quasi una fantasia
Three New PIano works, composed in dialogue by
ANthony CHeung + Christopher Cerrone + Andrea Casarrubios
Andrea Casarrubios
Featuring (from left to right) Hannah Lash, Timo Andres, Michael Gandolfi, Martin Bresnick, Andrew Norman, Samual Carl Adams, Mohammed Fairouz, Ryan Francis, Mark Carlson, Marcos Balter, Caroline Shaw, David Kaplan, Robert Schumann, Augusta Read Thomas, Gabriel Kahane, Caleb Burhans, Michael Brown, and Ted Hearne. Illustration by Liana Finck.
cited one of the
“Top Classical Music Events of 2015”
—The New York Times.
An album length set of miniatures inspired by and interspersed with Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze.
In 2014, David Kaplan asked 16 composers he admired to write short pieces inspired by Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, which is a collection of dance-like miniatures for piano, dedicated to his half imaginary band of musical acolytes. Each of the participating contemporary composers wrote an imaginative piece that engaged with Schumann’s original in a distinct way.
Kaplan has performed this concert all over the country and abroad, including at the Ravinia Festival, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and at (le) Poisson Rouge in New York.
The commissioning project was funded by numerous generous donors in collaboration with Lyrica Chamber Music, the Metropolis Ensemble, and Yamaha Artist Services.
Kaplan&Kaplan
Credit: Dario Acosta 2021
Mark Kaplan & David Kaplan
Pianist David Kaplan has been praised for “magnificent pianism” by the Los Angeles Times, and for “striking imagination and creativity” by the New York Times. His father, Mark Kaplan is internationally acknowledged as one of the leading violinists of his generation. For the first time in over a decade, they reunite this season for a series of programs reflecting their eclectic and common musical interests, from Couperin to Corigliano, but begin with a totemic exploration for violin and piano: the Three Brahms Sonatas.
Andres-Kaplan Philharmonic
“Dazzling on the ivories”
Timo Andres & David Kaplan
The Andres-Kaplan Philharmonic is the four-hands duo of pianists Timo Andres and pianist David Kaplan. Described as “quietly charismatic” by The New Yorker, they have performed together since 2006, when they were students at the Yale School of Music. Since then, their numerous appearances include the National Gallery in Washington, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and in New York’s National Sawdust, Barge Music, and le Poisson Rouge. Since their debut at London’s Barbican Centre in 2014, they have been re-invited over five times as recitalists, soloists, and collaborators.
They have carved out a distinctive niche of repertoire that includes transcriptions of major orchestral works such as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, contemporary bulwarks such as Steve Reich’s Piano Phase and John Adams’ Hallelujah Junction, and a number of Andres’ own works written specially for the pair. They are praised for “dazzling on the ivories” in Shy and Mighty, the hour long two piano album released by Nonesuch Records, and they are currently developing a recording of their own unique arrangement of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for two pianos, to be released next year.
Timo and David have collaborated with Third Coast Percussion, the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolis Ensemble, and with the organist James McVinnie on a reprise of Philip Glass’s landmark Music in 12 Parts, which they were the first musicians to perform outside the Philip Glass Ensemble. In 2017, they premiered a new two-piano concerto by Timo (Steady Hand) with the Britten Sinfonia and conductor Benjamin Shwartz, as well as John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music for two pianos, winds, and voices, and in a jazz-inspired program featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs. Both David and Timo are proud to be Yamaha/Bösendorfer Artists, share a passion for cooking, and can often be found visiting the same Brooklyn tailor shops.
Gregory-Kaplan Duo
““played with heroic abandon...it couldn’t have been played more beautifully.”
”
The Gregory-Kaplan duo have performed together since 2014, including at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, and next season, at the Salle Cortot in Paris. They have performed live on WFMT Chicago as part of the Dame Myra Hess Series, and also on WQXR New York as part of Robert Sherman’s enduring Young Artists Showcase. Their recital programs creatively intertwine repertoire from the Baroque to the present day, including several pieces written especially for them: Timo Andres’ Steady Gaze, Bradley Balliett’s Noble and Desperate Marches, and a new work by Evan Premo, commissioned by Lyrica Chamber Music for the 2021-22 season.
More information about flutist Catherine Gregory can be found here.
Credit: Dario Acosta
The Kreutzer Affair:
an immersive theatrical concert program created by the Tesla Quartet with pianist David Kaplan, exploring how music was captured into words and then rebottled into music again.
In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th Anniversary, 2019-2021
PROGRAM
BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer”
JANÁČEK String Quartet No. 1 “The Kreutzer Sonata”
DVOŘÁK Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 87 TOLSTOY Excerpts from “The Kreutzer Sonata”
The program’s point of inspiration is the Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major by Ludwig van Beethoven, known simply as the “Kreutzer” Sonata. The piece is fiery and transcendent, written “in the style of a concerto,” and brought controversy almost from its inception. Originally written in 1803 for the renowned violinist George Bridgetower, Beethoven rescinded his dedication after a drunken argument and gave the honor instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer. Never mind that the great violinist despised and refused to play the piece— it would thereafter be known by his name.
Fast forward a century later, and the towering Russian writer Leo Tolstoy writes a controversial novella eponymous with the violin sonata, in which the music serves as vehicle for both its plot and its message. The emotional and physical violence of the story bristles, and the story was immediately banned when published in 1889.
Finally, we arrive at Leoš Janáček, the poignant and visionary Czech composer, whose First String Quartet recaptures Tolstoy’s searing narrative into the form of music, masterfully rendering the passion, contradiction, and tragedy of the novella.
In a continuous seventy minute performance, the Tesla Quartet and David Kaplan interweave the three movements of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata and Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1 with dramatic excerpts from Tolstoy’s novella, recited by the musicians themselves.
After intermission, the quartet and pianist join for a musical palette cleanser: Dvořák’s beloved Piano Quintet in A major, a piece that fuses German musical form with Czech spirit and language.