Sparring Sonatas: InterHarmony’s Misha Quint and Dmitry Rachmanov Battle Rachmaninoff and Brahms at Carnegie Hall on May 2 at 8PM
Cellist Misha Quint and pianist Dmitry Rachmanov will perform in “Sparring Sonatas” and battle three larger-than-life sonatas with virtuosic cello and piano parts by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and Boccherini at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on May 2, 2024 at 8 PM as part of the InterHarmony Concert Series. Uniquely, all 3 sonatas were originally performed by the composers themselves, and all three composers were outstanding performers.Tickets are available for purchase online at www.carnegiehall.org or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. More information can be found at www.interharmony.com.
About the Program
An aperitivo of Boccherini's Sonata No.6 in A Major will begin the concert. As the most popular of Boccherini’s sonatas, it is meant to showcase the composer-cellist’s ability to present something raucously difficult yet appear deceptively simple and elegantly pleasing to the audience. In Sonata, Quint and Rachmanov will cooperate before the real battle begins, a collaboration where both performer fighters are on the same side, taking on their “enemy” with grace and symmetric sincerity, at the same time staying within the bounds of the traditional sonata form.
After their classical Italian warm-up, Quint and Rachmanov will take on the Brahms Sonata No. 2 in F Major. Feverishly intense, the two fighters will spar together with the harmonic dissonance or conflict emerging as a seeming epic battle, oftentimes triumphant and others dark and brooding. Compared to the composer’s earlier Sonata in e minor, this one exudes the feeling of geniality and warmth, its melodies expressed by both instruments move through forms as a fighter or dancer with haunting themes or as a competition of emotional expression in the thicker, fast passages with remembrance of love lost or of past conquests. Brahms himself premiered Sonata in 1886 with his friend Robert Hausman, for whom the piece was written.
“In the Cello Sonata, passion rules, fiery to the point of vehemence, now defiantly challenging, now painfully lamenting,” the critic Eduard Hanslick wrote of Brahms’s Sonata.
Following a brief respite for the fighters (a.k.a. performers), the final battle you’ve all been waiting for ensues. Quint and Rachmanov will take the stage in the fierce brawl that is Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano. (Actually, the 3rd slow movement is quite gorgeous, and considered by many to be one of the most beautiful and meaningful additions to the cello repertoire, used as an encore by many a soloist. But we’ll get to that.)
You’ve probably heard that Rachmaninoff was apiano virtuoso, who toured the world touting his own compositions. He was known for his huge hands and ability to reach THIRTEENTHS on the piano. (Most pianists are happy with a ninth or tenth.) Chords with many notes are strewn throughout his pieces that many pianists struggle to play.
Following a huge disappointment with the adverse reaction to the premiere of his First Symphony, Rachmaninoff fell victim to a nervous breakdown for three years, and (in addition to his Second Piano Concerto)his only Cello Sonata served as his triumphant return and one of the final contributions to the collaborative realm of chamber music. After that he would focus solely on piano and orchestral compositions for the rest of his life.
Perhaps Sonata reflects Rachmaninoff’s creative struggle in the raging conflict between cello and piano: in its dramatic and elegiac first movement, dark second movement scherzo, the bittersweet lyricism of the third movement with its seemingly obsessive repetition of single notes in its main theme, and the triumphant fanfares in the finale fourth movement.
Will you imagine a battle or a dance, a friendly spar, or joyful collaboration? There’s only one way to find out. Come see “Sparring Sonatas: Quint and Rachmanov Battle Rachmaninoff and Brahms” at Carnegie Hall. More information can be found at www.interharmony.com.
PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES
A graduate of the Leningrad Special School for the Gifted and the Leningrad State Conservatory, Misha Quint made his orchestral debut at the age of 13 after winning first prize at the Boccherini Competition in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). He gained international recognition after capturing top prizes in the 1975 International Competition in Prague and the Russian National Competition. Quint immigrated to the US and made his critically acclaimed New York recital debut at the 92nd Street Y and his orchestral debut in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in 1992. He has given numerous solo recitals and master classes in the leading halls of England, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Russia, Latvia, Georgia, Belorussia, Romania, Italy, and the US. “[Quint] provides a fresh voice…The Russian school of string playing has taken on a different light with Quint” said Daniel Webster of the Philadelphia Inquirer and “a master of probing sentiment, shaded phrasing, and flawless technique” from MetroWest.
Misha Quint has appeared with such celebrated orchestras as the New York Chamber Symphony, Metropolitan Symphony, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Leningrad State Orchestra, Orchestra of Classical and Contemporary Music, National Irish Symphony, the OrquestraSinfônica do Teatro Nacional do Brasilia and with the Symphony Orchestras of Latvia and Georgia among others. He has worked with an equally illustrious group of conductors including Maxim Shostakovich, Christian Vásquez, Paul Lustig Dunkel, Colman Pearce, Sidney Harth, Ravil Martinov, Yakov Bergman, and Ira Levin. Quint is an active chamber musician and has performed with such artists as Nikolai Znaider, Vadim Repin, Shlomo Mintz, Bela Davidovich, Bruno Canino, Julian Rachlin, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Sherban Lupu, Boris Kushnir, and Mikhail Kopelman.
As a special guest artist, Misha Quint was broadcast in live television performances in Westchester, NY; "The Jewish Entertainment Hour"; German Television, Italian Television, RTN/WMNB; and live radio broadcast recitals on WQXR's "The Listening Room", WGBH (Boston), WMNB (NJ), WNYC (NY). Quint captured first prize of the CRS National competition in 2009, was a featured performer at The Festival of the Musical Citadel in Brasov, Romania in August 2013 and 2014, and is the Founder of the InterHarmony Concert Series at Carnegie Hall in New York and the former InterHarmony Concert Series at the Modern Museum of Art in Fort Worth, Texas. Quint’s discography includes Live Cello Recitals and Valse Sentimentale on the Volshebnik Productions Label, and the 2014 release of Tempo Trapezio and 2016 release of Matryoshka Blues on the Blue Griffin Label. Quint captured the gold medal inthe March 2016 Global Music Awards for his recording, Matryoshka Blues, on the Blue Griffin label in three categories: instrumentalist, album, and new release, and was featured in the top five spring albums in Global Music Awards.
Misha Quint is strongly committed to teaching and is on the faculty of InterHarmony International School of Music. He has been on the faculty of the International Institute of Music in Marktoberdorf, Germany, and was Music Director and Founder of the Soesterberg International Music Festival in Holland from 1998 – 2007, the Intensive Cello Studies Abroad in Blonay, Chalet de lacroix at the Hindemith Foundation in 1997, Interharmony Music Festival in Geneva, Switzerland in 2000, The Berkshires, Massachusetts from 2007 – 2008, San Francisco, California in 2009, Hinterzarten, Schwarzwald, Germany from 2008 – 2011, in Tuscany, Italy from 2012 – 2016, presently in Acqui Terme, Italy since 2017, and from 2005-2019 in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Bavaria, Germany. Quint studied with Emmanuel Fishman, Natalia Gutman, Boris Pergamenshikov, and Daniel Shafran. www.mishaquintcello.com www.interharmony.com www.interharmonymusicschool.com
Rachmanov has given recital tours featuring the music of Scriabin in commemoration of the composer’s memorial centennial (1915-2015), including appearances in Moscow, Paris, Budapest, Beijing & Shanghai and in the US. His recital at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall was called “indeed a ‘poem of ecstasy’ in every sense: giant in conception, quantity, quality, execution, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity” by the New York Concert Review. In the past few years he has worked on the project of creating a video anthology of Scriabin’s major piano works. In the fall of 2018 Dmitry Rachmanov participated in the 100th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Scriabin Memorial Museum in Moscow by presenting at the centennial conference and performing a recital at the museum’s Grand Hall.
Dr. Rachmanov's interest in historical performance practice brought him to the Massachusetts' Frederick Historic Piano Collection, where he has made regular appearances performing recital series on period instruments. His album “Beethoven and His Teachers,” recorded in collaboration with the pianist Cullan Bryant on the collection’s period instruments and released by Naxos in 2011, has received critical accolades.
Through the sponsorship of the CSUN Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Award as well as Mike Curb College Research and Creative Activities Grant, as part of The Tapestry Ensemble, Rachmanov commissioned, premiered and recorded chamber works by Southern California composers, released by Navona Records to critical acclaim.
An active member of the American Liszt Society, Dmitry Rachmanov has served as the Artistic Director of the American Liszt Society Festival “Liszt and Russia” hosted by California State University Northridge in June of 2016. He is a founding member and President of the ALS’s Southern California Chapter.
Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov is Professor of Piano at CSU Northridge, where he serves as Chair of Keyboard Studies. A sought-after master class clinician and lecturer, Dr. Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and has appeared as a guest artist/teacher at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Beijing Central, Shanghai and Harbin Conservatories as well as East China Normal and Shanghai Normal Universities, among others. Dr. Rachmanov has been a frequent competition adjudicator in the US and abroad, including Gina Bachauer International Artists, Brahms Poertschach, Austria, and Los Angeles International Piano Competition, among others. He is a frequent participant in summer music festivals, such as Adamant in Vermont, Montecito in Southern California, Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival in Tampa, FL and Piano Sicily and InterHarmony in Europe. In the summer of 2024 he will serve on the faculty at the John Perry Academy in NJ and will be a featured artist at the Lancaster International Piano Festival in PA.
Rachmanov is a graduate of The Juilliard School (BM & MM) and he holds DMA from Manhattan School of Music. His teachers include Nadia Reisenberg, Arkady Aronov, and he coached with Yvonne Lefebure, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Menahem Pressler, Vitaly Margulis and John Browning. A prizewinner of international competitions, he was awarded a fellowship from the American Pianists Association and received the George Schick Award for Outstanding Musicianship at Manhattan School of Music. In 2008 Dr. Rachmanov was named the Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar of the Year at California State University, Northridge. In 2015 he became an honoree of the Outstanding Faculty Award presented by the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars for his dedicated service to the International Community at CSUN, and he was a recipient of the Outstanding CAPMT (California Music Teachers National Association) Member, State Recognition Award. In 2018 he was named the Academic Affairs Research Fellow in the Mike Curb College at CSUN. In the summer of 2019 he was a resident at the Brahmshouse in Baden-Baden, Germany. He has served as artistic co-director of the biennial ChamberFest @ CSUN Chamber Music Festival.Dmitry Rachmanov is a Steinway Artist. http://dmitryrachmanov.com/
Program
Boccherini: Sonata No.6 in A MajorBrahms: Cello Sonata in F Major, Op.
Rachmaninoff: Sonata in g minor for Cello and Piano, Op.19
Where to Go
Tickets are $45, and can be purchased by calling CarnegieCharge at 212- 247-7800; at the Carnegie Hall box office located at West 57th and Seventh Avenue or online at www.carnegiehall.org.
Press Contact:
Caitlin McConnell
170 NE 2nd St #443
Boca Raton, FL 33429
USA
festival@interharmony.com
