February 18, 19 & 20, 2010
Thursday - 7:30pm | UNCG - School of Music Recital Hall
Friday and Saturday - 8:00pm | Dana Auditorium
**Please note: The Thursday, February18 concert is sold out.
Mozart and More Special Chamber Orchestra Concert
Bella Davidovich
Wagner
Sigfried Idyll, for small orchestra in E major, WWV 103
Mozart
Piano Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 in A major, K. 488
Bella Davidovich, piano
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Allegro assai
Intermission
Haydn
Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor, H. I:45, "Farewell"
I. Allegro assai
II. Adagio
III. Menuetto: Allegretto
IV. Finale: Preso; Adagio
February 19 sponsor February 20 sponsors
Before emigrating to the USA, Bella Davidovich was one of the Soviet Union's pre-eminent artists as well as one of the few women to be admitted to the inner circle of Russian cultural life. Born in Baku into a family of musicians she began her piano studies at an early age. At the age of 18 she entered the Moscow Conservatory where she studied with Konstantin Igumnov and Jakov Flier. In 1949 she won First Prize in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. During her remarkable career in the former Soviet Union, Bella Davidovich appeared with every major Russian conductor and performed as a soloist with the Leningrad Philharmonic for 28 consecutive seasons.
With the spirit of perestroika, she became the first Soviet emigré musician to receive an official invitation from the Soviet agency Goskoncert to perform in her native country. She played concertos, a recital with her son, the violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky and chamber music with the Borodin String Quartet to sold-out halls.
Since moving to the USA two decades ago, Bella Davidovich has established herself as one of her adopted country's most popular artists and is one of the few female pianists to achieve worldwide reputation. In October 1979 her American debut at Carnegie Hall before a standing-room only audience, heralded a new chapter in a career of major importance. Throughout her extraordinary career, Bella Davidovich has performed with the world's leading conductors, such as Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, James Conlon, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Järvi, Mariss Jansons, Kyrill Kondrashin, Alexander Lazarev, Raymond Leppard, Neville Marriner, Riccardo Muti, Eugene Ormandy, David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Kurt Sanderling, Maxim Shostakovitch, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Yuri Temirkanov, Klaus Tennstedt, Michael Tilson Thomas, Edo de Waart and David Zinman.
Past highlights of her manifold activities include concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Eri Klas, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart under Vladimir Fedoseyev and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, chamber concerts with her son Dmitry Sitkovetsky and the cellist David Geringas, a tour to the Far East with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov, a tour of Spain with the Ulster Orchestra under Dmitry Sitkovetsky, a tour with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Alexander Lazarev, numerous recitals in London, in Bochum at the Piano Festival Ruhr, at the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Attergauer Musiksommer and, most recently, her highly acclaimed performances at the Salzburg Festspielhaus. In November 1999 she had a tremendous success with recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in Lisbon: "Bella Davidovich is the seductive teller of a story full of entanglements and secrets."
At the invitation of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam where she has been a frequent and well-loved guest, she celebrated her 70th birthday in July 1998 by way of two magnificent concert performances together with her son, friends and students. She subsequently performed together with Gidon Kremer, Frans Helmerson, Lars Vogt and many other instrumentalists at Isabelle van Keulen's chamber music festival in Delft where she has been a regular guest. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of her winning First Prize at the first Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw back in 1949, the Piano Festival Ruhr invited her for an orchestral concert and a recital in 1999. In Rotterdam, she took over a recital from Maria Joao Pires at short notice with great success. Future engagements include recitals at the Piano Festival Ruhr, in Stettin, Madrid, Mallorca and Lugano, chamber music at the Rheingau Musik Festival as well as orchestral concerts in Amsterdam, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire under Hubert Soudant.
Bella Davidovich was a member of the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory for sixteen years before moving to the West in 1978. As a highly regarded pedagogue, she now concentrates her teaching activities at the Juilliard School in New York. She is also a regular jury member at many of the world's major international piano competitions. In 1995 she served on the jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, the Chopin Competition in Warsaw and the Clara Haskil Competition in Vevey/Switzerland. Bella Davidovich has recorded for Philips, Orfeo and Novalis.
Preludes
Learn more about the evening’s music with Dr. David Nelson, Professor of Music Theory at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The Prelude on Friday, February 19th begins at 7:15 p.m., and the Prelude on Saturday, February 20th begins at 7:00 p.m. Both Preludes will take place in the Moon Room at Dana Auditorium.
Meet the Artists
Join us after the Thursday evening concert for a brief question and answer session held at the front of the stage with our guest artists and Dima.
Radio Broadcast
WFDD will broadcast this concert on Sunday, March 21 at 8:00 pm.
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
