For immediate release: Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Piano Series at Severance Music Center during 2022-23 season
New this season, a piano recital series featuring three world-renowned pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Vìkingur Ólafsson, and Maria João Pires
Left to right: Mitsuko Uchida (Decca /© Justin Pumfrey), Vìkingur Ólafsson (© Ari Magg), Maria João Pires (© Felix Broede / DG)
All tickets will go on sale Monday, August 8, pre-sale for Cleveland Orchestra subscribers and donors begins Monday, August 1
CLEVELAND –The Cleveland Orchestra announced on Tuesday two solo piano recitals to be added to the 2022-23 Severance Music Center classical season: Vìkingur Ólafsson (November 30) and Maria João Pires (May 3). Previously announced, Mitsuko Uchida’s all-Beethoven solo piano recital on February 26 is also part of the Orchestra’s 2022-23 season piano recital series.
Ólafsson makes his Cleveland Orchestra debut with concerts during the 2022-23 Severance classical season with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra on March 2 to 5 performing Ravel’s piano concerto.
Pires last performed at Severance Music Center’s Reinberger Chamber Hall in recital in 2016 and made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in 1992.
The 2022-23 season marks the 32nd year of Uchida’s storied partnership with the Orchestra, which began in September 1990. Since then, she’s performed countless concerts and recitals at Severance over the years, and released several commercial recordings with The Cleveland Orchestra, including a Grammy-winning album for Decca in 2009.
About Vikingur ÓlafssonPianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of high-level musicianship and visionary programs. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon — Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020) and Mozart & Contemporaries (2021) — captured the public and critical imagination and led to album streams of over 260 million. The Daily Telegraph called him “The new superstar of classical piano,” while The New York Times dubbed him “Iceland’s Glenn Gould.”
Ólafsson’s multiple awards include Gramophone magazine’s 2019 Artist of the Year, Album of the Year at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards, and two Opus Klassik awards for Solo Recording Instrumental. Ólafsson continues to perform with the world’s leading orchestras and as artist in residence at the top concert halls and festivals. He also works with some of today’s greatest composers.
A captivating communicator both on and off stage, Ólafsson’s significant talent extends to broadcast, having presented several of his own series for television and radio. He was artist in residence for three months on BBC Radio 4’s flagship arts program, Front Row. Broadcasting live during lockdown from an empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, he reached millions of listeners around the world. For additional information, visit vikingurolafsson.com/.
About Maria João Pires
Born in Lisbon in the 1940s, Maria João Pires gave her first public performance at the age of 4. She began her studies of music and piano with Campos Coelho and Francine Benoît, continuing later in Germany with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel.
Maria João Pires regularly offers interdisciplinary workshops for professional musicians and music lovers. In 1999, she created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal, and in 2012, she started two complementary projects in Belgium: Equinox, with the mission of forming and developing choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and Partitura, with the aim to create an altruistic dynamic between artists of different generations and to offer an alternative to a world too often focused on competitiveness. In addition to her concerts, she has made recordings for Erato for 15 years and Deutsche Grammophon for 20 years. For additional information, visit mariajoaopires.com/.
About Mitsuko Uchida
One of the most revered artists of our time, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of works by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and Beethoven, as well as a devotee of the piano music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and György Kurtág. In 2022, she was named Musical America’s Artist of the Year, and a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist. Her latest recording, of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, was released to critical acclaim in April 2022.
She has enjoyed close relationships over many years with the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and — in the US — the Chicago Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra, with whom she recently celebrated her 100th performance at Severance Hall.
Mitsuko Uchida records exclusively for Decca, and her multi-award-winning discography includes the complete Mozart and Schubert piano sonatas. She is the recipient of two Grammy Awards — for Mozart Concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, and for an album of lieder with Dorothea Röschmann — and her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and The Cleveland Orchestra won the Gramophone Award for Best Concerto. For additional information, visit mitsukouchida.com/.
Ticket Information
Individual tickets start at $24. A subscription package of all 3 recitals starts at $95. All tickets will go on sale Monday, August 8. Pre-sale for Cleveland Orchestra subscribers and donors begins Monday, August 1. Call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111, email boxoffice@clevelandorchestra.com, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.
CALENDAR LISTING:
Concert programs:
Víkingur Ólafsson in Recital: Mozart & Contemporaries
Wednesday, November 30, 2022 at 7:30pm
Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Music Center
GALUPPI Piano Sonata No. 9 in F minor, I. Andante spiritoso
W.A. MOZART Rondo in F major, K. 494
C.P.E. BACH Rondo in D Minor, Wq. 61/4
CIMAROSA/ arr. ÓLAFSSON Keyboard Sonata No. 42 in D minor
W.A. MOZART Fantasie No. 3 in D minor, K. 397
W.A. MOZART Rondo in D major, K. 485
CIMAROSA arr. ÓLAFSSON Keyboard Sonata No. 55 in A minor
HAYDN Piano Sonata No. 47 in B minor, Hob. XVI:32
W.A. MOZART Kleine Gigue in G major, K. 574
W.A. MOZART Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545
W.A. MOZART String Quintet No. 3 in G minor, K. 516, III. Adagio
GALUPPI Piano Sonata No. 34 in C minor, I. Larghetto
W.A. MOZART Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457
W.A. MOZART Adagio in B minor, K. 540
W.A. MOZART/trans. LISZT Ave verum corpus, K. 618
Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of exquisite musicianship and visionary programs. Now one of today’s most sought-after artists, Ólafsson has received multiple honors, including being named Gramophone magazine’s 2019 Artist of the Year. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon (Philip Glass Piano Works, Johann Sebastian Bach, Debussy Rameau, and Mozart & Contemporaries) have captured the imagination of the public and critics alike, leading to album streams of over 260 million. His Cleveland debut features a bespoke collection of Mozart’s keyboard works juxtaposed with a selection of pieces by the composer’s leading contemporaries.
Mitsuko Uchida in Recital: Beethoven
Sunday, February 26, 2023 at 3:00pm
Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor
One of the most revered artists of our time and a perennial favorite of Cleveland audiences, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of Beethoven — her latest recording, of the Diabelli Variations, was released to critical acclaim in April 2022. Uchida takes us through the composer’s final three piano sonatas, constituting one of music’s great spiritual journeys.
Maria João Pires in Recital: Schumann and Schubert
Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 7:30pm
Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center
R. SCHUMANN Carnival Scenes from Vienna
R. SCHUMANN Arabesque in C major
DEBUSSY Pour le piano
SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in B-flat major
Acclaimed pianist Maria João Pires has been hailed as “an elegant technician and probing interpreter” (The New York Times), whose playing is “modest in scale, gloriously immodest in its beauty” (Financial Times). Renowned for her recordings of music by Mozart, Chopin, and Schubert, Pires makes a rare Cleveland recital appearance.
Maria João Pires’s appearance is sponsored by Patrick and Milly Park and the Park Foundation.