CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Sir András Schiff
Performers
Sir András Schiff, Piano
Program
ALL-SCHUBERT PROGRAMPiano Sonata in A Minor, D. 845
Four Impromptus, D. 935
Klavierstücke, D. 946
Piano Sonata in G Major, D. 894
Encores:
Impromptu in E-flat Major, D. 899, No. 2
Hungarian Melody in B Minor, D. 817
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two and one-half hours, including one 20-minute intermission.At a Glance
In addition to his 21 fully developed sonatas, Schubert wrote hundreds of short dances and character pieces for the piano, many of which were first heard at the convivial house concerts, or Schubertiads, attended by the composer and his friends. The character of the Four Impromptus, as the name implies, is spontaneous and improvisatory, yet the work was so deliberately laid out that it has been likened to a four-movement sonata. The three Klavierstücke (Piano Pieces) are at once formally expansive and thematically compact, illustrating the rounded, cyclical structures that Schubert favored throughout his life.
Bios
Sir András Schiff
Renowned and acclaimed as a pianist, conductor, pedagogue, and lecturer, Sir András Schiff
was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1953. After completing The Bach Project throughout the
2012-2013 and 2013-2014 concert seasons, he continued with The Last Sonatas, a
series of recitals comprising the final three sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and
Schubert. The Last Sonatas took place over the course of the 2014-2015 and
2015-2016 seasons, with performances in San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, Los Angeles's
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Chicago's Symphony Center, Maryland's Strathmore, Vancouver
Recital Society, and the University of Michigan's University Musical Society. Additional
recitals took place in Seattle, Santa Barbara, Kansas City, Oberlin, Rochester, Boston,
Montreal, and Toronto. In October 2015, the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles
Philharmonic hosted Sir András in a series of concerts, marking his first North American
performances on the podium and at the piano with chorus, orchestra, and soloists.
In his role as a lecturer, Sir András put together a roundtable forum that was presented
by the 92nd Street Y, addressing his belief that it is the responsibility of every
politically informed artist to speak out against racial injustice and persecution. Sir
András also partners with the 92nd Street Y for Sir András Schiff Selects: Young
Pianists, a three-concert series curated by Sir András that introduces rising young
pianists.
Sir András has built a prolific discography and since 1997 has been an exclusive artist
for ECM New Series and its producer, Manfred Eicher. Recordings for ECM include the
complete solo piano music of Beethoven and Janáček; two solo albums of Schumann piano
pieces; and his second recordings of the Bach partitas, Goldberg Variations, and
The Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as Beethoven's Diabelli Variations recorded on
two instruments: a Bechstein from 1921 and an original fortepiano from 1820 Vienna-the time
and place of the composition. Sir András's most recent album, an all-Schubert disc that
features the B-flat Major and G-Major piano sonatas, D. 960 and D. 894, respectively;
Moments musicaux, D. 780; and Impromptus, D. 935, was named recording of the month
by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. It was released in July 2015 and
was recorded at Bonn's Beethoven-Haus on a carefully restored Franz Brodmann fortepiano
from 1820.
Orchestral engagements find Sir András performing as both conductor and soloist. In 1999,
he created his own chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca, which consists of
international soloists, chamber musicians, and friends. He also collaborates regularly with
the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Sir András has enjoyed playing chamber music since his
childhood, and from 1989 until 1998 he was artistic director of the internationally praised
Musiktage Mondsee chamber music festival near Salzburg. In 1995, together with Heinz
Holliger, he founded the Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte in Kartause Ittingen, Switzerland. Three
years later, he started a similar series, Homage to Palladio, at the Teatro Olimpico in
Vicenza, Italy. From 2004 to 2007, he was artist-in-residence of the Kunstfest Weimar, and
during the 2007-2008 season, he was pianist-in-residence with the Berliner
Philharmoniker.
Sir András has been awarded numerous international prizes, and his relationship with
publisher G. Henle continues over the next few years with a joint edition of Mozart's piano
concertos and both volumes of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier. He is an honorary
member of Bonn's Beethoven-Haus in recognition of his interpretations of Beethoven's works,
and has received the Wigmore Hall Medal in appreciation of 30 years of music making at that
venue; the Schumann Prize awarded by the city of Zwickau, Germany; the Mozart Medal from
the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum; the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts; the
Grosse Verdienstkreuz mit Stern der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; and The Royal Philharmonic
Society's Gold Medal. He was also made a member of honor of Vienna's Konzerthaus and a
Special Supernumerary Fellow of Balliol College in Oxford, and has received honorary
degrees from the University of Leeds and music schools in Budapest, Detmold, and Munich. In
the spring of 2011, Sir András attracted attention because of his opposition to the
alarming political developments in Hungary. In view of the ensuing attacks on him from
Hungarian nationalists, he decided not to perform again in his home country. In June 2014,
he was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.