BEST CDs. BEST RECORDINGS:
CLASSICAL
MUSIC
From the Desk
of Irma Panayotti
irmapanayotti@lafemmemagazine.com
music received a Grand
Prix du Disque from the Liszt Society of Budapest, while his
widely-acclaimed 10-CD recording of all thirty-two Beethoven sonatas was
nominated for a Juno Award. In 1998 Robert Silverman was named the first
winner of the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for
Keyboard Artistry, administered by the Ontario Arts Council Foundation, in
recognition of "his high level of artistry, his moving interpretations of a
wide range of music...and his commitment and contribution to music in
Canada." His recent projects include an eight-concert series encompassing
all thirty-two Beethoven sonatas. The cycle has been performed in several
locations, including Toronto, Seattle, Winnipeg, and Vancouver's Chan Centre
for the Performing Arts. He will perform the cycle at the Washington
Conservatory in Washington DC during March and April of 2004. Robert
Silverman resides in Vancouver where he was a faculty member at the
University of British Columbia for thirty years, and served a 5-year term as
Director of the School of Music in the 1990s. He resigned his post as of
July 2003 in order to devote himself to full-time concertizing and
recording. He is frequently heard on the CBC network, he plays Steinway
pianos, and records for EMI, Stereophile, OrpheumMasters, CBC
Records and Marquis Classics. He has recently been appointed
Artist-in-Residence at The Koffler Centre of the Arts School of Music in
Toronto.
Photo:
Rebecca Penneys, Piano, Jacques Israelievitch,
Violin, Arie Lipsky, Cello.
NEW ARTS TRIO
In Recital At Chautaqua
(Fleur de Son Classics)
When the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra opens its season Wednesday at Roy Thomson Hall, the last player to
walk onstage will be Jacques Israelievitch, its concertmaster since 1988 and
one of the most versatile violinists in the country, with a discography to
his credit of solo and chamber as well as orchestral work. In addition to a
solo album, he has recently released his latest chamber disc for Fleur de
Son Classics, teaming up with Arie Lipsky, former principal cellist of the
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and pianist Rebecca Penneys of the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester as the New Arts Trio. In addition to capable
readings of Beethoven's Trio In D Major, Op. 70, No.1 (the so-called
Ghost Trio) and Brahms' Trio In B Major, Op. 8, No.1, the
album, recorded at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York, is
particularly notable for its inclusion of three offbeat shorter works: Arvo
Pärt's arrangement of Mozart's Adagio, K.280 from the Piano Sonata
In F Major, Astor Piazzolla's La Muerte del angel (Death Of The Angel)
and Ernest Bloch's Three Nocturnes.-Willi Litter
The NEW ARTS TRIO has
firmly established itself as one of America's most distinguished piano
trios. Since its inception in 1974, the Trio has performed in major cities
throughout the United States and Canada including Washington, Boston,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans,
Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. In New
York City the NEW ARTS TRIO has appeared at Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St.
'Y,' and Carnegie Hall's Weil Recital Hall. The TRIO has also made several
tours of eastern and western Europe. The NEW ARTS TRIO has been in residence
at the Chautauqua Institution since 1978. During the seven week festival
they perform, present master classes, coach chamber music and teach students
who come to study with them from all over the world. The TRIO has three CD's
on Fleur De Son Classics: the Arensky Trios and Beethoven's Arrangements for
Piano Trio (2nd Symphony and the Septet), and New Arts Trio in Recital at
Chautauqua (works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bloch, Part and Piazzola). “The Trio
played with big tone, supple phrasing, energy, and a romantic ensemble in
which individualism and teamwork were balanced.” The New Yorker
The founder of the NEW ARTS
TRIO, Rebecca Penneys (www.rebeccapenneys.com) is Professor of Piano at
Eastman School of Music, Chair of the Chautauqua Piano Department, and
Visiting Artist, St. Petersburg College. She leads a distinguished career as
a recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral soloist and teacher. In recent
seasons she has appeared in East Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Europe,
Israel, South America and throughout the United States and Canada. Born in
Los Angeles, Ms. Penneys has received many prestigious awards including the
unprecedented Special Critics' Prize at the Seventh International Chopin
Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland and was twice awarded the Naumburg Award
for Chamber music. Her teachers include Aube Tzerko, Leonard Stein, Rosina
Lhevinne, Artur Rubinstein, Menahem Pressler, Gyorgy Sebok and Janos
Starker. Current CD's are: On the Centaur label, The Voice of the Piano,
(works by Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Gershwin), and The Complete
Chopin Etudes; On Fleur De Son Classics, All Brahms (Op. 10, 116 & Hungarian
Dances), and Recital Gems from Chautauqua (works by Bartok, Mozart, Chopin,
Debussy, Balcom, Albright and Schumann-Liszt). A renowned pedagogue, she is
co-author of a book entitled The Fundamentals of Flow State Learning in
Music.