Thursday 23 February 2012
Waldstein Ensemble
Liza Ferschtman – violin
Guy Ben-Ziony – viola
Adrian Brendel – cello
Noam Greenberg - piano
Violinist Liza Ferschtman, recipient of the 2006 Dutch Music Prize, the highest government award in the Netherlands, is recognized as one of the most significant artists of her generation. Her performances are known for their passionate and at the same time intellectual qualities.
In recent seasons Liza Ferschtman has performed with all the major Dutch orchestras, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, as well as international orchestras such as Orchestre National de Belgique, La Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra, Noerkopping Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Slovenian Radio Orchestra, Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchester, Orquestra Nacional de Porto and the European Union Youth Orchestra; she has worked with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Lev Markiz, Yakov Kreizberg, Lawrence Renes, Jaap van Zweden, Frans Brüggen, Thierry Fisher, Walter Weller, Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph von Dohnányi and Shlomo Mintz.
As a daughter of Russian musicians, she started playing the violin when she was 5 years old and received her first violin lessons from Philipp Hirschhorn. Attending master classes with Yvry Gitlis, Igor Oistrach and Aaron Rosand at a very young age, her extraordinary talent was discovered immediately. Until 1998 she studied with Herman Krebbers at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, after which she also worked with Ida Kavafian at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and David Takeno in London.
An avid chamber musician her musical partners have included the likes of Elisabeth Leonskaja, Nobuko Imai, Bruno Schneider, Sharon Kam, Enrico Pace, Lars Anders Tomter, Jonathan Biss and Christian Poltera. In 2007 has been appointed artistic director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival, the most prestigious chamber music festival of Holland.
She performs regularly in Germany, the UK, Scandinavia, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Japan and at festivals such as Ravinia festival in Chicago, West Cork Festival, Kempten Festival, Risør Festival and Prussia Cove in Cornwall. After making her New York Debut in 2006 she has been performing regularly in the US in such halls as the Library of Congress, Washington DC and the Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall, New York.
Liza has been a regular guest at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam since many years, where she performed numerous concertos with orchestra and the complete cycle of the Beethoven violin sonatas with Inon Barnatan. She also had a Carte Blanche at their famed Robeco summer series.
Future engagements include performances with the Residentie Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Sonderjyllands Symfonieorchestra, the Bochum Symphoniker, the Netherland Philharmonic, a tour with the Orchestra of Padova e Veneto with Dmitri Sitkovetsky, a. tour with the Auryn Quartet, Inon Barnatan and Enrico Pace as well as stringtrio-concerts with Amihai Grosz and Alisa Weilerstein. She will appear at festivals such as her own Delft Chamber Music Festival, Brno Festival, Kempten Festival, Spring Light Festival Helsinki, Lofoten Festival, Mondsee Musiktage, Rolandseck Festival and many more.
Both her recital CD with works by Debussy, Poulenc, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky with Bas Verheijden and a disc with works by Schubert and Beethoven with Inon Barnatan were received with great critical acclaim. Her solo CD with sonatas by Bach and Ysaye was chosen CD of the month by STRAD magazine. Season 2010/2011 will see the release of a recording of violin concertos by the Dutch late romantic composer Julius Röntgen with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and David Porcelijn and the Beethoven concerto and Romances with Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and Jan Willem de Vriend.
Guy Ben-Ziony was born in 1974 in Israel. At the age of nine he started to play the violin, and at thirteen switched to the viola. In Israel he studied with Chaim Taub, and later finished his studies with Tabea Zimmermann in Frankfurt, and Tatjana Masurenko in Leipzig. Guy is Professor for Viola and Chamber Music in the Leipzig Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Musikhochschule, and is a regular guest viola principle in Camerata Salzburg under Leonidas Kavakos. Guy is regularly invited, also in this position, to orchestras including the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen under Paavo Jaervi, “Kremerata Baltica” under Gidon Kremer, and Camerata Nordica in Sweden. His chamber concert engagements have taken him to many venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London and Berlin Konzerthaus. As a soloist he has played with many Israeli and European orchestras. He made his first appearances with the Bartók concerto in Leipzig under Daniel Harding. In the 1998/1999 season he was a member of the Zapolski Quartet in Copenhagen, with whom he toured Scandinavia and Russia, and recorded for the “Chandos” and “Classico” labels. Guy has participated in some of the world’s leading chamber music festivals, among them the Lockenhaus, Davos, Dubrovnik, Ravinia, Spannungen in Heimbach, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Moritzburg, IMS Prussia Cove, and Chamber Music Connects the World in Kronberg. Guy has collaborated in concerts with many artists including Gidon Kremer, Antje Weithaas, Tabea Zimmermann, Tatjana Masurenko, Boris Pergamenschikow and Menachem Presler.
Born in London in 1976, Adrian Brendel studied at Winchester College, Cambridge University and with Frans Helmerson at the Cologne music conservatoire.
His close musical relationship with his father Alfred Brendel led to many chamber music appearances throughout the world and culminated in much heralded performances and a Philips recording of Beethoven’s complete music for cello and piano.
His piano trio with Till Fellner and Lisa Batiashvili is much in demand throughout Europe, where they will tour during 2011. He also gave the world premiere of Birtwistle’s Bögenstrich with Till Fellner and Roderick Williams at the 2009 Cheltenham Festival.
Adrian Brendel is co-founder of 'Music at Plush', a summer music festival held every year in Dorset, South-West England.
Israeli pianist Noam Greenberg studied at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and at Yale University, before moving to London to study with Maria Curcio. His life was changed by his visit to the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove in 2001, for master classes with Ferenc Rados and András Schiff. Many lessons with Ferenc Rados followed in Budapest, and regular visits to the Open Chamber Music Seminars at IMS Prussia Cove. Noam now enjoys a busy concert schedule as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in both the traditional repertoire and new music, and has appeared on many European stages including Wigmore Hall in London, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Berlin Konzerthaus and Parco della Musica Roma. An avid performer of contemporary music, he has given many Israeli premieres including Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, in a performance broadcast live by the European Broadcasting Union. He is also a founding member of the Ulysses Ensemble, dedicated to 20th century and contemporary chamber music repertoire. He has participated in the festivals of Lucerne, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Banff, Norfolk, Lapland, Orlando, Schleswig-Holstein and Stage-Barcelona. He regularly gives master classes, most recently at the Britten-Pears school at Aldeburgh, Burg Feistritz in Austria, and the Orlando Festival.