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Founded in the autumn of 1994, the Zehetmair Quartet embarked upon its first concert tour in spring 1998. Their success resulted in re-engagements by all the promoters, followed by invitations to the United States (2001 and 2003) and Japan (2002) to complement the Quartet’s annual European tours. In the summer of 2004 the Zehetmair Quartet was a guest at the Edinburgh Festival, the Helsinki Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival and others.
Their first CD – featuring Bartók‘s Quartet No. 4 and Hartmann‘s Quartet No. 1 – was released in 2000 on the ECM label and was awarded the Quarterly Prize by the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik. Their latest release, Schumann‘s String Quartets No. 1 and No. 3 (also recorded on the ECM label), won the Gramophone Award (Record of the Year), the Diapason d’Or of the Year, the Dutch Edison Classical Music Award 2004, the Belgian Caecilia Award and the Klara Award for the best international production of the year.
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GRIGORY SOKOLOV
10 March 2006 at 8:30pm, at the PASYDY Auditorium in Nicosia.
The programme will include works by Bach, Beethoven and Schumann.
In the 40 years since the 16-year-old Grigory Sokolov was awarded first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 1966, the world has been blessed with what one American critic recently called "a kind of pianism, musicianship and artistry one thought had vanished forever". Championed at a young age by Emil Gilels and a prominent figure on the Russian music scene since his early teens, Sokolov has gained an almost mythical status amongst music-lovers and pianophiles throughout the world. He is considered by many today to be the world's greatest living pianist. Ever since his first major piano recital in Leningrad at the age of 12, Sokolov has amazed everyone again and again with the enormous breadth of his repertoire and his huge, almost physical musical strength. His interpretations are poetic and highly individual, and his rhythmic freedom and elasticity of phrase are perhaps unequalled among pianists today.
Those who are used to his art are most particularly attracted by the naturalness of his performing manner, which is part of his artistic credo. His playing betrays no influence from past masters, his style and approach are entirely his own, and are completely unique. Whatever Grigory Sokolov performs, be it a Pavane of William Byrd, a Bach Fantasia, Chopin Mazurka or a Prelude of Ravel, it suddenly sounds completely new. Even a familiar Beethoven Sonata can be rediscovered as a new piece. But all this magic has its earthly roots: Sokolov knows more about a Steinway than many piano technicians, and before he sits down to play a strange instrument, he first examines its inner mechanics, taking it to pieces. He is used to studying for many hours every day, and even on the day of a concert, practices on stage for hours, “getting to know” the piano. That he prefers his CDs to be recorded live is not surprising, since he likes to capture the sacred moments of a real, live concert and avoid the sterile atmosphere of a studio. The London Times wrote after a recent 2004 recital: "Sokolov's fingers can do anything required of them: the clarity of articulation is total; the power of a crescendo seemingly infinite; the sheer strength at the forging point of mental observation and physical realisation breathtaking". It is not at all surprising that Russia's best-kept musical secret of the '60s and '70s has since earned an almost religious following in the West.
Grigory Sokolov is a regular guest of the most prestigious concert halls and festivals of Europe. He has performed in London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, Salzburg, Munich, Rome and New York, and worked with many of the world’s most prominent conductors including Myung-Whun Chung, Neeme Järvi, Herbert Blomstedt, Valery Gergiev, Sakari Oramo, Trevor Pinnock, Andrew Litton, Vassilly Sinajskij, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Alexander Lazarev, John Storgards, Moshe Atzmon, Walter Weller, Evgeny Svetlanov. He has worked with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, Münchner Philharmoniker, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Philharmonia, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Detroit Symphony. Sokolov has made a number of live recordings for the Melodya and Opus 111 labels. These include works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Schubert, Schumann, Scriabin, and Tchaikovsky, and most recently a critically acclaimed DVD of a 2002 Paris recital directed by Bruno
Monsaingeon.
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