Till Fellner, pianist

TILL FELLNER returns to North America

 

March 8 – April 4, 2014

playing:

 

MOZART Rondo in A minor, K. 511

BACH from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II:

Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major, BWV 874

Prelude and Fugue No. 6 in D minor, BWV 875

Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in E-flat major, BWV 876

Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in D-sharp minor, BWV 877

HAYDN Sonata No. 50 in D major, Hob XVI: 37

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SCHUMANN  Davidsbündlertänze, Op.6      

 

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This season Fellner will perform recitals in the US and Canada including Carnegie Hall on April 26, 2013, and for San Francisco Performances on April 29, 2013.  He also returns to the Montreal Symphony for Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3  led by Kent Nagano.

(Check out the ECM Fellner-OSM-Nagano Beethoven Nos. 4 & 5 here.)

 

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Listen here to the Prelude and Fugue in F-Sharp Major, from Fellner's critically acclaimed ECM recording, Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier I.

 

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Please contact Chris Putnam , Lee Prinz and Amy Carson-Dwyer with booking inquiries, and visit us online to learn more: 

 

www.TillFellner.com

 

www.ColbertArtists.com 

 

“It would be hard to imagine a better pianistic exposition of this music.  Colours were subtly mixed.  Rhythmic control was impeccable.”
– Arthur Kaptainis, THE MONTREAL GAZETTE

"Mr. Fellner played with magisterial restraint and myriad colorings. And when the prestissimo coda of the finale arrived, for once it truly seemed a wild and crazy final outburst." - Anthony Tommasini, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Fellner has the technique to produce sonic thunder...but he is a musician who most often speaks in an articulate, nuanced voice, mindful both of detail and the big architectural picture." - Donald Rosenberg, THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

"His unerring musicality is almost monumental in itself." - Alex Ross, THE NEW YORKER

(November 2012)

TILL FELLNER began 2012 with Beethoven, playing his Piano Concerto No. 4 with Herbert Blomstedt and the Orchestre de Paris in early January,  and Piano Concerto No. 1 with Manfred Honeck and the Chicago Symphony the following week.

"Fellner's beautifully weighted tone, capable of infinite dynamic nuance, was all his own, as was the immaculate finish of his pianism in the outer movements and the expressive gravity he brought to the central largo. With Fellner, every interpretive gesture took on a convincing motivation that stemmed directly from the score." - John von Rhein, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Jan. 19, 2012

Although you may have missed those dates, you can get a taste by watching this video of a rehearsal of the Concerto No. 5, with Fellner, Paavo Järvi and the Orchestre de Paris in the summer of 2011, or by visiting the ECM player page for his recent recording of Beethoven Cti. 4 and 5, with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony.

His next U.S. appearance takes him to the Boston Symphony for Mozart K. 482 with Bernard Haitink. Click to learn more.

And on the recital front, Fellner played an acclaimed tour in the US in the fall; he was heard in Washington, D.C, Boston, Seattle, and Cleveland: 

“It was exactly the sort of concert one has come to expect from this intelligent musician: reflective, understated, and meticulously shaped—with just the right hint of extremely dry wit... Once again, Fellner pointed the way to new ways of thinking about music one thought one knew."   - Charles T. Downey, THE WASHINGTONIAN, Oct. 3, 2011

"He applied individual touches to Haydn's Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:50, that lifted the delicious material from the page. Fellner played with flair and discretion, relishing the writing for the newly developed piano, rather than fortepiano, as well as every unexpected turn of phrase and harmony." - Donald Rosenberg, THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, Nov. 2, 2011

You can hear his Haydn (Hob. XVI: 32) and more next season, when he offers a recital program with Haydn, Mozart, Bach and Schumann on his U.S. tour in April 2013 (including a just-announced Zankel Hall recital for Carnegie Hall. Learn more here.) 

(February 2012)

If you were watching closely, you may have noticed that TILL FELLNER and ALFRED BRENDEL were in Vancouver and Montreal at the same time this fall  -- a nice coincidence for a pair of kindred musicians.  Fellner reunited with his recent ECM disc partners, Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony for more Beethoven, Concerto No. 2, with Brendel listening in the audience: "There’s a lightness to his touch that belies its intensity and precision." The Globe and Mail, Oct. 14, 2011 (November 2011)

Winter storms couldn't stop pianist TILL FELLNER as he crossed the midpoint of his Beethoven sonatas cycle this month; he played concerts in New York, Montreal, Baltimore and had only one snow-cancellation in inundated Washington, D.C. They'll have a chance to hear him next month when he returns to continue the cycle.

"At first I thought I was not going to like Mr. Fellner's "Waldstein." Rather than emphasizing the rhythmic drive of the repeated chord theme of the first movement, he took a restrained tempo and allowed the music to emerge in an eerie, slightly murky rumble of harmony. But I soon came round to his concept, which maximized the architectonic structure of the entire sonata. The second movement came through as an almost-improvisatory interlude that set up the finale, which Mr. Fellner played with magisterial restraint and myriad colorings. And when the prestissimo coda of the finale arrived, for once it seemed a wild and crazy final outburst." - Anthony Tommasini, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Feb. 14, 2010

This month also heard him playing Beethoven Cto. 1 with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, with whom Fellner recorded the new ECM release: Beethoven Piano Ctos. 4 and 5, just out this week.

"Words are inadequate to describe the sheer joy I experienced at listening to this disc. I’d long ago abandoned hope of ever hearing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto played as I’ve heard it in my head, and as it is played here." - Jerry Dubins, FANFARE, March/April 2010

Click here to read an interview with Arthur Kaptainis and the Montreal Gazette in which Till shares some thoughts on Beethoven. (February 2010)

Till Fellner just wrapped up the fourth installment of his Beethoven Sonata Cycle, performing in Boston, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

 “The latest program, of five sonatas from across the first two stylistic periods of Beethoven's career, stood out as the most consistently beautiful, showcasing Fellner's exquisite musical craftsmanship, technically impeccable but never showy or vulgar.”  - Charles T. Downey, IonArts, November 3, 2009

Next week, Fellner plays Beethoven Concerto No.1 with the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic at the Vienna Konzerthaus, and then with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden & Freiburg. In December, he begins the fifth installment of the Beethoven Sonatas, playing in Stuttgart, Salzburg, Rome, Tokyo, and beginning the new year at the Vienna Konzerthaus, at Wigmore Hall in London, and in Paris. Fellner returns to North America in January, playing Beethoven 1 with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, and touring the Beethoven Sonatas, installment V, in February 2010.

(November 2009)