Bourgie Hall presents

Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica: From Bach to Piazzolla

After the resounding success of their 2017 appearance, this concert marks the return of the outstanding violinist and his renowned ensemble in a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of Piazzolla’s birth.

Artists
Kremerata Baltica

Founded in 1997 by renowned violinist Gidon Kremer, the Grammy-Award winning chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica is considered to be one of Europe’s most prominent international ensembles. Maestro Kremer intentionally selected young, enthusiastic musicians to stave off the dreaded “orchestritis” that afflicts many professional orchestral players. Essential to Kremerata Baltica’s artistic personality is its creative approach to programming, which often ranges beyond the mainstream and has given rise to world premieres of works by composers such as Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Pēteris Vasks, Leonid Desyatnikov and Alexander Raskatov.

Since its establishment Kremerata Baltica has played in more than 50 countries, performing in 600 cities and giving more than 1000 concerts worldwide. The orchestra’s wide-ranging and carefully chosen repertoire is also showcased in its numerous and much-praised recordings. Its album of works by Mieczysław Weinberg on ECM was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award, its recording of Shostakovich’s piano concertos with Anna Vinnitskaya won the ECHO Klassik 2016. The recording of Weinberg’s symphonies No. 2 and No. 21, a joined adventure with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, received a Gramophone Award in 2020.

The Kremerata Baltica also serves to promote and inspire the musical and cultural life of the Baltics.

Gidon Kremer, violin and direction

Among the world’s leading violinists, Gidon Kremer has perhaps pursued the most unconventional career. He was born on 27 February 1947 in Riga, Latvia, and began studying at the age of four with his father and grandfather, both distinguished string players. At the age of seven, he enrolled as a student at Riga Music School where he made rapid progress, and at sixteen he was awarded the First Prize of the Latvian Republic. Two years later he began his studies with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. Gidon Kremer went on to win a series of prestigious awards, including prizes in the 1967 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and 1969 Montreal International Music Competition and first prize in both the 1969 Paganini and 1970 Tchaikovsky International Competitions.

It was from this secure platform of study and success that Gidon Kremer launched his distinguished career. Over the past five decades he has established and sustained a worldwide reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation. He has appeared on almost every major concert stage as recitalist and with the most celebrated orchestras of Europe and North America, and has worked with many of the greatest conductors of the past half century.

Gidon Kremer’s repertoire is unusually wide and strikingly varied. It encompasses the full span of classical and romantic masterworks for violin, together with music by such leading twentieth and twenty-first century composers as Berg, Henze and Stockhausen. He has also championed the work of living Russian and Eastern European composers and has performed many important new compositions by them, several of which have been dedicated to him. His name is closely associated with such composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Edison Denisov, Aribert Reimann, Peteris Vasks, John Adams, Victor Kissine, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Leonid Desyatnikov and Astor Piazzolla, whose works he performs in ways that respect tradition while being fully alive to their freshness and originality. It is fair to say that no other soloist of comparable international stature has done more to promote the cause of contemporary composers and new music for violin.

Gidon Kremer plays an instrument made by Nicola Amati in 1641. He is the author of four books, of which the latest is Letters to a Young Pianist (2013). These writings have been translated into many languages and reflect the breadth of his artistic pursuits and aesthetic outlook.

Program
PIAZZOLLA/PUSHKAREV Tres minutos con la realidad
KANCHELI Bridges to Bach
SCHUMANN/ANGERER Fugue on BACH No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 60, No. 1
Fugue on BACH No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 60, No. 2
SILVESTROV Dedication to J.S.B.
J.S. BACH Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058
PIAZZOLLA Three Pieces for Piano and Strings
BACH/TICKMAYER Variations on the aria from the Goldberg Variations
BACH/KISSINE Aria from the Goldberg Variations
PIAZZOLLA/PUSHKAREV Fuga y misterio
PIAZZOLLA/PUSHKAREV Michelangelo 70

Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at 7:30 pm
Bourgie Hall
To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca