Minnesota Beethoven Festival: Steven Isserlis 

About

STEVEN ISSERLIS, CELLOSunday, June 30, 3:00 p.m.Page Theatre, Saint Mary’s University
PROGRAM

Beethoven: Sonata No. 1

Beethoven: Sonata No. 5

Saint-Saëns: Romance from Sonata No. 2

Fauré: Sonata No. 2

Adès: Lieux retrouvés

ARTIST BIO

Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, British cellist Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author, and broadcaster.

As a concerto soloist he appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, London Philharmonic, and Zürich Tonhalle orchestras. He gives recitals every season in major musical centers and plays with many of the world’s foremost chamber orchestras, including the Australian, Mahler, Norwegian, Scottish, Zürich, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, as well as period-instrument ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Unusually, he also directs chamber orchestras from the cello in classical programs.

He also takes a strong interest in authentic performance. This season’s projects include a recording of the Chopin cello sonata and other works with Dénes Várjon for Hyperion, using one of Chopin’s own pianos, and a recital of Russian sonatas with Olli Mustonen. In recital, he gives frequent concerts with harpsichord and fortepiano. Recent seasons have featured a special performance with Sir Andras Schiff at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, using Beethoven’s own cello, and performances and recordings (selected for the Deutsche SchallplattenPreis) of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano with Robert Levin, using original or replica fortepianos from the early nineteenth century. With harpsichordist Richard Egarr, he has performed and recorded the viola da gamba sonatas of J.S. Bach as well as sonatas by Handel and Scarlatti. This season, they tour together in the U.S.

He is also a keen exponent of contemporary music and has premiered many new works including John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil (as well as several other pieces by Tavener), Thomas Adès’s Lieux retrouvés, Stephen Hough’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Left Hand (Les Adieux), Wolfgang Rihm’s Concerto in One Movement, David Matthews’s Concerto in Azzurro, and For Steven and Hilary’s Jig by György Kurtág. In 2016, he gave the U.K. premiere of Olli Mustonen’s Frei, aber einsam for solo cello at the Wigmore Hall.

As an educator Steven Isserlis gives frequent masterclasses all around the world, and since 1997 he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, where his fellow professors include Sir Andras Schiff, Thomas Adès, and Ferenc Rados.

As a writer and broadcaster, he contributes regularly to publications including Gramophone, The Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian, has guest edited The Strad magazine, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio including on the Today program, Soul Music, as guest presenter of two editions of Saturday Classics, and as writer and presenter of a documentary about the life of Robert Schumann. Most recently, he presented a documentary on BBC Radio 4 Finding Harpo’s Voice, about his hero Harpo Marx.

His diverse interests are reflected in an extensive and award-winning discography. His recording of the complete solo cello suites by J.S. Bach for Hyperion met with the highest critical acclaim and was Gramophone’s Instrumental Album of the Year and Critics’ Choice at the Classic BRITS. Other recent releases include the Elgar and Walton concertos, alongside works by Gustav and Imogen Holst, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Paavo Järvi; Prokofiev and Shostakovich concertos with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, also under Paavo Järvi; Dvorák’s cello concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding; and recital discs with Stephen Hough, Thomas Adès, and (for BIS) a Grammy-nominated album of sonatas by Martinu, as well as works by Mustonen and Sibelius, with Olli Mustonen. His latest recordings include the Brahms double concerto with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and – as director and soloist – concertos by Haydn and C.P.E. Bach, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Forthcoming recordings include a special First World War-inspired disc with Connie Shih, including works performed on a travel cello – now known as “the Trench Cello” – played in the trenches by WWI soldier Harold Triggs.

The recipient of many awards, Steven Isserlis’s honors include a CBE in recognition of his services to music, the Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau, and the Piatigorsky Prize in the U.S.. He is also one of only two living cellists featured in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award in Dresden, the Wigmore Hall Gold Medal, and the Walter Willson Cobbett Medal for Services to Chamber Music.