Making his first appearance at the Festival is Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim Bronfman, universally regarded among the most outstanding pianists performing today. Kick off your Gilmore Festival by experiencing the artist’s “jaw-dropping bravura” (Chicago Tribune) in this exceptional all-Prokofiev program featuring the composer’s ominous and emotional “War Sonatas.”
A pre-concert talk by Dan Jacobson, Professor of Music History and Theory at Western Michigan University, will be held from 7 to 7:45 PM in the Chenery Auditorium Reception Room preceding the concert. Free to ticket holders.
| PROKOFIEV | Piano Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82 |
| Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 | |
| Piano Sonata No. 8 in B-flat Major, Op. 84 | |
| SCHUMANN | Arabesque, Op. 18 |
Internationally recognized as one of today’s most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike.
At the center of this season is a residency with the Staatskapelle Dresden which includes all the Beethoven concerti conducted by Christian Thielemann in Dresden and on tour in Europe. Mr. Bronfman will also be performing Bartok concerti with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev in Edinburgh, London, Vienna, Luxembourg, and New York. Recital performances will capture audiences with the cycles of the daunting complete Prokofiev sonatas over three programs in Berlin, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Cal Performances, Berkeley.
As a regular guest, Mr. Bronfman will return to the Vienna, New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, Mariinsky, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, as well as the symphonies of Boston, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco and Seattle.
Widely praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings, Mr. Bronfman was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009 for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s piano concerto with Salonen conducting, and in 1997 he won a Grammy Award, again with Salonen, for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concerti and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His prolific catalog of recordings includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev concerti with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players and the soundtrack to Disney’s Fantasia 2000. His most recent CD releases are the 2014 Grammy-nominated Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischer Rundfunk; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Mr. Bronfman’s designation as a Carnegie Hall ‘Perspectives’ artist for the 2007-08 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label.
