Andras Schiff performs Bach & Beethoven November 1st

(Boston)  Celebrity Series of Boston will present pianist András Schiff on Friday, November 1, 2013, at 8pm at NEC’s Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston. This performance is an Aaron Richmond Recital, endowed by Nancy Richmond Winsten and the late Dr. Joseph Winsten in memory of Aaron Richmond, who founded Celebrity Series in 1938.

Tickets for András Schiff start at $40, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Jordan Hall box office, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston.

This recital is Mr. Schiff’s fifth for the Celebrity Series; he made his Celebrity Series debut in 1995 and his most recent recital was in 2002.

András Schiff is renowned and acclaimed as a pianist, conductor, pedagogue and lecturer. Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1953, Mr. Schiff started piano lessons at age five with Elisabeth Vadász. He continued his musical studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy with Professor Pál Kadosa, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados, and in London with George Malcolm.

Indisputably one of the most prominent proponents of the keyboard works of J.S. Bach, through November 2013 he continues The Bach Project, his two-season endeavor in North America comprising six Bach recitals and a week of the orchestral music of Bach, Schumann and Mendelssohn with Mr. Schiff at the piano and on the podium. The Project visits Boston, Toronto, Symphony Hall supported by the San Francisco Symphony, Disney Hall supported by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York City in partnership with the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, 92Y and Great Performers at Lincoln Center. Repertoire this season is the Complete Partitas and Goldberg Variations, and Mr. Schiff’s final recitals include Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

Mr. Schiff has established a prolific discography, and since 1997 has been an exclusive artist for ECM New Series. Recordings include the complete solo piano music of Beethoven and Janáček, two solo discs of Schumann piano pieces, his second recordings of the Bach Partitas and Goldberg Variations, and a 2012 release of The Well Tempered Clavier. He recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations for release in September 2013.

In spring 2011, Mr. Schiff attracted attention because of his opposition to the Hungarian media law, and, in view of the ensuing attacks on him from some Hungarian nationalists, has made the decision not to perform or return to his home country.

András Schiff is an Honorary Professor of the Music Schools in Budapest, Detmold and Munich, and a Special Supernumerary Fellow of Balliol College (Oxford, UK).

Program:

Bach

Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

Beethoven

33 variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Opus 120