Chamber Orchestra of Europe
September 2010
Supported by the European Union Culture Programme and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation www.coeurope.org
AMERICA!
SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS Tanglewood Festival, Boston, USA Mostly Mozart Festival, New York, USA September Tour with Trevor Pinnock and Maria João Pires to France, Germany and Luxemburg
Nils Olander, Panoramio
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
On 10th August, members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and one of their closest partners, French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, performed works by Bach, Carter and Ligeti “Well, this is a very unique in Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall outside Boston. As the pianist told the online paper orchestra you know? They Classical Music News Russia, this collaboration is always being an occasion of “great joy”. decided 30 years ago to found an orchestra... and the best possible musicians joined for this project, and worked on great pieces with great conductors or musicians. They are people from an incredibly fine culture, and a very incredibly refined orchestra musically. I got the chance to be closely associated with them from 2000; I feel it’s very significant that we a re associated again “
“In the Trio Sonata from the “Offering”, flutist Clara Andrada de la Calle and violinist Mats Zetterqvist (both members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe) polished their tones to a high gloss, scrupulously matching their articulation against the grid of Aimard’s sober harpsichord accompaniment” [The Boston Globe, 12/08/2010]
The COE and Pierre-Laurent Aimard played together again at the Lincoln Center in New York on 13th, 14th and 15th August in the context of a “festival within a festival”, namely a concert series on the theme ‘Bach and Polyphonies’, initiated by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, within the Mostly Mozart Festival. They also performed pieces by Bach, Carter and Ligeti; according to Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Bach is “the most phenomenal polyphonist, with the most marvellous brain, able to organise the most challenging architectures in music” and American centenarian Elliott Carter is “the greatest living polyphonist”. The late night concert on 13th August also featured Ensemble Basiani, a Georgian choir singing traditional From Time Out New York Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and liturgical Georgian Polyphony. Pianist
“The orchestra, which played impressively throughout, created a taut, buoyant period sound that was particularly commendable in the performance on Sunday of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3—in which Mr Aimard played the harpsichord instead of the piano. An excellent performance of Bach’s keyboard Concerto in F minor concluded that program.” [New York Times, 17/08/2010]