MUSIC

The Houston Symphony presents Bronfman's Tchaikovsky 1, in Jones Hall, Thursday, September 16 and Saturday, September 18 at 8pm, and Sunday, September 19 at 2:30pm. You’ll be inspired by Tchaikovsky’s luscious melodies, performed with passion by giant of the keyboard, Yefim Bronfman (pictured).

Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim (“Fima”) Bronfman is among the most talented virtuosos performing today. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts have won consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide for his solo recitals, prestigious orchestral engagements, and expanding catalogue of recordings.

Bronfman begins the season playing the piano concerto composed for him by Esa-Pekka Salonen under the composer’s direction at the Edinburgh, Helsinki, and Lucerne Festivals; at Lucerne he also plays Brahms’s Second Concerto with Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic. Focusing intensely on that Brahms masterpiece this season, Bronfman plays it with the orchestras of Cleveland, Kansas City, Cologne, London (Philharmonia), Ottawa, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Other concertos currently featured in his repertoire are Béla Bartók’s Second in Los Angeles, Nashville, and Portland, Oregon; Prokofiev’s First for his first engagement with the New York Philharmonic under its new music director, Alan Gilbert; and Brahms’s First with the Chicago Symphony and Prague Philharmonic. Fima plays a complete Beethoven concertos cycle in San Diego in April, and performs Beethoven’s Third in Pittsburgh and Fifth in Birmingham, Alabama.

Recitals are an important part of Bronfman’s performing life. He tours Japan in November, and European and North American cities in the spring, including Rome, Vienna, Warsaw, St. Paul, Toronto, and New York, where he gives his annual solo performance at Carnegie Hall. A major event of early 2010 is his participation in Maestro Gilbert’s first European tour as music director of the New York Philharmonic. They perform together in Barcelona, Cologne, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Paris, and Zurich.

As an “On Location” artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2008-09 season, Fima gave concerts during two subscription weeks, toured the Far East with the orchestra under Maestro Salonen, and gave a chamber music concert with orchestra musicians. In addition, he undertook a solo recital tour of the U.S. and Europe, and a duo recital tour with Emanuel Ax. He opened both the San Francisco Symphony and the New York Philharmonic seasons under their music directors Michael Tilson Thomas and Lorin Maazel, and performed with the Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Montreal, and Toronto Symphonies. In Europe he concertized with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre Nationale de France, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic (at the Salzburg Festival), and London’s Philharmonia. He closed out his season as the first classical musician “guest chef” on the hugely popular TV program Iron Chef America.

Bronfman was a “Perspectives” artist at Carnegie Hall in 2007-08, giving seven concerts in all, and appearing with the Vienna Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra with James Levine, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Bronfman and Emanuel Ax played Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos for the New York Philharmonic’s opening night in 2006, with live national TV coverage. Bronfman later gave the world premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto, written for him and commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and now available on a Deutsche Grammophon CD with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Maestro Salonen. He participated in the Israel Philharmonic’s 70th birthday celebrations in concerts conducted by Zubin Mehta and Valery Gergiev.

Fima Bronfman regularly appears with the world’s major music festivals and with its finest ensembles, orchestras, and conductors. He has given frequent solo recitals in the foremost halls of North America, Europe, and the Far East, including acclaimed debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1989 and Avery Fisher Hall in 1993. In 1991, he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking his first public performances there since his emigration to Israel with his family at age 15. Also in 1991, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists.

Bronfman’s discography is large and varied, with abounding solo recitals, concertos, and chamber music. He won a 1997 Grammy for the three Bartók Piano Concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has recorded the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas, the five Prokofiev piano concertos, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3, and has been nominated for both Grammy and Gramophone Awards. His most recent releases are a disc of compositions by Esa-Pekka Salonen, including the Piano Concerto composed for him, recorded with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; a recital disc – Perspectives – which complemented his Carnegie Hall “Perspectives” series; and all Beethoven’s piano concertos and Triple Concerto, with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mork, and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under David Zinman.

With the late Isaac Stern, Bronfman recorded Brahms’s and Bartók’s violin sonatas, and a cycle of Mozart sonatas for violin and piano. In addition to performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on the Fantasia 2000 soundtrack, Bronfman recorded Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet and his two piano concertos with the orchestra under Salonen. Bronfman and Emanuel Ax have recorded two-piano works by Rachmaninoff and Brahms for Sony Classical. Fima’s 2008 release of Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor with Gil Shaham and Truls Mork earned high praise.

A devoted chamber music performer, Fima has collaborated with the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Juilliard String Quartets, as well as with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has also played chamber music with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Pinchas Zukerman, and many other artists.

Yefim Bronfman was born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, on April 10, 1958, and moved to Israel with his family in 1973. He studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University, and made his international debut with Zubin Mehta and the Montreal Symphony. Moving with his family to the US in 1973, he studied at the Juilliard School, Marlboro, and the Curtis Institute, with Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in May 1978, his Washington recital debut in March 1981 at the Kennedy Center, and his New York recital debut in January 1982 at the 92nd Street Y.

Yefim Bronfman became an American citizen in July 1989.

Scheduled Program:
Stravinsky: Suite from The Song of the Nightingale
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

Artists:
Hans Graf, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano