born in Moscow into a musical family. He began playing the cello when he was 5 years old and was accepted to the Central Music School for gifted children. At the age of 9 he gave his orchestral debut playing Haydn’s cello concerto. Since then, his career had taken him to the most important stages in the world, such as the Carnegie Hall, La Scala, Moscow Great Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Taiwan National Hall, Theatre Champs Elysees, Tokyo Opera City Hall among others. He has collaborated with many world renown artists as Monserrat Caballe, Roberto Alagna, Olga Borodina and many more. Dmitry started to conduct at age 26 and has conducted more then 50 orchestras all over the world including The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he made 4 cd’s.Dmitry Yablonsky has studied cello with Isaak Buravsky, Lorne Monroe, David Soyer, Aldo Parisot and Zara Nelsova. He also took master classes with Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, Andre Navarra, Maurice Gendron, , Misha Schneider among others. His conducting teachers have been Otto Werner Muller, Yuri Simonov and Gennady Rozhdestvensky. He has participated in many festivals all over the world including Marlboro Festival. He has recorded more then 90 CD’s as cellist and conductor to great critical acclaim. He is an Artistic Director of Gabala Music Festival, Puigcerda Music Festival and Wandering Music Stars Festival. Dmitry Yablonsky is Music Director of Kiev Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra. Since fall 2016, he is teaching cello and chamber music at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University and has been recently named Head of International Relations of the same University.Dmitry plays two cellos: a Joseph Filius Andrea Guarneri and a Matteo Goffriller.
Gary Hoffman is one of the outstanding cellists of our time, combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a poetic sensibility in his distinctive and memorable performances. Mr. Hoffman gained international renown upon his victory as the first North American to win the Rostropovich International Competition in Paris in 1986.
A frequent soloist with the world's most noted orchestras, he has appeared with the Chicago, London, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Baltimore and National symphony orchestras as well as the English, Moscow and Los Angeles chamber orchestras, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Netherlands and Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra for the Blossom Festival and Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. Mr. Hoffman collaborates regularly with such celebrated conductors as André Prévin, Charles Dutoit, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zuckerman, Andrew Davis, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Jésus Lopez-Cobos and James Levine…
Gary Hoffman performs on major recital and chamber music series throughout the world, as well as in such prestigious festivals as Ravinia, Marlboro, Aspen, Bath, Evian, Helsinki, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Schleswig- Holstein, Stresa... He is a frequent guest of string quartets including Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Brentano, and Ysaye.
Mr. Hoffman is an regular guest of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
Gary Hoffman premiered many concertos (Laurent Petitgirard, Joel Hoffman, Renaud Gagneux, Gil Shohat, Graciane Finzi, Dominique Lemaître, French Premiere of Elliott Carter Cello Concerto… )
Sharing his time and engagements mainly between Europe and America, he also regularly travels for concerts in Asia. He is the guest of main halls such as the Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Kennedy Center, and numerous festivals: Ravinia, La Jolla, Schleswig Holstein, Verbier, Festival International de Colmar, Evian, Prades Festival, Honk Kong International Chamber Music Festival, Vancouver, Storioni, … etc. Gary Hoffman plays and gives master classes at the Ravinia Festival, Bloomington, Kobé, Manchester Cello Festival, Salzburger Mozarteum, Festival de Prades , Santa Fe… he is a close part of the Kronberg Academy family for years, intimately involved in the Academy Masters, the festivals, and the master class weeks.
Born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1956, Gary Hoffman devotes time to teaching, as well, having been the youngest faculty appointee in the history of the Indiana University School of Music, where he remained for eight years. Mr. Hoffman regularly holds master classes world-wide. He studied the cello with Janos Starker.
In September 2011 he has been appointed as Professor at the Musical Chapel in Brussels, opening the cello class.
Residing in Paris, he is an active recording artist with the BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI and Le Chant du Monde and La Dolce Volta labels.
His Brahms Sonatas’ recording with Claire Désert – will be published in the autumn 2017 onto label La Dolce Volta. He participated to Dvorak recoding with the Jerusalem Quartet (Harmonia Mundi)- they are touring together in the main European cities.
Elgar cello concerto and Shelomo (Bloch) recorded with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège conducted by Christian Arming is released in October 2018 onto La Dolce Volta. Gary Hoffman performs on a 1662 Nicolo Amati, the "ex- Leonard Rose"
Severin von Eckardstein, one of the leading German pianists of his generation, has an already lengthy record of solo concerts and concerto performances on major stages around the world.
He has delighted the public with many highly acclaimed concerts, for example in Berlin, Munich, Milan, Moscow, Madrid, London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Budapest, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul. His talent could be enjoyed at great music festivals, including Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Aldeburgh / UK, the Gilmore Festival in Michigan / USA, La Roque d’Anthéron / France, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Husum Festival (“Raritäten der Klaviermusik”) and the Miami International Piano Festival, where he played the opening concert in 2009. He has performed with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Philippe Herreweghe, Lothar Zagrosek and Marek Janowski, and made important debuts, among others in 2007 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden in 2012 and the Hungarian National Philharmony under Zsolt Hamar in 2017.
In 2018 he made his debut at the Thompson Art Center in New York with two different recitals.
Many of Von Eckardstein’s concerts have been recorded and broadcasted by major broadcasting corporations. As a frequent guest of the concert series “Meesterpianisten” at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, von Eckardstein opened the gala concert celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary in 2012. In 2020 he was reinvited to this extraordinary series for the 8 th time.
Born in Duesseldorf, Germany, in 1978, the pianist won prizes at numerous noteworthy international competitions, e.g. “Ferruccio Busoni” in Bozen (1998), the “Leeds International Piano Competition” (2000), “José Iturbi” in Valencia (2002), the ARD- Competition in Munich (1999) and was awarded first prize at the “Concours Reine Elisabeth” in Brussels (2003).
On several occasions he has been awarded special prizes for the “Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music.”
Several foundations and societies, including the Mozart Society and the highly regarded German National Merit Foundation, have honored him with scholarships. In 2002 he received the “European Culture Prize” and in 2003 the “Echo Classic Prize.”
Von Eckardstein’s education in the musical arts was predominately shaped by his teachers Prof. Barbara Szczepanska, Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Prof. Klaus Hellwig, University of Arts, Berlin, where he also successfully completed his concert exams. In an additional course of study at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, Italy, he profited from further instruction and inspiration. He took private lessons from teachers such as Alfred Brendel and participated in master classes instructed by Vitalij Margulis, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Alicia de Larrocha, Leon Fleisher and Menahem Pressler, to name only a few. He himself has been serving as master class instructor on many occasions, among others in South Korea, Finland, Belgium and at the “UdK”, Berlin.
Chamber music also plays a significant role in his repertoire with performances at festivals such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Finland, and the Risør Chamber Music Festival, Norway, where he appeared with the cellist Heinrich Schiff. He has often given concerts with young but highly renowned musicians, for example Andrej Bielov, Barnabasz Kelemen, Franziska Hölscher, Judith Ermert, Danjulo Ishizaka and Nicolas Altstaedt. In 2015 he founded the chamber concert series “Klangbrücken” at Konzerthaus Berlin together with violinist Franziska Hölscher.
Von Eckardstein‘s comprehensive repertoire spans the baroque period up through music of the 21st century. As such, he has premiered the works of modern-day composers, in particular the American Sidney Corbett. One of his special focuses is the demanding late romantic piano music of less known composers, especially Nicolai Medtner.
CD recordings with compositions by Medtner, Scriabin, Wagner, Schubert, Schumann, Debussy and others aroused great interest. His latest album of Dupont´s cycle “La maison dans les dunes” was awarded with “Diapason d´Or”. Another recording of sonatas by Prokofiev is presently under preparation.
For half a century, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) has been recognised as Malta’s foremost musical institution.
The orchestra was founded in April 1968, when musicians from the defunct “Commander-in-Chief” (C-in-C) orchestra of the Malta-based British Mediterranean Fleet regrouped as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra. It continued to serve as the theatre’s resident orchestra until September 1997, when it became an independent orchestra, taking up the name National Orchestra of Malta. The orchestra became the MPO in 2008 when it expanded into a full-size symphony orchestra, bringing together the best of Maltese talent and musicians from Europe and beyond.
Joseph Sammut, the C-in-C’s last conductor, was the orchestra’s first conductor, remaining at the helm until 1992. Since then, the orchestra has also been under the direction of Joseph Vella, John Galea, Michael Laus, and Brian Schembri. In 2019, the MPO has appointed Sergey Smbatyan as Principal Conductor, joining Resident Conductor Michael Laus as part of the orchestra’s Artistic Team. The MPO also works with local and international guest conductors and soloists including Lawrence Renes, Michalis Economou, Guy Braunstein, Alexei Volodin, Camilla Tilling, Joseph Calleja, and Enrico Dindo.
As Malta’s leading musical ensemble, the MPO averages more than one performance a week including symphonic concerts, opera productions in Malta and Gozo, community outreach and educational initiatives, as well as various concerts of a lighter nature.
The orchestra has performed in leading venues across the globe, including in the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria, China, Italy, and Belgium, and presently embarks on at least one international tour each concert season.
The MPO is a keen exponent of Maltese composers, regularly performing their works in Malta and overseas, as well as frequently premiering and commissioning new compositions.
Through the MPO Academy and the Malta Youth Orchestra, which regularly give concerts across Malta, the MPO is also responsible for the training and professional development of the next generation of Maltese musicians.
