Program: #11-49 Air Date: Nov 28, 2011
To listen to this show, you must first LOG IN. If you have already logged in, but you are still seeing this message, please SUBSCRIBE or UPGRADE your subscriber level today.
NOTE: All of the music on this program was recorded at La Maison Française at the Embassy of France, in cooperation with the French-American Cultural foundation. For information on the many activities and concerts at the Maison, you may explore the site:
www.houseoffrancedc.com
The Italian baroque interpreter with his ensemble in works my Locatelli, Leclair, Bonporti, and Veracini.
Additional support was provided by SAFRAN… committed to protecting people and property around the world. SAFRAN – a world leader in biometrics, fingerprint identification, and explosive detection systems. And by the Bureau Export association. For more information, you may explore:
www.french-music.org
NOTE: All of the music on this program features trio sonatas for violin and continuo.
P R O G R A M
Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672 - 1749)
Serenata Op. XII n°2 for violin and basso continuo
- Adagio, Aria variata, Chiusa
Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697 - 1763)
Sonata for violin, cello and basso continuo in G minor
- Largo, Allegro, Largo, Presto
Jean-Marie Leclair (1697 - 1764)
Sonate VIII (Premier livre)
- Largo, Vivace, Musette, Gavotta
Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695 - 1764)
Sonata Op. 8, n°10 in A Major for violin, cello and basso continuo
- Andante, Allegro, Allegro
T H E A R T I S T S
About Riccardo Minasi (violin)
Riccardo Minasi — whose specialty is the musical repertoire from the Renaissance to the Classical period — is a frequent performer at the most prestigious concert halls throughout the world. His appearances include Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York; the Barbican in London; Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Chatelet, and Salle Pleyel in Paris; Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires; S. Cecilia in Rome; and many more. With each engagement, he continues to build a reputation for “power and brilliance” (Stereophile).
An in-demand concertmaster in Europe, Minasi has led numerous acclaimed ensembles under the batons of Jordi Savall, Rinaldo Alessandrini, and Francesco Cera, among others. His collaborations — both as soloist and leader — include Arte Musica, Concerto Vocale, the piano-duo of Katia and Marielle Labeque, Chiara Banchini’s Ensemble 415, and lute player Luca Pianca.
An associate director of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Harmony of Nations Orchestra, Minasi’s conducting career is growing at a pace comparable to his other artistic achievements. In 2007, he founded Musica Antiqua Roma, uniting the solo, chamber music, and orchestral experiences of some of the most active young musicians on the international scene today.
Dedicated to the education of the next generation of Baroque musicians, Minasi teaches chamber music at the Conservatorio V. Bellini of Palermo, and has also given violin and Baroque orchestra master classes and lectures in the United States, Finland, Taiwan, and the Czech Republic.
His recording of Biber’s Rosenkranz Sonaten (Arts label) has been enthusiastically received by international press, who dubbed it “seriously stunning” (musicweb-international.com), praising his “wondrous playing” (Gramophone) and “enchanting directness” (ClassicalNet). Minasi plays a violin made in 1627 by Antonius & Hieronymus Amati (Cremona).
Artist links
- www.riccardominasi.com
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpaXn6HyM8M
About Beiliang Zhu (cello & viola da gamba)
Beiliang Zhu received her Master of Music from the Juilliard School, Bachelor of Music Degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. She became a section cellist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra during her undergraduate. As a student of Steven Doane, Beiliang won the Eastman Cello Concerto Competition and received a second prize in the Holland America Music Society International Competition.
During her studies with Phoebe Carrai in Historical Performance at the Juilliard School, Beiliang won the 2010 Henry I. Goldberg Young Artist Prize at American Bach Soloists Academy. In May 2011, as first cellist and viola da gamba soloist, she toured with Juilliard415 and Yale Schola Cantorum, performing Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in New Haven, New York, and Italy. Her work was described by the New York Times as “particularly exciting”. In the past June, Beiliang performed on viola da gamba in the Boston Early Music Festival opera production Niobe.
Beiliang is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music. For the season of 2011-2012, she will also be the principal cellist of the Mercury Baroque Orchestra, as well as performing with Juilliard Baroque and other ensembles.
Artist link: www.beiliangzhu.com
About Kenneth Weiss (harpsichord)
Kenneth Weiss was born in New York City where he attended the High School of Performing Arts. After studying with Lisa Goode Crawford at the Oberlin Conservatory he continued with Gustav Leonhardt at the Sweelinck Consertorium in Amsterdam.
From 1990-1993 he was Musical Assistant to William Christie at Les Arts Florissants for numerous opera productions and recordings. He later conducted Les Arts Florissants in 'Doux Mensonges' by the chreographer Jiri Kylian at the Paris Opera, and was co-director with William Christie of the first three editions of Les Arts Florissants' 'Jardin de Voix' program.
Kenneth Weiss focuses on recitals, chamber music, teaching and conducting. His most recent recitals include Nuremburg, Montpellier, Barcelona, Dijon, Geneva, Antwerp, the Cite de la musique (Paris), Madrid, La Roque d'Anthéron, Santander, Lisbon, San Sebastian, Innsbruck and Santiago de Compostela. Since 2005 he has regularly performed in recital with the violinist Fabio Biondi, including Aix-en-Provence and the Theatre de la Ville in Paris.
In collaboration with the choreographer Trisha Brown, Kenneth Weiss was musical director of 'M.O.', a ballet on Bach's Musical Offering, first performed at La Monnaie in Brussels. He was also musical director of the Aix-en-Provence European Music Academy's staged productions of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and a Monteverdi madrigal program. Both productions were revived at the Lille, Monte-Carlo and Bordeaux operas. He has conducted The English Concert, Concerto Copenhagen, Orquesta de Salamanca, Orchestre de Rouen, the Ensemble orchestral de Basse-Normandie, Orchestre National des Pays de Loire and the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie.
In 2010 Kenneth Weiss performed with the violinists Monica Huggett at Carnegie Hall and with David Hope at Alice Tully Hall in a series of concerts presented by the chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He directed Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in a co-production of the Conservatoire de Paris and La Cité de la musique as well as Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Bilbao and Oviedo Operas. In 2011 Kenneth Weiss conducts the Portugese period instrument orchestra Divino Sospiro, The English Concert, Concerto Copenhagen and the Orchestre de Rouen. His numerous recitals include several Goldberg Variations recitals - Festivals du Périgord Noir, La Chaise Dieu and Montbrison followed by a tour of Japan in November.
In 2001 Satirino records released the first in a series of highly acclaimed solo harpsichord recordings by Kenneth Weiss: Bach's Partitas, Scarlatti Sonatas, Rameau Opera and Ballet transcriptions (on two of the historical instruments in the Musée de la musique in Paris), an album including Bach's Italian Concerto, French Overture and the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, Scarlatti's ‘Essercizi per gravicembalo’ in coproduction with the Madrid Caja Bank's Spanish music label, Los SIGLOS de ORO, a live recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations and most recently 'A Cleare Day', a live recording of selections from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. New releases in 2011 include Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Fabio Biondi and the violin sonatas of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre with the violinist Lina Tur Bonet.
Composer Info
Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672 - 1749), Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697 - 1763), Jean-Marie Leclair (1697 - 1764), Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695 - 1764)