Beethoven 7

ABOUT THIS CONCERT

It captivated listeners so completely when first premiered that an immediate, mid-symphony encore was demanded. More than 200 years later, from Hollywood to the concert hall, the bewitching “Allegretto” from Beethoven’s Seventh speaks to the heart just as intently—a vast, brooding midnight amidst a Symphony of sunny exuberance and surging high spirits. Kirill Gerstein kindles enough piano pyrotechnics to light up all of Texas with Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Totentanz (“Dance of Death”).

Pre-Concert Activities: Chamber Music Prelude

Your ticket includes a special chamber music performance by Houston Symphony musicians on the Jones Hall stage starting 45 minutes before the concert. Hear Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 9, IV. Allegro molto performed by Rodica Gonzalez, violin, Mihaela Frusina, violin, Wei Jiang, viola, and Jeff Butler, cello. The first people to arrive will be given the opportunity to sit onstage for the prelude performance. Those interested should line up outside the Jones Hall main entrance on the Louisiana Patio near the first door on the right before doors open, 1 hour before the concert begins. All others may watch the chamber music performance from the front orchestra seating of Jones Hall. The chamber music replaces the regularly scheduled Prelude discussion.

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PROGRAM

LISZT Piano Concerto No. 1
LISZT Totentanz
JÖRG WIDMANN Con brio
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

ARTISTS

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“Slobodeniouk’s calm, clean direction helped hold the sprawling symphony tightly together, ensuring that even the softest, slowest-moving passages had a compelling edge.” Baltimore Sun

Lauded for his deeply informed and intelligent artistic leadership, Dima Slobodeniouk has held the position of Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia since 2013, which he combines with his more recent positions as Principal Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Sibelius Festival following his appointment in 2016. Linking his native Russian roots with the cultural influence of his later homeland Finland, he draws on the powerful musical heritage of these two countries. He works with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Chicago, Houston and Baltimore as well as Sydney Symphony Orchestras.

Summer 2018 sees Slobodeniouk give his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Joshua Bell at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Further highlights are his debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Rotterdam Philharmonic, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien at the Musikverein, Bayerisches Staatsorchester Munich, Minnesota, Seattle and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra as well as West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He returns to WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne with Yefim Bronfman, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Dresdner Philharmonie, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras. In Lahti, Slobodeniouk opens the 2018/19 season with Joseph Canteloupe’s Chants Auvergene and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, before he takes the orchestra on tour to China including Shanghai Arts Festival. In Galicia he launches the new season with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Shostakovich Symphony No 11. Other soloists he works with include Nicolas Altstaedt, Leif Ove Andsnes, Khatia Buniatishvili, Vilde Frang, Vadim Gluzman, Johannes Moser, Baiba Skride, Simon Trpčeski, Yuja Wang and Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Slobodeniouk’s discography was recently extended by recordings of works by Stravinsky with Ilya Gringolts and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia (BIS) and works by Aho with Lahti Symphony Orchestra (BIS), the latter received the BBC Music Magazine award 2018. He has previously recorded works by Lotta Wennäkoski with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Ondine) and works by Sebastian Fagerlund with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (BIS).

Moscow-born Dima Slobodeniouk studied violin at Moscow Central Music School under Zinaida Gilels and J. Chugajev, the Middle Finland Conservatory as well as the Sibelius Academy under Olga Parhomenko. He continued his Sibelius Academy studies with Atso Almila also under the guidance of Leif Segerstam and Jorma Panula, and has also studied under Ilya Musin and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Striving to inspire young musicians of the future, Slobodeniouk has worked with students at the Verbier Festival Academy over recent years and furthermore began a conducting initiative with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, providing an opportunity for students to work on the podium with a professional orchestra.

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Kirill Gerstein’s natural versatility and curiosity has led him to explore a wide range of repertoire and styles. From Bach to Adès, his playing is distinguished by a discerning intelligence, great virtuosity and a clarity of expression which he combines with an energetic and imaginative musical presence. He has been described as “gloriously free and unfazed by technical difficulties, he made the piano sing… The concerto that we’ve heard so many times before gained new life.” (Leipziger Volkszeitung)

In the 2018/19 season Gerstein will give the world premiere performance of Thomas Adès’ new Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer, with performances in Boston and in Carnegie Hall, New York. Gerstein and Adès will also give the European premiere with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. They will also collaborate for performances of In Seven Days in London with the London Philharmonic and in Los Angeles with the LA Philharmonic, and in recitals in New York and Boston.

Elsewhere in this season, Gerstein appears with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov, and will return to the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder. He will perform in China with the Shanghai and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras, with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, and the Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paolo. He plays recitals in London, Stuttgart, Lisbon, Singapore, Melbourne and Copenhagen, as well as chamber performances with the Hagen Quartet, Veronika Eberle and Clemens Hagen in Lucerne, and with actor Bruno Ganz for recitals in Germany and Austria.

In Autumn 2018 Gerstein’s recording of Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, with the Oslo Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko will be reeleased on LAWO Classic’s. Future recording releases this season include Busoni’s Piano Concerto on myrios classics in spring 2019 and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto Nos. 1-3 in summer 2019, part of Semyon Bychkov’s Tchaikovsky Project recorded for Decca with the Czech Philharmonic. Recent recordings for myrios classics include The Gershwin Moment, released earlier this year; Liszt’s Transcendental Études, picked by The New Yorker as one of 2016’s notable recordings; and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in the composer’s own final version from 1879. He also released Imaginary Pictures which couples Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition with Schumann’s Carnaval, two discs with Tabea Zimmerman of sonatas for viola and piano by Brahms, Schubert, Franck, Clarke and Vieuxtemps, and a recital disc of works by Schumann, Liszt and Knussen.

Kirill Gerstein was brought up in the former Soviet Union studying both classical and jazz piano, and at the age of 14 years he moved to the US where he was the youngest student to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He subsequently shifted his focus to the classical repertoire and studied with Solomon Mikowsky in New York, Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. Gerstein won the first of a series of prestigious accolades in 2001: First Prize at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition. In 2002, he won a Gilmore Young Artist Award, and in 2010 both an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Gilmore Artist Award, which provided the funds for him to commission new works from Timothy Andres, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen and Brad Mehldau.

A committed teacher and pedagogue, Gerstein taught at the Stuttgart Musik Hochschule from 2007-2017 and from autumn 2018, will teach as part of Kronberg Academy’s newly announced Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Artists.