Schubert | Leaf Music

Shubert: Late Piano Works

(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Pianist Christine Vanderkooy presents a new album, Schubert: Late Piano Works, distributed by Leaf Music Distribution. Recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio during Toronto’s lockdown in December of 2020 on “Bertha” the nine-foot New York Steinway, the recording comprises two works composed by Schubert in the twilight of his life: Sonata in C-minor, D. 958 – the first from his late sonata trilogy – and Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946. While these works were long passed over following their creation in 1828, these deeply human compositions have been establishing their place as inimitable masterworks amongst pianists and audiences alike.

Written just a year following the death of his admired Beethoven, Schubert completed “some of his most sophisticated, poetic, and deeply felt works for the piano…permeating the deepest layers of the soul…moving us, sometimes with the masterful shift of just one note or rest, from the desolate to the sublime,” Christine writes in the liner notes.

Praised for her “sensitive and passionate artistic interpretation,” Christine Vanderkooy has performed as a soloist across Canada, the US and Europe. Her previous recording, Schubert and Schumann, enjoyed critical acclaim including a cover story for Tempo magazine. As well as radio play on CBC Radio and stations across the continent. Christine has been frequently invited to adjudicate festivals and competitions and has twice been invited to judge the Canadian JUNO Awards. Her national reputation as a piano pedagogue has led to workshops and masterclasses across the country.

Christine studied and taught at McGill University where she earned a Doctor of Music in Piano Performance. Her major teachers included David McIntyre, Boyd McDonald, Tom Plaunt, Sara Laimon and Marc Durand. She joined the University of Windsor in 2017 as Associate Professor of Music and Education.

The recording was made possible by funding from the University of Windsor, including a research start-up grant and the Research Stimulus Fund Grant from the Faculty of Education, as well as an SSHRC Exchange Grant.

-30-

Christine Vanderkooy– Shubert: Late Piano Works

Release Date: September 1, 2023
Physical/Digital Release

For more visit: http://leaf-music.lnk.to/cv2023

MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews,
please contact Nivie Singh at nivie@leaf-music.ca.

Lovers and mourners: Variations and Sonatas from Seventeenth-Century Germany

American Pianist Peter Takács and Icelandic Violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson are excited to present “Schubert: Violin Sonatas”, their first collaboration together, and their first release on Leaf Music. Recorded in the spring of 2020 at the Oblerlin Conservatory of Music, Schubert: Three Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Op. 137 is a rousing rendition of some of Schubert’s most lively yet least known compositions. Largely unknown at the time of Schubert’s death, the Sonatas for violin and piano were composed during a prolific two-month span in March–April of 1816.

In addition to completing his Fourth Symphony (“Tragic”) during this creative outpouring, the nineteen-year-old penned some two dozen songs and a twelve-movement Stabat Mater (D. 383) for choir and orchestra. Schubert himself was a capable violinist (and violist) and had already written a significant body of work for strings, but this was his first foray into the violin sonata proper.

Regarding the album and his collaborator, Takács says, “It was a delight working with Sibbi on this album. He is a master of his craft and a consummate professional. I think we’ve captured the essence of Schubert’s violin sonatas on this recording, and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with those who will appreciate its depth and breadth.”

Hailed as “a marvelous pianist” by the New York Times, Peter Takács has established himself as a distinguished performer, teacher, and lecturer. Winner of the William Kapell International Competition, he has appeared in recital, chamber music, and with orchestra in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has given master classes throughout the world and has been an adjudicator in many prestigious international competitions. In 2015-16, he inaugurated a new recital series entitled “Key Pianists”, performing three all-Beethoven programs at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. His recording of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas was released on the Cambria label in July 2011 to critical acclaim. He is Professor of Piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he has been teaching since 1976. In the Beethoven 250th anniversary year 2020, in recognition of Mr. Takács’s achievements, Oberlin Conservatory received a generous gift to establish a Peter Takács/Beethoven Piano Sonata Prize, to be awarded annually to a piano student selected for outstanding Beethoven interpretation. His 2022 release of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas on the high-resolution platform nativeDSD was voted Album of the Year.

Icelandic violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson joined the Oberlin Conservatory faculty in 2017 after performing for the previous 17 years with the Pacifica Quartet, with which he won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, Musical America Ensemble of the Year honors, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. As a member of the Pacifica Quartet, Bernhardsson appeared in more than 90 concerts worldwide each year, including engagements in Wigmore Hall (London), the Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall (New York), and other major venues. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, and the Reykjavík Arts Festival, and has collaborated with Menahem Pressler, Yo-Yo Ma, Jörg Widmann, Lynn Harrell, Leon Fleisher, the Emerson String Quartet, Johannes Moser, and members of the Guarneri and Cleveland quartets.

-30-

Release Date: April 21, 2023

Physical/Digital Release

leaf-music.ca

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew Brown | andrew@leaf-music.ca

Tag: Schubert

Leaf Music Distribution and Christine Vanderkooy Present: “Schubert Late Piano Works”

Leaf Music, Peter Takács, and Sibbi Bernhardsson Present: “Schubert: Three Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Op. 137”