Violinist Vadim Repin and pianist Nikolai Lugansky to perform at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 3, 2008
CONTACT:
Brenda Kean Tabor
(202) 533-1886
btabor@wpas.org
Who: Vadim Repin, violin Nikolai Lugansky, piano
Where: Kennedy Center Concert Hall
When: Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 4 p.m.
Program: Debussy Sonata for violin and piano in G minor
Stravinsky Divertimento for violin and piano
Beethoven Sonata No. 9 in A Major “Kreutzer”
Tickets: $42-$77, are available at www.wpas.org
or by calling (202) 785-9727
Washington, D.C.- Vadim Repin, the youngest-ever winner of the world’s most prestigious violin competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, will play a recital of works by Debussy, Stravinsky and Beethoven on Saturday, November 15 at 4pm. Repin will be paired with Nikolai Lugansky, top winner in the piano category of the 1994 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow.
In a New York Times review of Repin’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, Anthony Tommasini wrote, “It’s not easy to make a repertory chestnut like Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto come across as the audaciously original work it seemed at its 1881 premiere…[and] it was refreshing to hear this volatile concerto played with such Apollonian vigor. Even during the vehement outbursts of the first movement, [Repin] made every note speak. The slow movement was all the more poignant for the restraint and subdued intensity that Mr. Repin brought to it--- [the] finale, at breakneck tempo, would have seemed dangerous had Mr. Repin’s playing not been so awesomely controlled.” Another New York Times critic wrote of a Repin-Lugansky recital, “You couldn't ask for fuller tone production or more radiant lines.” Born in Siberia in 1971, Vadim Repin began playing the violin at age five, made his first public appearance six months later, his first concerto appearance at age seven, and his St. Petersburg debut at age 11. Today Repin is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading violinists. He has appeared with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and San Francisco Symphony, working with leading conductors such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Chailly, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Gatti and Rattle.
Repin is also a frequent guest at festivals such as Tanglewood, Ravinia and the BBC Proms. On New Year’s Day 2008, Repin played under conductor Seiji Ozawa to mark the opening of the new National Performing Arts Center in Beijing. He also performed in Moscow earlier this year with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle on the occasion of Europe Day, a concert broadcast live throughout Europe and played in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti celebrating the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel.
Repin’s chamber music partners have included Lugansky, Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin and Mischa Maisky. For his debut solo recording on Deutsche Grammophon, Repin performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic. Repin plays on the 1736 ‘Von Szerdahely’ by Guarneri del Gesù.
Born in Moscow, pianist Nikolai Lugansky studied at Moscow’s Central School of Music. Known for his superb interpretations of Rachmaninoff, Lugansky has recorded extensively on a number of labels. His performances consistently receive critical acclaim. Said the Cincinnati Enquirer of a recent concert in Frankfurt, Germany, “The Russian pianist’s playing was as spectacular for the subtlety of color and atmosphere he achieved as it was for his ability to tackle cascades of fiendishly difficult virtuosities…. The normally reserved German audience cheered, stomped their feet and applauded in rhythmic unison until the pianist supplied an encore, a glittering Prelude by
Rachmaninoff.”
The Guardian described Lugansky’s London performance last year of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 as “thrilling” and “impressive” and his performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 as employing “subtle colourings to shade fearsome piano writing—the kind where many players would be satisfied just to subdue Prokofiev's armfuls of notes.” A New York Times review of Lugansky’s performance of Prokofiev’s Sixth Piano Sonata said Lugansky “played with total command, vivid imagination and, at times, terrifying power,” A review of his performance as Repin’s recital partner described Lugansky as “excellent, sensitive and clear.”
Lugansky frequently performs as a soloist in recitals with Repin and others and with major orchestras throughout the world, including the Philharmonia, the Tokyo and the LosAngeles Philharmonics, the London, BBC, Cincinnati, and San Francisco symphony orchestras and the Royal Concertgebouw, among others. He has worked with numerous distinguished conductors including Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Jurowski and Kurt Masur. Lugansky toured last year with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
The Program:
The three-movement Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Minor by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was the last work written and the last performed by the composer. Written in 1917, when he knew he was dying, it is based on the 18th-century French sonata.
The Divertimento by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was composed for an early 1930s concert tour with violinist Samuel Dushkin. It is an arrangement of the composer’s ballet The Fairy’s Kiss. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Ice Maiden, the music refers to Tchaikovsky songs and piano pieces while also featuring Stravinsky’s characteristic rhythmic signature.
The Violin Sonata in A Major, Opus 47, “Kreutzer” by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770- 1827), though dedicated to the French violinist Rudolph Kreutzer, was never played by him but rather was first performed by the black Polish-born virtuoso George Polgreen Bridgetower (“The Abyssinian Prince” 1780-1860), with whom Beethoven later had an argument. The ninth of Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas, it was composed just before the Eroica Symphony and presages some of that work’s drama.
This performance is generously underwritten by Marianna Gray, Ludmilla Cafritz, Kim Nettles, and Rachel Tinsley Pearson.
Downloadable high-resolution images are available at www.wpas.org/pressroom
Funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by
National Endowment for the Arts.
WPAS is committed to making every event accessible for persons with disabilities. Please call the WPAS Ticket Services Office for
more information on accessibility to the various theaters in which our performances are held. Services offered vary from venue to venue and may require advance notice.
Washington Performing Arts Society has created profound opportunities for connecting the community to artists, in both education and performance. Through live events in venues that criss-cross the landscape of the D.C. metropolitan area, the careers of emerging artists are guided, and established artists who have bonded with the local audience are invited to return. In this way, the space between artists and audiences is eliminated, so that all may share life-long opportunities to deepen their cultural knowledge, enrich their lives, and expand their understanding and compassion of the world through the universal language of the arts.
American Airlines® is the official airline of Washington Performing Arts Society’s 2008/2009 Season
Photo Kasskara courtesy
Deutsche Grammophon