2023/2024 Season
(Click on the artist's name for website link)
 


PAUL LEWIS, piano

October 31, 2023 (Tuesday) – Series A

Lewis' survey of the Schubert sonatas continues with three more: D.537, D.575, and D. 894. The great British pianist's devotion to Schubert is unique in our time. For this three-year period, his recital programs are devoted entirely to Schubert. The 2024/2025 season will feature the final installment. When asked in London recently, "Why Schubert?" Lewis replied, "I love the vulnerability of Schubert. I love the fragility. I love the lack of resolution. In a way, it's the most real and human music." The Guardian praised Lewis's modest genius noting "his customary intelligence and intensity ... with endless shifts in color and weight. The fearsome technical demands...were met with unshowy dexterity."


KELLEY O'CONNOR & ROBERT SPANO, piano

November 7, 2023 (Tuesday) – Series B

These two artists have been collaborating for twenty years. They made their first recording together in 2003 with Spano conducting the Atlanta Symphony in the world premiere recording of Oswaldo Golijov's opera, Ainadamar (Fountain of Tears), in which O'Connor created the role of Garcia Lorca, and they won a Grammy for it. Since then, they have been inseparable. O'Connor, with her "ravishingly velvet tone"(SF Chronicle), sings the whole concert repertory and is especially known for music written for her such as John Adam's Gospel of the Other Mary, which she has recorded both with Gustavo Dudamel and Sir Simon Rattle. Their program includes a song cycle of Rilke poems that Spano wrote for O'Connor in 2020, early songs by Elliot Carter and George Crumb, Debussy's "Chansons De Bilitis,"and Schumann's "Frauenliebe und Leben."


DOVER QUARTET & HAOCHEN ZHANG, piano

November 29, 2023 (Wednesday) – Series A

The center of this program is the Neikrug Piano Quintet, composed for these artists four years ago. Chamber Music in Napa Valley contributed to the commission. The Napa premiere was delayed due to COVID-19, and we are grateful that the pianist and quartet will come together again in Napa for this performance. Zhang came to international attention when he won the Van Clyburn in 2009 as a teenager. The brilliant Dovers, who we have enjoyed in Napa once before, burst onto the chamber music scene winning the Banff and Fischoff competitions ten years ago. The Chicago Tribune describes their "expert musicianship, razor-sharp ensemble, deep musical feeling and a palpable commitment to communication." Zhang will open the program with Beethoven Sonata No. 29, Op. 109, they all collaborate with the Marc Neikrug's Piano Quintet which was written for this ensemble, and the Quartet will close with Shostakovich Quartet No. 9.


KIRILL GERSTEIN, piano

January 16, 2024 (Tuesday) – Series B

Gerstein's CMNV debut was 10 years ago as the sonata partner of cellist Steven Isserlis on the day he won the Gilmore Prize. He is now established as a dazzling, thoughtful virtuoso and a dominating force on the concert stage around the world, often premiering new concertos written for him by the likes of Thomas Ades and acting as Artist in Residence at leading festivals including Aix-en-Provence. Gerstein is a man of the world. He was born in Russia and his interest in jazz led to a scholarship to the Berkeley School in Boston in his mid-teens. He says he's "not quite Russian, not quite American, not quite European, not quite Jewish in the religious sense. I feel comfortable in many places." His program includes classic and hardly-known pieces by Chopin, Poulenc, Liszt, Schumann and Godowsky.


MATTHEW POLENZANI, tenor & Ken Noda, piano

February 8, 2024 (Thursday) – Series A

Polenzani is described by the Met's Music Director and Conductor Nézet-Séguin as "one of today's greatest tenors." He has been a Met mainstay since his 2001 breakthrough there singing Lindoro in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, and has also proven himself at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, London's Covent Garden, La Scala in Milan, and the major German houses for the past two decades. His recitals are rare, and this one will be extraordinary in that he is not only performing with pianist Ken Noda, but also a string quartet of his fellow New Yorkers led by David Chan, concert master of the Met Orchestra. The program will include Vaughn Williams' song cycle On Wenlock Edge and opera arias accompanied by the special ensemble.


CASTALIAN QUARTET & STEPHEN HOUGH, piano

March 4, 2024 (Monday) – Series B

The vibrant Castalians, hailing from Finland, Wales, Ireland, and England, are based in London and their collaborations with pianist Sir Stephen Hough at the Wigmore Hall are legendary. The Guardian described "the refinement of Hough and the feistiness of the Castalians combining for ensemble and balance that was always spot-on." The program opens with Haydn Op. 20, No 6 and closes with the Brahms Piano Quintet, and includes Hough's Quartet No. 1 "Le Six rencontres," which impressed everyone in its premiere with the Takacs here in Napa two years ago.


GARRICK OHLSSON, piano

March 19, 2024 (Tuesday) – Series A

Ohlsson has favored us with annual concerts for 23 years now and has played truly everything from Busoni to Beethoven for this devoted audience. This year he will begin with the ominous Schubert Impromptu Op. 90, No. 1 and the heroic Liszt sonata, and finish with Scriabin and Chopin - a recital in the mold of the great mid-century Carnegie extravaganzas that shaped Ohlsson as a pre-college Juilliard teenager. In Cleveland, Garrick was recently described as "a weaver of gossamer musical fabrics and a wellspring of humble and seemingly effortless virtuosity."


CALDER QUARTET & TIMO ANDRES, piano

April 2, 2024 (Tuesday) – Series B

The Calder String Quartet returns to Napa with pianist and composer Timo Andres for a program anchored by the premiere of Andres' piano quintet, which he promises will be "fun." The 38-year-old Andres is a formidable pianist and an original, commanding voice among American composers. The Calders are universally praised not only for their musicianship but also for their stimulating programing. The Los Angeles Times describes them as "one of America's most satisfying - and most enterprising - quartets." The program opens with Andres' String Quartet from 2019. We will also hear the Schubert Rosamunde Quartet along with contemporary "reactions" to the Schubert by composers Ann Southam and Julius Eastman.


JERUSALEM STRING QUARTET

April 11, 2024 (Thursday) – Series A

The Jerusalem String Quartet was lauded by The Times of London for "passion, precision, and warmth, a gold blend: these are the trademarks of this excellent Israeli string quartet." Their prominent stature in the quartet world was confirmed by their recent highly praised Beethoven cycle at the Wigmore in London and Bartok cycle at the Salzburg Festival. Founded in Israel 30 years ago, the members hail from Ukraine, Belarus and Los Angeles. They will bring us their signature stirring interpretations of three major pillars of the quartet repertory: Smetana Quartet No. 1 "From My Life," Bartok No. 3, and Beethoven 59/2 "Razumovsky."


YEFIM BRONFMAN, piano

April 22, 2024 (Monday) – Series B

For 20 years, this giant of the keyboard has caressed us with his sweetness and terrified us with his power. This year we get it all with Schubert's tragic Sonata in A Minor Op. 143, the rarely heard Schumann "Faschingsschwank aus Wein," and the virtually never heard Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata in G, Op. 37. A great tribute to "Fima" from the Chicago Sun Times: "Listening to Bronfman is like being in a crowded room when suddenly a profound conversationalist begins to speak and everyone just steps back to listen with rapt attention."