MUSIC

The Houston Symphony presents Tchaikovsky's Winter Daydreams, Friday-Saturday, January 14 and 15 at 8pm, and Sunday, January 16 at 2:30pm, in Jones Hall.

Experience the richness of Tchaikovsky’s music on a snowy journey through the Russian countryside.

Making his Houston Symphony debut, Slovakian guest conductor Juraj Valcuha will lead the orchestra in a seasonally appropriate Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1, Winter Daydreams and Szymanowski’s Concert Overture on January 14, 15, and 16 in Jones Hall. Returning to the spot of his American concerto debut, Pianist Inon Barnatan will join Valchua and the Houston Symphony on the Jones Hall stage for a rousing performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17.

Juraj Valcuha is the Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Turin, Italy. He studied composition, conducting and cymbalon at the Bratislava Conservatory in Slovakia. At the age of nineteen he spent two years in St. Petersburg and studied conducting with Ilya Musin. In 1998, he moved to Paris where he studied conducting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur with Janos Fürst and attended Masterclasses of Jorma Panula.

Valcuha made his U.S. debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony in the 2007-08 season. His conducting appearances include the Gewandhaus Leipzig and Swedish Radio Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bavarian State Opera Munich, Stuttgart Opera, Opera de Lyon and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

He was Assistant Music Director of the Orchestre et Opéra National de Montpellier (2003-2005) and contemporaneously debuted with the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France. Valcuha has recorded for ARTE music by Pfitzner and Richard Strauss.

This season, he conducts the Orchestre de Paris, Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, Philharmonia London, the Houston Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He will conduct a new production of La Boheme and appear on tour at the Berlin Philharmonie with his RAI Orchestra, in Musikverein Vienna with pianist Evgeni Bozhanov, and in the Abu Dhabi Classics series with Yo Yo Ma. 

Pianist Inon Barnatan (pictured) is rapidly gaining international recognition for his poetic and passionate music making, communicative performances and engaging programming. Since moving to the United States in 2006, he has quickly made his mark in debuts with the Cleveland, San Francisco and Houston Symphony Orchestras, performing at New York’s Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Metropolitan Museum and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, touring throughout the United States and appearing at the festivals of Aspen, Vail, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe and Spoleto USA. His flourishing career has taken him to some of Europe’s most illustrious venues, including the Royal Festival, Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salla Verdi in Milan, Musikverein in Vienna and Salle Gaveau in Paris, as well as the Delft, Lanaudière and Verbier Festivals. In 2009 he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most prestigious prizes in classical music.

This summer Barnatan was in residence at Spoleto Festival USA before making his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Vail, Colorado, performing chamber music at Music@Menlo, and playing a solo recital at the Aspen Music Festival. Highlights of his 2010-2011 season include his return to the Houston Symphony Orchestra, with whom he made his American concerto debut in 2007, debuts with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and the Academy of St.Martin in the Fields as conductor and pianist, as well as recitals at the Concertgebouw, in Chicago and Vancouver. In New York City he performs at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall. London’s Wigmore Hall is a featured date with frequent chamber music partner Alisa Weilerstein, as is the Concertgebouw with Sir Roger Moore and violinists Janine Jansen and Julian Rachlin.

This past season Barnatan returned to the San Francisco Symphony, debuted with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival, and curated a festival of Schubert’s late solo piano, songs and chamber music works for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Schubert project has been acclaimed at the Concertgebouw, the Festival de México, and at the Library of Congress. Also in 2009-2010, he performed at the 92nd Street Y, with the Washington Performing Arts Society, and in recital at Wigmore Hall. Other recent recital highlights includethe Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, the“Rising Stars” series at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and the Gilmore Festival in Michigan.

As a concerto soloist Barnatan has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Porto Symphony, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of New Europe, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Haifa Symphony, Israel Chamber and Jerusalem Chamber Orchestras, with such conductors as Lawrence Foster, Philippe Entremont, Nir Kabaretti, James Gaffigan, Rossen Milanov and Kynan Johns.

An avid chamber musician, Barnatan completed three seasons as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two. He participated in the Society’s first iTunes digital download, released by Deutsche Grammophon. Otherchamber music performances include the complete Beethoven piano and violin sonatas at the Concertgebouw with violinist Liza Ferschtman, the Bergen International Festival in Norway, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Delft and the Verbier Festivals and the Lyon Musicades. Barnatan has collaborated with such musicians as the Jerusalem String Quartet, Cho-Liang Lin, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Ralph Kirshbaum, Martin Fröst and Paul Neubauer. He received the prestigious Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Prize in Rockport, awarded every two years to an exceptional chamber music pianist.

Barnatan’s debut CD of Schubert piano works was released on Bridge Records and greeted enthusiastically. London’s Evening Standard wrote: “The young, Israeli born pianist Inon Barnatan is a true poet of the keyboard: refined, searching, unfailingly communicative… This is musicianship of the highest caliber.” Gramophone recommended the recording in its November 2006 award issue, calling Barnatan “a born Schubertian” and praising the CD’s “sensitivity, poise and focus.” His second CD of works for piano and violin by Beethoven and Schubert with violinist Liza Ferschtman also won many accolades, and was described by All Music Guide as “a magical listening experience.” Barnatan has appeared on many radio and television stations throughout the USA, Europe, Asia and Israel.

Passionate about contemporary music, Barnatan regularly commissions and performs music by living composers. He has played works by Kaija Saariaho, George Crumb, Judith Weir, Avner Dorman, Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and others.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon Barnatan started playing the piano at the age of three. He made his orchestral debut at eleven, and studied with Professor Victor Derevianko. In 1997 he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Maria Curcio (a student of the legendary Arthur Schnabel) and Christopher Elton, and Leon Fleisher was an influential mentor. In 2006 Barnatan moved to New York City, where he resides today.

Scheduled Program:
Szymanowski: Concert Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, Winter Daydreams

Artists:
Juraj Valcuha, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano