Yefim Bronfman, Piano
BARTÓK Suite, Op. 14
SCHUMANN Humoreske
DEBUSSY Suite bergamasque
STRAVINSKY Three Movements from Pétrouchka
A formidable pianist, Bartók researched and drew inspiration from the vernacular music of his native Hungary. The folk-based Suite, Op. 14, was composed during World War I and anticipates the spare, sharply etched textures and percussive piano style of Bartók’s later sonatas and concertos.
This fiercely challenging and somewhat neglected masterpiece displays the wide range of styles and emotions that characterize Schumann’s early piano music. While it was in progress, he wrote to his finacée, Clara Wieck, that he had “been at the piano all week, composing, writing, laughing, and crying all at once.”
The young Debussy was still poised on the edge between Romanticism and Impressionism when he wrote this entrancing four-movement suite in 1890. Its centerpiece is the perennially popular “Clair de lune,” around which are clustered three dance-like pieces variously indebted to the French Baroque composers whom Debussy admired.
Pétrouchka is the second of three wildly successful ballets inspired by Russian folklore that made Stravinsky a household name in Paris before World War I. After the war, the composer collaborated with Arthur Rubinstein to create the brilliantly virtuosic three-movement piano suite based on episodes from the ballet.
Internationally recognized as one of today's most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim
Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought out by festivals, orchestras,
and conductors. His commanding technique, power, and exceptional lyrical gifts are
consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike.
Mr. Bronfman works regularly with Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov,
Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti,
Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Mariss Jansons, Vladimir Jurowski, James Levine, Riccardo
Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz
Welser-Möst, and David Zinman. To acknowledge a relationship of more than 30 years, he
opened the Israel Philharmonic's season with Zubin Mehta in October and participated in the
orchestra's 80th birthday celebrations in December.
A regular guest of some of the world's finest ensembles, Mr. Bronfman returns to the
orchestras of New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, San
Francisco, St. Louis, Houston, and Dallas this season. In Europe, he tours extensively in
recital and with orchestras in cities that include Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Amsterdam,
Frankfurt, Brussels, and Leipzig. Continuing his long-standing partnership with Pinchas
Zukerman, the duo appeared in Copenhagen, Milan, Naples, Barcelona, Berlin, and St.
Petersburg in March. Always keen to explore the chamber-music repertoire, Mr. Bronfman has
collaborated with Martha Argerich, Magdalena Kožená, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Emmanuel
Pahud.
Mr. Bronfman was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1991 and the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in
Piano Performance from Northwestern University in 2010. He has been nominated for six
Grammy Awards, winning in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók piano concertos with
Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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