Enescu-Brahms European Encounters
Remus Azoitei – violin
Eduard Stan – piano
International chamber music tour featuring violin and piano duo Remus Azoiţei and Eduard Stan – in major cultural centres around Europe and the United States. The tour aims to highlight George Enescu's works for violin and piano by presenting them together with representative chamber works by Johannes Brahms.
The two Romanian-born artists recorded the entire repertoire for violin and piano by George Enescu, a world premiere collection, released by Hänssler Classic in 2007 on 2 CDs, to wide international acclaim.
Programme: Enescu – Torso-Sonata in A minor Brahms – 3rd Sonata in D minor, op. 108 Brahms – 2nd Sonata in A Major, op. 100 Enescu – 3rd Sonata in A minor, op. 25 "In Romanian Folk Character"
Listen fragments of Sonata in A minor, "Torso" şi Sonata No. 3 "In Romanian Folk Character".
Tour dates: • 1 October – Munich, Gasteig, Carl Orff Saal (www.gasteig.de ) • 7 October – Stockholm, Konserthuset (www.konserthuset.se ) • 15 October – Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, Chamber Music Hall (www.bozar.be) • 17 October – Hamburg, Läiszhalle, Kleiner Saal (www.laeiszhalle.de ) • 20 October – Prague, Rudolfinum, Suk Hall (www.rudolfinum.cz ) • 27 October – Copenhagen, Black Diamond, Royal Library (www.kb.dk/en/dia/index.html ) • 28 October – Madrid, Auditorio Nacional, Sala de Camara (www.auditorionacional.mcu.es ) • 10 November – Paris, Salle Cortot (www.classictic.com/en/Paris/Salle-Cortot ) • 11 November – Dublin, National Concert Hall, John Field Room (www.nch.ie ) • 15 November – Amsterdam, Concertgebouw, Kleine Saal (www.concertgebouw.nl ) • 17 November – Vienna, Wiener Konzerthaus, Schubert Saal (www.konzerthaus.at ) • 19 November – Berlin, Konzerthaus, Kleiner Saal (www.konzerthaus.de ) • 25 November – Bucharest, Romanian Athenaeum • 9 December – Washington DC, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (www.kennedy-center.org ) • 10 December – New York, Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall (www.carnegiehall.org )
Romanian-born violinist Remus Azoitei graduated from the Bucharest Conservatoire, Daniel Podlovski's class, then studied with Itzhak Perlman and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York, where he got his Master's Degree, as well as with Maurice Hasson at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Following his London debut at Wigmore Hall in 2004, the Sunday Express wrote that "he delivered a memorable programme in front of a packed Wigmore Hall, and had the crowd cheering. He is one fine musician." Remus Azoitei has appeared in the Music Festivals of Yokosuka, Cambridge, London, Heidelberg, Paris, Santander, Munich and Bucharest, among many others. In the 2009 "George Enescu" Festival in Bucharest he performed as soloist of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conductor Dmitri Kitaenko.
In 2007 Remus Azoitei released together with pianist Eduard Stan the entire repertoire for violin and piano by George Enescu, a world premiere project. Launched by Hanssler Classics on 2 CDs, this collection has immediately attracted international acclaim.
Alongside his busy concert schedule, Remus Azoitei has an active teaching career. He was appointed violin professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2001, becoming the youngest ever violin professor in the history of this institution.
He is playing on a 1753 Niccolo Gagliano violin from the Academy Collection.
Pianist Eduard Stan was described as an "enormously sensitive pianist with an extraordinary flexible culture of touch, perfect technique as well as a great understanding of music" by the German Weser-Kurier. After Karl-Heinz Kammerling noticed his talenthe went on to study with Arie Vardi at the Academy of Music and Drama in Hanover, where he obtained his Master's Degree. He later benefitted from the advice of Herbert Blomstedt, Matthias Goerne, Karl Engel, Boris Berman and Paul Badura-Skoda. Eduard Stan has appeared at festivals including Massenet (France), Mid-Europe (The Czech Republic), Bourglinster (Luxemburg), Brunswick Classix (Germany) and the Festival of Romanian Music (Romania) and won top prizes at important international competitions in Cologne, Hamburg and Brunswick. He has performed across Europe and the US, his concert calendar including the Berlin Philharmonie, Musikhalle Hamburg, Salt Lake City Temple Square and PUC California. Eduard Stan has been a teacher at the Lubeck Academy of Music between 2000-2007. As the founder and artistic director of the Enescu-Festival Heidelberg/Mannheim, he was awarded in 2005 the Enescu Medal from the Romanian Cultural Institute for his merits as a promoter of Enescu's music. Together with violinist Remus Azoitei, he recorded the entire repertoire for violin and piano by George Enescu, a world premiere project in two CD volumes, released by Hänssler Classics in 2007.
The promoter of the Brahms-Enescu tour is the London-based agency Hazard Chase.
"Hazard Chase is a leading international music management company based in the UK. Founded in 1990 in Cambridge, the company has continued to grow ever since and now has offices in both Cambridge and London. The company manages a roster of over 80 prestigious international artists, including conductors, singers, instrumentalists, choirs, ensembles and composers, each receiving an intensive personal management service.
Touring and project management form a significant part of the company's activities, with a reputation for developing high quality creative projects of artistic integrity. Whilst concert work is the main focus of touring activity, Hazard Chase is also actively engaged in film, theatre and opera projects.
Hazard Chase's project management division manages small and large scale projects on behalf of artists and other organisations: we are delighted to collaborate with the Romanian Cultural Institute to create the forthcoming tour of major European cities. Washington DC and New York of "Enescu-Brahms: European Encounters". www.hazardchase.co.uk
Project coordinators: Romanian Cultural Institute Irina Iacob,
irina.iacob@icr.ro, +40 31 7100 671
Hazard Chase Melanie Crompton,
melanie.crompton@hazardchase.co.uk, +44 (0) 20 3355 4532
Streaming by permission of hänssler CLASSIC, Germany – for further information please contact classic@haenssler.de, www.haenssler-classic.com
In performance: Romanian duo Azoitei, Stan
Romanian duo showcases Enescu, Brahms
by Charles T. Downey, Washington Post
Violinist Remus Azoitei and pianist Eduard Stan gave a concert in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Wednesday night. The Romanian Cultural Institute has taken this program of violin sonatas by George Enescu and Johannes Brahms on an international tour, concluding Thursday night at Carnegie Hall. The influence of Brahms, whom Enescu met and worked with during his student years in Vienna, was only one of many that Enescu would absorb and synthesize in his own unclassifiable style.
(read more after the jump)
Azoitei and Stan released an exemplary two-disc set of the complete works of Enescu for violin and piano a couple of years ago, on the Hänssler Classic label, and the musicians' long collaboration made for an easy rapport in performance. Azoitei, a Romanian trained at Juilliard and now teaching in London, played with a fluid melodic sensibility and sparkling technique. His not always expansive tone could be submerged beneath the broader gestures of Stan, who was not afraid to unleash the Steinway's power, sometimes pushing the violin to the background.
Their Brahms was seething in its dynamic contrasts, especially a slightly overbearing Third Sonata, while the calmer Second Sonata was more amiable. The Enescu pieces bookended the Brahms, with the A minor "Torso" Sonata showing thematic kinship with Brahms as well as the harmonic influence of Massenet and Fauré from Enescu's time in France. The bends and blue notes in Enescu's epic Third Sonata, titled "In Romanian Folk Character," could be traced to either Romanian folk music or the jazz Enescu heard in Paris. Two encores, Enescu's youthful "Ballade" and Brahms's crowd-pleasing Hungarian Dance No. 1, rounded out this compelling program.
