Mitsuko Uchida and Friends (English) / Concert Hall ATM

Mail to: webstaff@arttowermito.or.jp
For reservations: 029-231-8000 (9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., closed on Mondays)

Mitsuko Uchida and Friends

Dec. 3, 2001 (Mon) 6:30 p.m. (seating begins at 6:00 p.m.)
Venue: Concert Hall ATM
Note: Art Tower Mito is normally closed on Mondays, but will open at 4:00 p.m. just for the Uchida concert.

Tickets: S ¥9,000 A ¥8,000 B ¥6,500
Tickets go on sale starting on Sept. 30 (Sun).
Sponsored by Mito Arts Foundation

Piano: Mitsuko Uchida
Brentano String Quartet:
Violin: Marc Steinberg
Violin: Serena Canin
Viola: Misha Amory
Cello: Nina Maria Lee
Flute/piccolo: Marina Piccinini
Clarinet/bass clarinet: Anthony McGill
Voice: Barbara Sukowa

Program:
Mozart, W.A. Piano Concerto in A major, K. 414 (385p) (Piano Quintet Version)
Haydn, J. String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20-5, Hob. III-35, from "Sun"Quartets
Schoenberg, A. Pierrot lunaire

Mitsuko Uchida and the Life of Music

Mitsuko Uchida once said, "Each piece has a completely different life." She takes that life which continues to exist, transcending time and place and presents itself before her listeners, adorning it with the warm, utterly sublime tone color of the piano. That is what excites the hearts of the many people around the world who have listened to her perform.

The upcoming concert at Art Tower Mito (ATM) will be Uchida's first in Japan to employ chamber music, a genre to which she has devoted herself for many years. She has stated, "Chamber music is not something to be played in a large hall, right? It's more fun, anyway, to play in a smaller venue." Such statements raise our expectations, all the more, for her December performance at Concert Hall ATM.

The realization of such a monumental performance as this would be impossible without Uchida's having encountered certain friends in whom she has invested her complete trust. It was at the Marlboro Music Festival, for which serves as the co-director, where she first met the highly talented ensemble of musicians, the Brentano String Quartet, along with Marina Piccinini and Anthony McGill. Another friend of Uchida's, who will perform the readings in the Schoenberg piece, is the celebrated German actress, Barbara Sukowa.

The program will kick off with a piece from Mozart, the works of which constitute the cornerstone of Uchida's repertoire. The Piano Concert in A major (K. 414), with its bright, lively melody, was in fact written by the Austrian composer with the intention of its being performed as chamber music, and the arrangement performed at ATM this time is the chamber version. For the joint performance with the Brentano String Quartet, Uchida has chosen a "Sun" string quartet of Haydn's that brims with the romantic emotions of his "Sturm und Drang" years. Winding up the evening is a work by Arnold Schoenberg, one of the composers whose works Uchida is now vigorously pouring her heart and soul in. This year mark's the 50th anniversary of Schoenberg's death in 1951, and the work she will perform is "Pierrot Lunaire," a beautiful, dreamy piece from his atonal period.

Mitsuko Uchida and her friends take each of their life energies and invest them fully into the music as they weave together their ensemble. Their aim is to grope for and discover the "life" of the music that the composers breathed into their works as they dreamed of eternity.

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