Health & Safety Information  — Updated January 25, 2023

Sunday, April 21, 2024 | 5:30 pm

Johannes Moser, cello
Marc-André Hamelin, piano

The Piatigorsky Memorial Concert

Location: Shriver Hall

The Piatigorsky Memorial Concert

Artistic powerhouses cellist Johannes Moser, "radiant playing" (The Baltimore Sun), and pianist Marc-André Hamelin, praised for his "Near superhuman technical prowess" (New York Times), join forces for a memorable and illuminating duo recital. They perform works by Hamelin himself and Nadia Boulanger, a paragon of 20th century classical music, plus sonatas by Debussy and Franck, two of the great masterworks of the cello-piano repertoire.

Moser2(c)Sarah Wijzenbeek Square 1 .jpg

Johannes Moser

Hailed by Gramophone magazine as "one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists," German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Chicago, London, and Tokyo NHK symphonies; the BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, and the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Järvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Gustavo Dudamel.

Moser won his third ECHO Klassik award as ‘Instrumentalist of the Year 2017’ for his Russian recital disk on the Pentatone label, for which he records exclusively. His other recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar, and Tchaikovsky, which have gained him the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d'Or. His latest record from Pentatone, featuring the Lutosławski and Dutilleux concertos, was released in November 2018.

In the 2018-19 season, Moser returns to the Los Angeles, Vienna, Oslo, and Dortmund philharmonics; the San Francisco, Atlanta, Berlin Radio, Oregon, New Jersey, New Zealand, Bournemouth, and Melbourne symphonies; and the Minnesota, Royal Scottish National, and Wittenberg Chamber orchestras. 

A dedicated chamber musician, Moser has performed with Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Menahem Pressler, James Ehnes, Midori, and Jonathan Biss. He is also a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad, and Kissinger festivals, the Mehta Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado, Seattle, and Brevard music festivals.

Renowned for his efforts to expand the reach of the classical genre, as well as his passionate focus on new music, Moser has recently focused on commissioning works by Julia Wolfe, Ellen Reid, Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen, Johannes Kalitzke, Jelena Firsowa, and Andrew Norman. Last season, he participated in the European Premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Triple Concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. In 2011, he premiered Magnetar for electric cello by Enrico Chapela with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and in the following season he continued this relationship with the orchestra performing Michel van der Aa's cello concerto Upclose. Throughout his career, Moser has been committed to reaching out to all audiences, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He combines most of his concert engagements with masterclasses, school visits, and pre-concert lectures.

Born into a musical family in 1979, Moser began studying the cello at the age of eight and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations. In 2014 he was awarded the prestigious Brahms-Preis.

A voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins, and an avid outdoorsman, Moser is a keen hiker and mountain biker in what little spare time he has. His website is johannes-moser.com.

"His tone was big and warm where needed, and he proved himself capable of some Rostropovich-like wild abandon…he was consistently eloquent." —The Telegraph

marc-andre-hamelin-6-(credit-sim-canetty-clarke)-cropped.jpg

Marc-André Hamelin

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship and brilliant technique in the great works of the established repertoire, as well as for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries – both in concert and in recording.

The 2018-19 season includes Hamelin's return to Carnegie Hall, plus recitals in Montreal, SEattle, Baltimore, Berlin, Florence, Salzburg, London's Wigmore Hall, and Istanbul, among others. Hamelin appears with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; the Los Angeles, Stuttgart and Moscow State philharmonics; the Vancouver, Cincinnati, and Oregon symphonies; and tours in Europe with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

Highlights of Hamelin's 2017-18 season included recitals at Vienna's Konzerthaus and the Schubertiade Festival, at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, at Yale, Cincinnati, and Savannah, Munich, Moscow, Vancouver, and Carnegie Hall.

With orchestra, Hamelin debuted last season at the Orchestre de Paris with Alan Gilbert conducting, performed with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in the opening weeks of Vladimir Jurowski's inaugural season, and performed with Juanjo Mena and the Toronto Symphony, John Storgards and the St. Louis Symphony, Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony, Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan and the Cleveland Orchestra, and with the Moscow and Royal Liverpool philharmonics.

Hamelin was a distinguished member of the jury of the 15th Van Cliburn Competition in 2017, where each of the 30 competitors in the preliminary round were required to perform his composition "Toccota on 'L'Homme arme.'" This marked the first time the composer of the commissioned work was also a member of the jury. Although preimarily a performer, Hamelin has composed music throughout his career; the majority of his works are published by Edition Peters.

Mr. Hamelin records exclusively for Hyperion Records. His discography of over 60 recordings includes concertos and works for solo piano by such composers as Alkan, Godowsky, and Medtner, as well as performances of Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, and Shostakovich. His most recent releases are a disc of Schubert, a duo-piano recording with Leif Ove Andsnes, and Medtner and Rachmaninoff concertos with the London Philharmonic and Vladimir Jurowski. For his recordings, he's received wide recognition, including ten Grammy nominations.

Hamelin makes his home in Boston with his wife. Born in Montreal, he is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the German Record Critic’s Association. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

His website is marcandrehamelin.com

"Hamelin's legend will grow - right now there is no one like him." —Alex Ross, The New Yorker

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)

Three Pieces for Cello & Piano

View Notes

Marc-André Hamelin (1961)

Four Perspectives for Cello & Piano

View Notes

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Cello Sonata

View Notes

César Franck (1822-1890)

Cello Sonata in A Major

View Notes

Program Subject to Change Without Notice