Pianomania! 2018 was an amazing concert, with star elder pianist Menahem Pressler playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, and even giving two encores. Pressler was accompanied by the Gulbenkian Orchestra under the baton of Leo Hussain. Pressler’s performance was bookended by two outstanding orchestra pieces, starting with the rarely performed ballet music from Mozart’s opera “Idomeneo” (K. 367), and finishing with a true concert classic – Igor Stravinsky’s orchestra suite “Petrushka”. The concert took place in the glasswalled Grand Auditorium at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, where you can have a view of the large park in Portugal’s capital Lisbon.

Program:
(00:00) Intro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ballet Music from “Idomeneo”, K. 367
(01:18) Chaconne
(10:33) Pas seul (de Mr Le Grand)
(14:52) Passepied (pour Mademoiselle Redwen)
(18:10) Gavotte
(20:20) Passacaille
Gulbenkian Orchestra
Leo Hussain | CONDUCTOR

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
(27:42) Allegro
(40:15) Adagio
(47:05) Allegro assai
Menahem Pressler | PIANO
Gulbenkian Orchestra
Leo Hussain | CONDUCTOR

Encore 1:
(58:40) Frédéric Chopin, Nocturne in C sharp minor
Menahem Pressler | PIANO

Encore 2:
(1:04:28) Claude Debussy, Rêverie
Menahem Pressler | PIANO

(1:11:04) Igor Stranvinsky, Petrushka
Gulbenkian Orchestra
Leo Hussain | CONDUCTOR

Menahem Pressler was born as Max Pressler in the German city of Magdeburg in 1923. His family is Jewish. He and his parents fled Nazi rule in 1939, going first to Palestine, and then emigrating to the US in 1940. The rest of his family were murdered by the Nazis.

In the year 1946, the young Pressler won the Debussy International Piano Competition in San Francisco, and then studied in California. In 1955, he founded the worldfamous "Beaux Arts Trio" and remained a member throughout its existence. The ensemble played some 100 concerts between 1955 and 2008 and released more than 50 recordings with different constellations of musicians, before performing its final concert in 2008. Pressler still gives solo performances to this day.

British national Leo Hussain, born in 1978, is a regular guest at Europe’s major opera houses and concert halls. He is seen as a leading interpreter of Mozart and is especially fond of works produced during the composer’s years in Vienna. In this concert, he conducts the Portuguese Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra.

A EuroArts Music production
In coproduction with ZDF and RTP
In collaboration with arte concert
© EuroArts 2018

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