August 09, 2007
Oliver Kern’s piano at AsiagoFestival
Asiago, Church of San Rocco, August 14, 2007.
ASIAGO
FESTIVAL 41st Edition
PRESS RELEASE
OLIVER KERN’S PIANOFORTE AT ASIAGO FESTIVAL Tuesday, Aug. 14, at the Church of San Rocco
After introducing himself to AsiagoFestival audiences with a highly applauded concert featuring him along with violinist Domenico Nordio and cellist Hyun-Jung Berger, German pianist Olivier Kern returns to the Plateau for a new appointment with great music on Tuesday, Aug. 14 (9 p.m.) at the Church of San Rocco in Asiago.
The program of his recital will open with a Prelude and Fugue from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and then “leap forward” nearly three centuries to offer “Nachstucke” by the young German composer Daniel Seel, a piece that will precede another of the same title, composed, however, by Robert Schumann. The investigation between night as seen through the black and white of the keyboard will then continue with another twentieth-century piece, a Nocturne that another contemporary German composer, Wiljalm Killmayer, dedicated to John Field, the acknowledged “father” of this particular compositional form.
Still to follow is one of Kern’s composers of reference, Johannes Brahms, of whom he is a highly esteemed interpreter, and of whom he will propose the singular Chaconne for the left hand taken from Bach’s Partita for Solo Violin, which in 1877 the composer transcribed for Clara Schumann (suffering at the time from the right arm). A singular piece that, in the words of the celebrated pianist dedicatee, “recalls the sound of the violin.”
To conclude the program, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Variation serieuses: one of the absolute masterpieces of Romantic piano music as well as another page that “brings back” Clara Shumann, the first performer and faithful interpreter of this work that was a concert workhorse of hers throughout her life.
TAMBURINO CONCERT
Asiago, St. Rocco Church
Tuesday, Aug. 14, 9 p.m.
Oliver Kern, piano
Music by Bach, See, Schumann, Killmayer, Brahms and Mendelssohn Free admission – Info: www.asiagofestival.it
PROGRAM DETAIL:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Prelude and Fugue in C # minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier I, BWV 849
Daniel Seel (1970): Nachtstücke
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Nachtstücke op.23
Wilhelm Killmayer (1927): Klavierstück I – “An John Field”: Nocturne IV
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Chaconne for the left hand from J.S. Bach’s Partita in D minor for solo violin
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847): Variations sérieuses op.54
OLIVER KERN was born in 1970 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, where he began studying piano when he was only 5 years old. At a very young age, he embarked on artistic activity, distinguishing himself in the German music scene with brilliant results in international piano competitions. He graduated with honors in piano, conducting and choral conducting from the “Staatliche Hochschule für Musik” Academy in Stuttgart under Wan Ing Ong. He then perfected his piano studies with masters Rudolf Buchbinder and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, at the “Musik-Akademie” in Basel and the “Mozarteum” in Salzburg. He obtains many awards in international piano competitions: first and second prizes in the Senigallia, Paris, Hamamatsu and Beijing Competitions. He comes to the attention of critics by winning two prestigious competitions: “ARD” Competition in Munich 1999, “Beethoven” Competition in Vienna 2001, in which he also wins the special prize for the best interpretation of Beethoven’s Sonatas. The latter victory gives Kern the distinction of being the first German to have achieved such an achievement. An acclaimed inter-premier of Beethoven and Brahms, critics credit him with technical virtuosity that is not an end in itself, but directed toward careful timbral and expressive research. His intellectual rigor leads him to the realization of singular cultural projects: he performs the complete piano works of Brahms in the 2003 Classix Festival in Braunschweig and in the 2004-2005 Music Season in Seoul, Korea. “With great intensity and poetry Kern shapes the cycle of Brahmsian works” (Braunschweiger Zeitung). He has performed at major festivals and in famous halls in America, Asia and Europe, earning acclaim everywhere: Musikverein Vienna, Auditorium S. Cecilia Rome, Schauspielhaus Berlin, Musikhalle Hamburg, Herkulessaal Munich, Salle Gaveau Paris, Saitama Arts Centre Tokyo, Century Hall Beijing. He has played with famous orchestras, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Radiosinfonieorchestre in Berlin, Munich, Hannover and Vienna, conducted by Maestros Dennis Russell Davies, Michael Stern, Lü Jia, Marc Soustrot, Gerard Oskamp, Dmitri Yablonski. He has recorded for German, Austrian, French, Italian and Japanese radio and television. He has released several CDs on the “Realsound” label with solo works by Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Chopin, Ravel, Schubert, Schumann, Scriabin, Stravinsky. Oliver Kern also teaches piano in International Advanced Courses and is often invited as a jury member in International Piano Competitions, including “Vianna da Motta” in Lisbon. In May 2007 he performed a solo concert in honor of and in the presence of Card.Tomas Spidlik in the great hall of the palace of the “Hradisko” in Olomouc.
ASIAGOFESTIVAL is organized by the Cultural Association “Friends of Music of Asiago” – “Fiorella Benetti Brazzale”, in collaboration with the Parish of St. Matthew, with the contribution and collaboration of the City of Asiago, Department of Tourism and Culture. Fundamental is the support offered by Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Burro delle Alpi – Alpilatte, Gran Moravia, Bassan Bernardo and Sons, and Rigoni di Asiago .
Public info: 0424.464081 – www.asiagofestival.it Press info: 335.8223010 (Marina Grasso)