Carlo Grante to Play 2nd “Masters of High Romanticism” Series Concert: Schumann, The Piano Sonatas

NEW YORK - Nov. 7, 2014 - PRLog -- Carlo Grante will devote the second concert of "Masters of High Romanticism" to the three piano sonatas of Robert Schumann, works rarely performed together.

“The Schumann Sonatas are among my very favorite pieces of the Romantic repertoire,” Maestro Grante says. “They are monuments to love and passion. They invite listeners on a journey down their own ‘memory lane’ of passions, evoking moments of elation as well as pain.”

“I no longer think about form when I compose; I create it,” exclaimed the composer in a letter. Schumann’s emancipation was hard-won, reflecting years of struggle. That struggle was not only within himself (between warring alter egos Florestan, the ardent, impetuous, passionate one; and Eusebius, the dreamer, often sad if not depressive), but also between Schumann and the ghost of Beethoven, whose monumental piano sonatas and symphonies would intimidate generations of composers. Schumann built upon Beethoven’s formidable achievement, yet pushed back against them, re-making the piano sonata to do justice to his personal style of story-telling in music. Schumann’s three sonatas were written in close succession and early in his career, when he was courting first Ernestine von Fricken and then Clara Wieck, his future wife, hidden references to whose name and music abound in the works.


Carlo Grante, piano | “MASTERS OF HIGH ROMANTICISM” | Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center | Broadway and 65^th Street, New York, NY  10023

PROGRAM II – Monday, December 15, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. | ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856) | The Sonatas for Piano

Grand Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11 (1833-35) | Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 (1835-38) | Grand Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 14 “Concerto Without Orchestra” (1833-37/1853)

TICKETS – $45, $35, $25 | Available at the Alice Tully Hall box office, by calling CenterCharge, 212/721-6500 or athttp://lc.lincolncenter.org/shows/210937?show_date=2014-1... 19:30:00

Program subject to change

About Carlo Grante

“Carlo Grante is one of the most astonishing artists I have ever known and worked with,” says Fabio Luisi, Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and General Music Director of the Zurich Opera. “A challenging collaborator, his artistry is permeated with the deepest knowledge in many fields, not just the arts. Interesting for me as a musician and conductor is the way he approaches a musical work: considering it as expression of time, environment, and the composer’s own personal, social and cultural experience. With Carlo’s fantastic technical and analytical skills, the music comes alive in a way which sounds new, sometimes unexpected, but always both logical and natural. Working with Carlo Grante is for me an enrichment in musical experience and understanding, as it is for his audiences.”

Carlo Grante is one of the most active pianists performing and recording today. His concert repertoire is one of the largest among contemporary pianists; it includes masterpieces by core composers as well as important works by lesser-known composers. His discography runs to more than fifty CDs and ranges from Domenico Scarlatti (the complete sonatas, a 40-CD project under the auspices of Bösendorfer and Badura-Skoda in Vienna), to Platti, Clementi, Liszt and Schumann, to twentieth-century composers such as Godowsky, Busoni and Sorabji. Recent recordings include works by Vlad (Opus Triplex) and Finnissy (Bachsche Nachdichtungen), both dedicated to Mr. Grante and inspired by Bach and Busoni, and Flynn (Glimpses of our inner lives), also dedicated to him; Franz Schmidt’s two piano concertos, with the MDR Leipzig under Fabio Luisi; three Mozart piano concertos with Orchestra of St. Cecilia, and the Concerto K.271, recorded live in Vienna with Concertino Wien; the Busoni Concerto, recorded live in Vienna with the Vienna Symphony under Fabio Luisi; Robert Schumann’s three piano sonatas; and works by Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Bloch, Liszt and Godowsky (whose complete works he is recording). In 1995 Carlo Grante gave the world premiere of 53 Studies on the Études of Chopin by Godowsky at the Newport Festival.

Carlo Grante is one of Europe’s foremost concert artists, having performed in such major venues and prestigious halls as the Grosser Saal of the Konzerthaus and the Goldener Saal of the Musikverein in Vienna; Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall in London; the Sala Santa Cecilia in Rome; Leipzig Gewandhaus; Dresden Semperoper; Stuttgart Opera; and in New York, Chicago, Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hanoi, Zagreb, Bucharest, Lima and Rio de Janeiro. In May 2014 he made his Washington, D.C. debut at the Terrace Theater of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  He has performed at the festivals of Vienna, Istanbul, Husum, Newport, Miami, Tallin, Ravello, and MDR Musiksommer, and the “Neuhaus Festival” in Saratov. He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Philharmonic in London, Vienna Symphony, Orchestra of St. Cecilia, Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, MDR Leipzig, Capella Istropolitana, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Concertino Wien.

In 1996, on the occasion of two recitals at Wigmore Hall in London, the reviewer of Musical Opinion wrote, “the discs of Grante had shown astonishing qualities...his live performances have then proved him to be the first-rate pianist that his discs suggested.” In 1997, after a series of six recitals in New York, Bernard Holland of The New York Times wrote, “Carlo Grante…systematically demonstrated technical ability, but it was a prowess that went beyond muscle and speed. Here was not just attractive color but color with a purpose.” Eminent author and critic Harold Schonberg said that Grante demonstrated “real, stylish virtuoso playing, nimble and confident, backed by a splendid piano tone. Fingerwork is impeccable…[The] playing has color and imagination.”

Mr. Grante’s recitals and concerto performances have been greeted with enthusiasm; a reviewer described Grante’s Mozart Fantasia as “a small, quiet miracle” (Leipziger Volkszeitung); another dubbed Grante “a knight of the piano, without blemish and without fear...” (Schmidt, Die Presse, Vienna); another praised “Grante’s meticulous, thoughtful virtuosity and stylistic insights…like Horowitz, Grante is a master at creating a multicolored portfolio of legato shadings through fingers alone, pedaling ever so discreetly” (Gramophone).

Carlo Grante graduated from the Conservatory S. Cecilia in Rome, studying with Sergio Perticaroli, after which he studied in the U.S. with Ivan Davis at the University of Miami and at The Juilliard School in New York with Rudolf Firkušný; he then studied intensively in London with Alice Kezeradze-Pogorelich.

A Bösendorfer artist, Carlo Grante is also a widely-published writer on the piano literature. He lives in Rome.

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