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Fresno Bee, CA
Sept 17 2011
Armenian pianist kicks off concert series
By Donald Munro / The Fresno Bee
Saturday, Sep. 17, 2011 | 05:41 PM
Leading off the 2011-12 season for the Philip Lorenz Memorial
Keyboard Concerts series is a familiar name: Vardan Mamikonian.
The acclaimed Armenian pianist returns for a fourth visit today to
Keyboard Concerts, which despite its small home at the Fresno State
Concert Hall has an outsized reputation in terms of international
prestige. Mamikonian was last in Fresno in 2006 as part of a
collaboration between the concert series and the Fresno Philharmonic.
A common theme of this season's series is the composer Franz Liszt,
whose 200th birth anniversary is being celebrated worldwide. Seven of
the eight pianists in the season lineup have confirmed Liszt on their
programs.
And the biggest Liszt piece comes first: the Piano Sonata in B Minor.
"It's considered one of the most substantial works of the 19th century
with great demands on every aspect of the player: interpretive
insight, personality, stamina," says series artistic director Andreas
Werz. "I think it's the dream of every pianist to one day play the
Liszt sonata."
Mamikonian, whose visit is co-sponsored by Fresno State's Armenian
Studies Program and underwritten by local Armenian contributors, has
performed in such prestigious venues as the Musikverein in Vienna,
Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and Thétre des
Champs-Elysées in Paris.
Mamikonian, along with such artists in the series as Garrick Ohlsson
and Emanuel Ax, is an example of the big names that Werz is able to
bring to the series each year. He balances that with a mix of younger
upcoming talents. Two of the most promising in this season's lineup:
Russian player Daniil Trifonov, who earlier this year won both the
International Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv and the
International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow; and Argentinian
player Fabio Martino, who won the Rio de Janeiro international piano
competition in 2010.
Performance details: 3 p.m. Sunday, Fresno State Concert Hall.
keyboardconcerts.com, (559) 278-2337.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/17/2541485/armenian-pianist-kicks-off-concert.html
Sept 17 2011
Armenian pianist kicks off concert series
By Donald Munro / The Fresno Bee
Saturday, Sep. 17, 2011 | 05:41 PM
Leading off the 2011-12 season for the Philip Lorenz Memorial
Keyboard Concerts series is a familiar name: Vardan Mamikonian.
The acclaimed Armenian pianist returns for a fourth visit today to
Keyboard Concerts, which despite its small home at the Fresno State
Concert Hall has an outsized reputation in terms of international
prestige. Mamikonian was last in Fresno in 2006 as part of a
collaboration between the concert series and the Fresno Philharmonic.
A common theme of this season's series is the composer Franz Liszt,
whose 200th birth anniversary is being celebrated worldwide. Seven of
the eight pianists in the season lineup have confirmed Liszt on their
programs.
And the biggest Liszt piece comes first: the Piano Sonata in B Minor.
"It's considered one of the most substantial works of the 19th century
with great demands on every aspect of the player: interpretive
insight, personality, stamina," says series artistic director Andreas
Werz. "I think it's the dream of every pianist to one day play the
Liszt sonata."
Mamikonian, whose visit is co-sponsored by Fresno State's Armenian
Studies Program and underwritten by local Armenian contributors, has
performed in such prestigious venues as the Musikverein in Vienna,
Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and Thétre des
Champs-Elysées in Paris.
Mamikonian, along with such artists in the series as Garrick Ohlsson
and Emanuel Ax, is an example of the big names that Werz is able to
bring to the series each year. He balances that with a mix of younger
upcoming talents. Two of the most promising in this season's lineup:
Russian player Daniil Trifonov, who earlier this year won both the
International Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv and the
International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow; and Argentinian
player Fabio Martino, who won the Rio de Janeiro international piano
competition in 2010.
Performance details: 3 p.m. Sunday, Fresno State Concert Hall.
keyboardconcerts.com, (559) 278-2337.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/17/2541485/armenian-pianist-kicks-off-concert.html