"Today's Borodin Quartet has lost nothing of its old authority...Everything had a deep and understated gravity, as though they were exploring the most private corners of the human soul"

-Financial Times

(January 2010)

The Borodin Quartet commands a special position of respect in the chamber music world. In existence for more than 60 years, it has preserved a unique performance tradition, focusing on the masterpieces at the very heart of the quartet repertoire. Its interpretations are celebrated for their intensity and focus, a style in which individualism dedicates itself to the collaborative spirit of chamber music and total service of the composer's wishes.

The Borodin Quartet's particular affinity with Russian repertoire was stimulated by a close relationship with Shostakovich, who personally supervised its study of each of his quartets. Widely regarded as definitive interpretations, the Quartet's cycles of the complete Shostakovich quartets have been performed all over the world, including Vienna, Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Lisbon, Seville, London, Paris and New York. In recent seasons the ensemble has performed a broad repertoire, including works by Beethoven, Schubert, Prokofiev, Borodin and Tchaikovsky, while continuing to be welcomed and acclaimed at major venues throughout the world.

The Borodin Quartet was formed in 1945 by four students from the Moscow Conservatory. Ten years later, it changed its name from the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet to the Borodin Quartet. The current formation is Andrei Abramenkov, Ruben Aharonian, Igor Naidin and Vladimir Balshin: Andrei Abramenkov became a member in 1974; Ruben Aharonian and Igor Naidin joined in 1996; Vladimir Balshin joined the Quartet in August 2007. Valentin Berlinsky, one of the long lasting members, retired from the Quartet in the summer of 2007. He passed away on Monday 15 December 2008.

In addition to performing quartets, the members of the Borodin Quartet regularly join forces with other distinguished musicians to further explore the chamber music repertoire. Their partners have included Dmitri Shostakovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Natalia Gutman, Elisso Virsaladze and Christoph Eschenbach. The Quartet also regularly give masterclasses.

For its 60th Anniversary Season, the Borodin Quartet performed cycles of the complete Beethoven quartets at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Vienna Musikverein. Gala concerts honouring the Quartet's contribution to musical history were performed in Moscow (January 2005) and at London's Wigmore Hall and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris (May 2005). The ensemble also gave recitals in Madrid, Rotterdam, Brussels, Geneva, Munich, Lisbon, Barcelona, Athens, Cologne, Istanbul, Zurich, Berlin, Moscow, New York and London, playing the music of Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Shostakovich – and of course Borodin.

The CD label Chandos recorded and released the complete Beethoven quartets as part of the 60th anniversary celebration. The Quartet's first release on the Onyx label, featuring Borodin, Schubert, Webern and Rachmaninov, was nominated for a Grammy in the 2005 Best Chamber Performance category. The Borodin Quartet has produced a rich heritage of recordings over several decades, for labels including EMI, Virgin Classics, RCA and Teldec. Among its Teldec recordings, those of Tchaikovsky's quartets and Souvenir de Florence, Schubert's String Quintet, Haydn's Seven Last Words and a disc of Russian Miniatures all received acclaim. The Tchaikovsky disc was honoured with a Gramophone Award in 1994.

BEETHOVEN Quartet Op. 59 No. 2

SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 7

SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 8

the Borodin Quartet website

The Gold Medalist at the Warsaw Chopin Competition returns to San Francisco!

Rafal Blechacz was born in Naklo nad Notecia, Poland, on 30 June 1985. At the age of five he began to learn the piano at a local music centre and three years later enrolled at Bydgoszcz’s Artur Rubinstein Music School. Between 1996 and 1999 he won the top awards at a number of Polish national piano competitions. He completed his studies at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy in Bydgoszcz with Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron in May 2007.

2002
Rafal Blechacz is awarded the second prize at the Artur Rubinstein International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz

2003
Co-winner of the International Piano Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan

2004
Wins first prize at the International Piano Competition in Morocco

2005
Awarded first prize at the 15th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, and three special prizes: the Polish Radio Award for “Best Performance of the Mazurkas”, the Polish Chopin Society Award for “Best Polonaise Performance”, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Award for “Best Concerto Performance”. Additionally, he wins the prize founded by Krystian Zimerman for “Best Sonata Performance”

2006
Performances include Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with the National Philha¬monic Orchestra under Antoni Wit at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, and Chopin’s First Piano Concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman in Zurich and with the Radio Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra under Arild Remmereit at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In November he undertakes a 12-concert recital tour of Japan. Blechacz appears to great acclaim at Poland’s Chopin Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, Verbier and La Roque d’Antheron. In May Rafal Blechacz signs an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon

2007
Rafal Blechacz performs Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Russian National Orchestra led by Mikhail Pletnev on tour in Japan, with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra in Poznan, Poland, and with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra in Copen­hagen; Chopin’s Concertos nos. 1 and 2 with the Orchestre du Capitole de Tou­louse on tour in Germany and in Toulouse. Recital tours of Poland, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands; further recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall (broadcast by the BBC), at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and in Zaragoza, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brus­sels, at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, in Ferrara, and in Vilnius, Lithuania. His solo debut recording of works by Chopin was very well received by the critics and reached “platinum“ status in Poland; in France the music magazine Diapason elected it a Diapason Découverte [Diapason Discovery]

2008
Concerts performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonia under Charles Dutoit; Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Berne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland and the New York Philharmonic under Marin Alsop in New York’s Carnegie Hall; Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona at the city’s Auditori. Recital tours of Italy, Switzerland and the USA; further recitals in Paris, Narbonne, Dortmund and Vancouver. Festival appearances at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo in the USA, Verbier, Heidelberg and Salzburg Festival. Blechacz’s new recording of an album devoted to the Viennese Classics – Haydn’s Sonata in E flat major, Mozart’s Sonata K. 311 and Beethoven’s Sonata op. 2 no. 2 – is released to great acclaim in the autumn

2009
Tour of Japan performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4 with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marek Janowski and giving several solo recitals. Further concerts include the Beethoven Fourth Concerto with the Warsaw National Philharmonic in Warsaw and with the Orquesta de Valencia in Valencia and Castellon; Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia in Spain and with the Orchestre National de France in Paris; Chopin’s First and Second Piano Concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Solo recitals at several venues in the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées) and London (Wigmore Hall). Blechacz’s eagerly awaited orchestral recording debut of Chopin’s Piano Concertos nos. 1 and 2 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Jerzy Semkow is released in the autumn

2010
Plans for the year include concerts performing Chopin’s Piano Concertos nos. 1 and 2 with the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as with the Warsaw National Philharmonic, Kraków Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker; recital tour of Japan and of the USA, including Washington’s Kennedy Center and the United Nations in New York; European recitals including Geneva, Zurich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, Chopin Festival in Nohant-Vic, Stuttgart and Poland

PROGRAM To Be Announced

Rafal Blechacz' website by DGG

“One of a half-dozen pianists worth dropping everything to hear” ( Daily Telegraph ), Louis Lortie is celebrated for his polished technique and deep musicality. Lortie's recording of the Etudes was cited by BBC Music Magazine as one of “50 Recordings by Superlative Pianists,” and f ollowing his performance of them in Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Financial Times wrote: “Better Chopin playing than this is not to be heard, not anywhere.”

Mr. Lortie has performed the complete works of Ravel in London and Montréal for the BBC and CBC. Also celebrated for his interpretation of works by Beethoven, Mr. Lortie has performed the complete Beethoven sonatas in London's Wigmore Hall, Toronto's Ford Center, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Sala Grande del Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. In Berlin, Die Welt called his performances “possibly the most beautiful Beethoven since the times of Wilhelm Kempff.”

He opened the Bonn Beethoven Festival in 2003 playing Beethoven's Fourth Concerto with Kurt Masur conducting, and since then has established a particularly fruitful partnership with Mr. Masur. They performed together with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the LPO at Royal Festival Hall and in Paris and Vienna's Musikverein with the Orchestre National de France. Future plans include concerts together with the Chicago Symphony, the Dresden Staatskappelle and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome.

In 2008, Mr. Lortie concluded his multi-year project with the Montreal Symphony to play and conduct all 27 Mozart Piano Concertos. Last season he performed a multi-concert Wagner/Liszt project at London's Wigmore Hall, which he also performed it in Berlin, Milan, the Weimar Festival, Bordeaux and Warsaw.

Notable concerts last season included the Saint Louis Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland and on tour, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, a European tour with the BBC Wales, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Dresden Festival, the NACO, and many important recitals including the complete Chopin Etudes at the Kennedy Center, in Weimar, London, Milan, and for the Cliburn Foundation. Future concerts include the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the RAI Torino, the Dresden Staatskappelle, the Santa Cecilia in Rome, and recitals at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam's Concergebouw, UC Berkeley, Duke University, Toronto, the Gilmore Festival and Atlanta's Spivey Hall.

Louis Lortie has performed under the baton of conductors Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Jarvi, Sir Andrew Davis, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mark Elder and Osmo Vanska among others. He has also been involved in many chamber music projects, with musicians such as Frank Peter Zimmermann, Leonidas Kavakos, Renaud and Gautier Capucon, Jan Vogler, Augustin Dumay, the Takacs Quartet, and Gidon Kremer. His regular piano-duo partner is fellow Canadian Helene Mercier, with whom he has made successful recordings on the Chandos label.

Mr. Lortie has made over 30 recordings on the Chandos label, ranging from Mozart to Stravinsky. His recording of Beethoven's Eroica Variations won the Edison Award, and his disc of Schumann's Bunte Blatter and other works by Schumann and Brahms was named one of the best CDs of the year by BBC Music Magazine . He has recorded Ravel's complete works for piano and has almost completed the 32 Beethoven sonatas. His most recent CD release is the final recording in his three-CD series of Liszt's complete works for piano and orchestra with the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. It was immediately named “Editor's Choice” by Gramophone Magazine.

Born in Montréal, Louis Lortie in 1984 won First Prize in the Busoni Competition and was a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition. In 1992 he was named Officer of the Order of Canada, and received both the Order of Quebec and an honorary doctorate from Laval University. As his schedule permits, he teaches at Italy's renowned piano institute at Imola. Mr. Lortie has lived in Berlin since 1997 and also has a home in Canada.

CHOPIN The Complete Etudes for Piano

Louis Lortie's website

Jaime Laredo

Leon Fleisher

JAIME LAREDO

Approaching his 50 th year before audiences across the globe, violinist Jaime Laredo has excelled in the multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist and chamber musician. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 11 with the San Francisco Symphony, and at the age of 17 won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, launching his rise to international prominence. His education and development were greatly influenced by private coaching with eminent masters Josef Gingold, Pablo Casals, Ivan Galamian and George Szell.

The 2009-10 season features several conducting engagements, including multiple appearances with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, where he has served as Artistic Advisor, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, where he is Music Director, and through his leadership of the New York String Orchestra at New York's Carnegie Hall. Mr. Laredo continues an ambitious project to premiere and record double concerti across the U.S with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson. Among this season's highlights will be Richard Danielpour's A Child's Reliquary for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, which they will perform and recordunder the baton of Sarah Hicks. As a chamber musician, he will appear in multiple concerts as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Series at New York's 92 nd Street Y, and as the new co-Artistic Director of Cincinnati's Linton Chamber Music Series. With The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, he continues premiere performances of Ellen Zwilich's Septet for Piano and Strings with the Miami String Quartet, brings an all-Schubert program to The Kennedy Center, and tours the world to such places as England, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Korea.

Laredo has recorded close to 100 discs. He has received the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize; has won a Grammy Award for a disc of Brahms Piano Quartets which he performed with Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma; and has earned seven Grammy nominations. Laredo also holds a prestigious chair position at the Indiana University School of Music.

LEON FLEISHER

In 2010-2011, pianist Leon Fleisher reaffirms his place as one of today's preeminent concert artists with performances in major music centers around the world. Fleisher will be heard in recital, and with orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and Phillipe Jordan, the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker under Andrey Boreyko, and as conductor/soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Sony Masterworks signed Fleisher to a new recording deal, starting with the March 31, 2009 release of his first two-hand piano concerto recording in over 40 years, a trio of Mozart concertos recorded with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. Leon Fleisher is currently working on a book for Doubleday with acclaimed writer and music critic Anne Midgette, planned for release in 2010.

Debuting with the New York Philharmonic in 1944, Fleisher quickly established himself as one of the world's premier classical pianists, concertizing with every major orchestra and making numerous touchstone recordings. At the height of his career, he was suddenly struck silent at age 37 with a neurological affliction known as focal dystonia, rendering two fingers on his right hand immobile.

In the nearly 40 years since Leon Fleisher's keyboard career was so suddenly curtailed, he has followed two parallel careers – as conductor and teacher – while learning the extraordinary but limited repertoire for piano left-hand. Experimental treatments using a regimen of rolfing and 'botulinum toxin' (botox) injections finally restored the mobility in Fleisher's hand, and for several years he has played with both hands.

Fleisher received the 2007 Kennedy Center Honours at the 30th annual Celebration of the Arts and in 2005, Fleisher was honoured by the French government and was named Commander in the French Order of Arts and Letters, the highest rank of its kind. The first American to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition (1952), Fleisher now holds numerous honours including the Johns Hopkins University President's Medal and honourary doctorates from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Amherst College, Boston Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard School of Music and Peabody Institute.

SCHUBERT and BRAHMS

“Elisso is an incomparable Schumannist; she is an artist of great distinction, perhaps the greatest woman pianist of our time. She is a serious, deeply sincere and unpretentious musician.

She impresses me in every respect.”

- Sviatoslav Richter, 1998

Elisso Virsaladze grew up in a family in Tbilisi, which was for generations involved in the art and culture of Georgia. She received her first piano lessons from her grandmother, Professor Anastasia Virsaladze. After attending the conservatory, she left her native city and moved to Moscow, where, at the age of twenty, she won the third prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition.

She continued her studies in Moscow with Heinrich Neuhaus and Yakov, gifted teachers who had not only a deep influence on her artistic development, but also immersed her in the renowned tradition of Russian piano pedagogy. Elisso Virzaladze is now a professor at both the Moscow Conservatory and the Musikhochschule in Munich, where she is recognized as an exceptional teacher whose students have won sensational distinction. She regularly servies as a judge for the most prestigious international competitions including the Santander, Geza Anda in Zurich, Rubinstein in Tel Aviv the Tchaikovsky Richter competitions in Moscow.

Her deepest love is for composers of the late 18th and 19th centuries, especially Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann. At the age of twenty-four, she won first prize at the Schumann Competition in Zwickau, and she has been described by the international press as one of the great contemporary interpreters of Schumann. At the same time, she is also well known for her wide repertoire including modern Russian composers. The Soviet Union has honored her with its highest artistic awards.

Elisso Virsaladze performs regularly in London, Milan, Rome, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin and Barcelona. She is known for her partnership with the cellist Natalia Gutman with whom she has performed recently in Spain, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom (London's Wigmore Hall), the Netherlands and Germany. In addition she served on competition juries throughout the world, including Brussels, Japan, Busoni and Portuga. She has toured extensively in North America, Japan and Europe in recitals, chamber music and as guest soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic in London. She has appeared with with the most prestigious orchestras of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Japan and the United teste working with such conductors as Rudolf Barschai, Kyril Kondraschin, Ricardo Muti, Kurt Sanderling, Wolfgang Sawallisch Evgeny Svetlanov, Juri Temirkanov and Antoni Wit.

During the 2009 season Elisso Virzaladze performed concerti of Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart throughout Europe and Russia and gave numerous recitals and chamber music concerts. Some of her most renowned recordings have been released on the Live Classics label offering a wide perspective into her musical personality.

We are proud to be presenting the San Francisco debut of this legendary artist.

MOZART Fantasie in C minor, K 475

MOZART Sonata in C minor, K 457

PROKOFIEV Sonate No. 2

CHOPIN Polonaise Fantasie in A-flat major, Op. 61

SCHUMANN Fantasie in C major, Op. 17  

Jorja Fleezanis

Michael Grebanier

Garrick Ohlsson

JORJA FLEEZANIS, violin

Violinist Jorja Fleezanis is Professor of Music and holds the Henry A. Upper Chair in Orchestral Studies at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. She was concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1989 to 2009—the longest-tenured concertmaster in the orchestra's history and only the second woman in the U.S. to hold the title of concertmaster in a major orchestra when appointed. Prior to Minnesota, she was associate concertmaster with the San Francisco Symphony for eight years.

A devoted teacher, Fleezanis became an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota's School of Music in 1990. She has also enjoyed teaching roles with other organizations: as teacher and artist at the Round Top International Festival Institute in Texas (1990-2007); artist-in-residence at the University of California, Davis; guest artist and teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory, where she served on the faculty from 1981 to 1989; artist and mentor at the Music@Menlo Festival (2003-2008); teacher and coach at the New World Symphony (1988-2008), and a visiting teacher to the Boston Conservatory, The Juilliard School, and Interlochen Academy and Summer Camp.

Fleezanis has had a number of works commissioned for her, including by the Minnesota Orchestra with the John Adams Violin Concerto and Ikon of Eros by John Tavener, the latter recorded on Reference Records. Her recording of the complete Violin Sonatas of Beethoven with the French fortepianist Cyril Huvé was released in 2003 on the Cyprés label. Other recordings include Aaron Jay Kernis' Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky on CRI, commissioned for Fleezanis by the Schubert Club, and, with Garrick Ohlsson, Stefan Wolpe's Violin Sonata for Koch International.

Fleezanis studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

MICHAEL GREBANIER, cello

Michael Grebanier joined the San Francisco Symphony as Philip S. Boone Principal Cellist in 1977. Prior to that, he was principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony for fourteen years (the youngest musician to hold that post in the ensemble's history) and a member of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Mr. Grebanier has been a soloist with the SFS in the major works for cello and orchestra; most recently, in December 2005, he was soloist with Alexander Barantschik in the Brahms Double Concerto, with Michael Tilson Thomas leading the Orchestra. Mr. Grebanier has played the complete cycle of Beethoven cello and piano sonatas with Malcolm Frager and has been affiliated with the Marlboro Festival in Vermont and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Michael Grebanier began his musical studies in his native New York City and later attended the Curtis Institute of Music. His teachers included Carl Ziegler of the NBC Symphony, Orlando Cole of the Curtis String Quartet, and Leonard Rose. While at Curtis, he won the Walter Naumburg Award and made his recital debut in New York City at nineteen. He has recorded the Prokofiev cello sonatas with pianist Janet Guggenheim for Naxos, and he is featured in the first recording of the complete music for cello and piano by Rachmaninoff, also on Naxos.

GARRICK OHLSSON, piano

Since winning the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although known as one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire which ranges over the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. His concerto repertoire alone is unusually wide and eclectic, and to date he has at his command some 80 concertos.

In 2010, in recognition of Chopin's 200th birthday Mr. Ohlsson presented a series of all-Chopin recital programs in Seattle, Berkeley and La Jolla culminating at Lincoln Center. In conjunction with that project a film based on Chopin's life and his music, co-produced by Polish, French, British and Chinese television stations, is planned for simultaneous release. Other highlights during the 2009-2010 season included appearances with the New York Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, Vancouver, Indianapolis, San Diego, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Baltimore. He was heard in solo recital in Chicago, Fort Worth, and Philadelphia and in a special gala concert presented in Chopin's birth house in Warsaw. Mr. Ohlsson's debut in Russia took place during St. Petersburg's winter festival in December, when he appeared both in recital and with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.


HAYDN Piano Trio TBA
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 70 No. 2
DVORAK Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65

Few musical works are as beloved as the six "Brandenburg" Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. These six works display a lighter side of Bach's imperishable genius. Yet they came into being as an unexpected gift. That's what happened in 1721 when Bach presented the Margrave of Brandenburg with a bound manuscript containing six lively concertos for chamber orchestra, works based on an Italian Concerto Grosso style. The Margrave never thanked Bach for his work--or paid him. There's no way he could have known that this gift--later named the Brandenburg Concertos--would become a benchmark of Baroque music and still have the power to move people almost three centuries later.

The Concertos are a highlight of one of the happiest and most productive periods in Bach's life. At the time he wrote them, Bach was the Kapellmeister--the music director--in the small town of Coethen, where he was composing music for the court. Since the Margrave of Brandenburg seems to have ignored Bach's gift of concertos, it's likely that Bach himself presided over the first performances at home in Coethen. They didn't have a name then; that didn't come until 150 years later, when Bach's biographer Philipp Spitta called them "Brandenburg" Concertos for the very first time, and the name stuck.

Each of the six concertos requires a different combination of instruments as well as some highly skilled soloists. The Margrave had his own small court orchestra in Berlin, but it was a group of mostly mediocre players. All the evidence suggests that these virtuosic Brandenburg concertos perfectly matched the talents of the musicians on hand in Coethen. So how did a provincial town get so many excellent musicians? Just before Johann Sebastian arrived in Coethen in 1717, a new king inherited the throne in Prussia. Friedrich Wilhelm I became known as the "Soldier King" because he was interested in the military strength of his kingdom, not in refined artistic pursuits. One of his first royal acts was to disband the prestigious Berlin court orchestra. That threw many musicians out of work, and as luck would have it, seven of the best ones were snatched up to work in Coethen by its music-loving Prince Leopold. That's why Bach found such a rich music scene when he started to work there. It gave him the luxury of writing for virtuosos and they let him push the boundraries of his creativity. Concerto No. 2, for example, has the trumpeter play high flourishes. No. 4 allows the solo violin to soar.

Even though he didn't call them the "Brandenburgs," Bach still thought of them as a set. What he did was compile them from short instrumental sinfonias and concerto movements he had already written. Then he re-worked the old music, often re-writing and elaborating where he saw fit.

*

The program will be performed by the newly-formed string ensemble Archetti, whose members also play in such ensembles as American Bach Soloists and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

ARCHETTI

Carla Moore, violin

Cynthia Freivogel, violin

David Wilson, violin

Alicia Yang, violin
Anthony Martin, viola
Tanya Tomkins, cello
John Dornenburg, violone
Davitt Moroney, harpsichord

J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 4
J.S. BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

Other works to be announced

One of the most sought-after pianists of his generation, Jon Nakamatsu is a frequent concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and solo recitalist throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He enjoys a continuously expanding career based on a deeply probing and illuminating musicality as well as a quietly charismatic performing style.

Highlights of Jon Nakamatsu's current season include return engagements with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Annapolis, Bozeman and Greenwich symphony orchestras, Lexington and Reno philharmonics and Santa Fe Pro Musica, as well as performances with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and the orchestras of Cape Cod, Fremont, La Crosse, Lincoln and Norwalk. He reunites with his colleagues of the Berlin Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet for performances in Berlin and Detroit, and is presented in recital from coast to coast. With his duo-recital partner, clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu performs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and in New York City, Boston, Des Moines and Saratoga, CA.

Initially brought to global attention in June 1997 by being named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Jon Nakamatsu subsequently appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood, as well as with, among many others, the orchestras of Buffalo, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas, Dayton, Delaware, Detroit, Fort Worth, Honolulu, Memphis, Milwaukee, Naples, New Mexico, New World, Portland, Rochester, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Syracuse, Toledo and Utah. Abroad, he has been heard as soloist with Italy's famed Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Berlin's Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional de Santo Domingo and Japan's Tokyo and Hiroshima Symphony Orchestras.

In 2005, he toured Spain as soloist with the San Jose Youth Symphony, followed by a 2007 tour with the Peninsula Youth Symphony that included performances in Budapest and Prague. Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated with many of today's leading conductors, among them Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Peter Bay, William Boughton, George Cleve, James Conlon, Grant Cooper, Leslie B. Dunner, Philippe Entremont, Neal Gittleman, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marek Janowski, Chosei Komatsu, Michael Lankester, Peter Leonard, Raymond Leppard, Jahja Ling, Keith Lockhart, David Lockington, Christof Perick, Larry Rachleff, Peter Rubardt, Matthew Savery, Alfred Savia, Carl St. Clair, Christopher Seaman, Stanislaw Skrowaczeski, Markand Thakar, Michael Tilson Thomas, Osmo Vänskä, David Wiley, Peter Stafford Wilson and Samuel Wong. His 1998-99 season was highlighted by a White House performance of Rhapsody in Blue, hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton.

Jon Nakamatsu's extensive recital tours throughout the United States and Europe have featured perfromances in New York City (Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall), Washington, DC (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Paris, London and Milan. The recipient of the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for his semifinal round chamber music performances at the Cliburn competition, he has subsequently collaborated with various chamber ensembles, among them the Brentano, Ives, Manhattan, Miami, St. Lawrence, Prazak, Tokyo and Ying String Quartets and the Stanford Woodwind Quintet. Mr. Nakamatsu has also made three United States tours as the guest soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet.

Jon Nakamatsu's festival appearances include Tanglewood, the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival with Christopher Seaman and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also been a guest artist at France's Evian and Montpellier music festivals and Germany's Klavier Festival Ruhr, Festival Casals de Puerto Rico, performing with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Carl St. Clair, and at the Colorado Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Florida's Brevard and Sanibel music festivals, Tacoma International Music Festival, Lincoln's Meadowlark Music Festival, New York's Skaneateles Festival and California's Midsummer Mozart Festival.

Named Debut Artist of the Year (1998) by NPR's "Performance Today," Jon Nakamatsu has been profiled by "CBS Sunday Morning" and Reader's Digest magazine, and is featured in "Playing with Fire," a documentary on the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, aired nationwide on PBS. Earlier, in 1995, he was named the First Prize winner of Miami's Fifth United States Chopin Piano Competition. He records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa, which has released six CDs, including an orchestral album containing performances of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with Christopher Seaman and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as albums devoted to the music of Brahms, Chopin, Foss, Liszt and Wölfl. Mr. Nakamatsu's most recent release is his second orchestral album with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring Gershwin's Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue, conducted by Jeff Tyzik. Soon to be released is his first CD with clarinetist Jon Manasse, a recording of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas.

Jon Nakamatsu studied privately with Marina Derryberry since the age of six, has worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, and studied composition and orchestration with Dr. Leonard Stein of the Schoenberg Institute at the University of Southern California. In addition, he has pursued extensive studies in chamber music and musicology. A former high school German teacher, Mr. Nakamatsu is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in German Studies and a master's degree in Education.

Jon Nakamatsu and his duo-partner, the renowned clarinetist Jon Manasse, serve as Artistic Directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.

RAMEAU  Gavotte and Variations

BRAHMS  Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 1

LISZT  Three Sonetti del Petrarca (from Annees de pelerinage, Deuxieme Annee, Italie)

CHOPIN   Andante spianato et grande polonaise Brillante, Op. 22

Jon Nakamatsu's website

Geraldine Walther

Before joining the Takács Quartet, Geraldine Walther was Principal Violist of the San Francisco Symphony for 29 years. Early in her career she served as assistant principal of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Miami Philharmonic, and the Baltimore Symphony. She studied at the Curtis Institute with Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet and at the Manhattan School of Music with Lillian Fuchs, and in 1979 she won first prize at the William Primrose International Competition.  She had been on the music faculty of The San Francisco Conservatory, Notre Dame de Namur University, and Mills College and conducted master classes at numerous universities and festivals.

She has performed as soloist on numerous occasions with the San Francisco Symphony and given the US premieres of Michael Tippett's Triple Concerto in 1981, Tôru Takemitsu's A String Around Autumn in 1990, Peter Lieberson's Viola Concerto in 1999, George Benjamin's Viola, Viola (together with SFS Associate Principal Violist Yun Jie Liu), also in 1999, and the Viola Concerto by Robin Holloway. 

In 1995 Ms. Walther was selected by Sir Georg Solti as a member of his Musicians of the World, which performed in Geneva to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in July 1995.   She has also served as principal violist with the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego.  An avid chamber musician, Ms. Walther regularly participates in leading chamber music festivals, including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, and, most recently, the Telluride, Seattle, and Ruby Mountain festivals, Music at Kohl Mansion, Green Music Festival in Sonoma, and the inaugural season of Music@Menlo. She has collaborated with such artists as Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, and Jaime Laredo, and appeared as a guest artist with the Vermeer, Guarneri, Lindsay, Cypress, Tokyo and St. Lawrence quartets.  

Geraldine Walther's recordings include Hindemith's Trauermusik and Der Schwanendreher with the San Francisco Symphony (both on London/Decca), Paul Chihara's Golden Slumbers with the San Francisco Chamber Singers (Albany), and Lou Harrison's Threnody (New Albion). Together with SFS Assistant Concertmaster Mark Volkert and cellist Jan Volkert, she has just released a new disc of Mr. Volkert's transcriptions for string trio entitled Delectable Pieces (Con Brio).

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Melissa Kleinbart violin

Geraldine Walther viola

Tanya Tomkins cello

Eric Zivian piano

PROGRAM To Be Announced