The “exemplary” Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Washington Post) remains one of the world’s most in demand orchestras after 50 years and countless tours and recordings.

The Academy joins forces with Israeli-born pianist Inon Barnatan Wednesday, October 27, bringing their virtuosic sound to an exquisite all Mozart program.

Barnatan is rapidly gaining international recognition for his poetic and passionate music-making, communicative performances and engaging programming.  In April 2009 he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most prestigious prizes in classical music. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to experience an extraordinary rendering of this classic repertoire.

Reviews

“The comfortingly precise and streamlined sound of the Academy — the very embodiment of the classical music establishment—sounded newly alert and alive.”
-San Francisco Chronicle

"Barnatan [is] born to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 with the elegance and intimacy that makes Mozart’s music sparkle so much.”—Houston Chronicle

"From barely audible, feathery trills to heaven-storming thunderbolts, Barnatan orchestrated every phrase with sovereign mastery. ...[this was] fine musicmaking wedded to astounding technique."—The Washington Post

“Barnatan obviously possesses tons of technique…His sensitive phrasing of the lyrical passages was always expressive...The audience cheered the performance to the rafters, complete with standing ovation.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“This was fine music making, enhanced considerably by the superb play of pianist Inon Barnatan, who put on a master class of his own on the subject of variation of touch. Deliciously delicate where appropriate, Mr. Barnatan could also drive the piece forward with insistent rhythmic clarity.”—New York Sun

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Inon Barnatan

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Sir Neville Marriner says that the small ensemble he founded in 1958 ‘had no intention of giving any concerts or continuing forever’. Happily, whatever the initial intention, 50 years on the Academy is firmly established as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras and, according to The Times journalist Richard Morrison, ‘As you travel round the globe, the Academy’s name has an aura possessed by no other British orchestra’.

Formed from a group of leading London musicians and working without a conductor, the Academy gave its first performance in its namesake church on 13th November 1959. Its debut recording just two years later, had ‘...precision, care, consummate musicianship and more sense of style than all other chamber orchestras in Europe put together’ (Denis Stevens).

Demand for the Academy, particularly in the recording studio, soon began to grow as did the size of the orchestra and the repertoire it performed. Eventually Sir Neville was forced to put down his violin and take up the conductor’s baton, but the collegiate spirit and flexibility of the original small, conductor-less ensemble remains an Academy hallmark. Today the Academy performs in combinations ranging from a chamber group to a symphony orchestra.

Known for its superlative performances and award-winning recordings the Academy maintains a busy high-profile international concert schedule and alongside its performances with Sir Neville Marriner and Kenneth Sillito collaborates with some of today’s most thrilling musicians, including Murray Perahia, Joshua Bell, Julia Fischer, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen and Anthony Marwood.

In 2009, its 50th anniversary year, the Academy toured throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. This season the Academy will tour Europe with Sir Neville Marriner, Murray Perahia and Janine Jansen; Asia and Australia with Joshua Bell; and the USA with Julian Rachlin.

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Inon Barnatan

The flourishing career of pianist Inon Barnatan takes him to some of the most important music centers and festivals around the world.  Just 30 years old, Barnatan is rapidly gaining international recognition for his poetic and passionate music-making, communicative performances and engaging programming.  In April 2009 he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most prestigious prizes in classical music. 

Barnatan has developed and curated a project of Schubert’s late solo piano and chamber music works that has been performed to great acclaim at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Festival de México and at the Library of Congress. This season the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presented the three-concert series at Alice Tully Hall with collaborating performers Nicholas Alstaedt, Jonathan Biss, Liza Ferschtman, Randall Scarlata, Orion Weiss, and the Borromeo Quartet. 

Also in 2009-2010, Barnatan makes his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, and he performs concertos by Rachmaninoff and Beethoven (Nos. 2, 3 and 5) in a variety of venues, Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata at the 92nd Street Y, and a program of Mendelssohn rarities with the Shanghai Quartet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  A tour with frequent chamber music partner Alisa Weilerstein includes a Washington Performing Arts Society concert in D.C.  Following tours in The Netherlands and Italy with Liza Ferschtman and Cora Borggraaf, Barnatan performs a solo recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in May and appears at Spoleto Festival USA in June. 

This past summer Barnatan returned to the San Francisco Symphony (playing Tchaikovsky’s first violin concerto), and he performed at the music festivals in Aspen, Vail, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, and Blossom (Rhapsody in Blue with the Cleveland Orchestra).  Recent recital highlights have included the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, the “Rising Stars” series at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and the Gilmore Festival in Michigan.
 
Barnatan made his American concerto debut in 2007 with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. As a concerto soloist he has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Porto Symphony, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of New Europe, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Haifa Symphony, Israel Chamber and Jerusalem Chamber Orchestras, with such conductors as Lawrence Foster, Philippe Entremont, Nir Kabaretti, James Gaffigan, Loras John Schissel and Kynan Johns.

Barnatan has performed at Carnegie Hall, Music@Menlo, the Delft and Verbier Festivals, as well as Salla Verdi in Milan, the Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Arts Theatre in Shanghai, and Salle Gaveau in Paris.

An enthusiastic chamber music player, Barnatan completed three seasons as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two.  He participated in the Society’s first iTunes digital download, released by Deutsche Grammophon. Other chamber music performances include the complete Beethoven piano and violin sonatas at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with violinist Liza Ferschtman, the Bergen International Festival in Norway, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the Verbier Festival and the Lyon Musicades. Barnatan has collaborated with such musicians as the Jerusalem String Quartet, Cho-Liang Lin, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Ralph Kirshbaum, Martin Fröst and Paul Neubauer.  He received the prestigious Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Prize in Rockport, awarded every two years to an exceptional chamber music pianist.

Barnatan’s debut CD of Schubert piano works was released on Bridge Records and greeted enthusiastically. London’s Evening Standard wrote: “The young, Israeli born pianist Inon Barnatan is a true poet of the keyboard: refined, searching, unfailingly communicative… This is musicianship of the highest caliber.”  Gramophone recommended the recording in its November 2006 award issue, calling Barnatan “a born Schubertian” and praising the CD’s “sensitivity, poise and focus.” His second CD of works for piano and violin by Beethoven and Schubert with violinist Liza Ferschtman has also won many accolades, and was described by All Music Guide as “a magical listening experience.” Barnatan has appeared on many radio and television stations throughout the USA, Europe, Asia and Israel.

Passionate about contemporary music, Barnatan regularly commissions and performs music by living composers. He has played works by Kaija Saariaho, George Crumb, Judith Weir, Avner Dorman, Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and others.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon Barnatan started playing the piano at the age of four. He made his orchestral debut at eleven, and studied with Professor Victor Derevianko.  In 1997 he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Maria Curcio (a student of the legendary Arthur Schnabel) and Christopher Elton, and he has coached extensively with Leon Fleisher. In 2006 Barnatan moved to New York City, where he resides today.

 

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Slideshow

For more information please visit:

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Offical web site

Inon Barnatan Offical web site