Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series | Robert Levin, pianos & Charles Neidich, clarinet
$25 ($12.50 member)
- Charles Neidich, clarinets
- Robert Levin, modern piano & Conrad Graf Fortepiano
Edison Denisov — Paysage au clair de lune ("Landscape by the Light of the Moon") (U.S. premiere)
Robert Schumann — Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121 (transc. Charles Neidich)
György Kurtág — Jelek, játékok, és üzenetek ("Signs, Games, and Messages") ("Capriccio" & "Words Have Become Unfaithful to Me" for solo bass clarinet)
Ilse Fromm-Michaels — Stimmungen Eines Fauns, Op. 11
Charles Neidich — Lament for basset clarinet in A and piano (world premiere)
Johannes Brahms — Clarinet Sonata No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 120, No. 2
The distinguished clarinetist Charles Neidich will be performing live with noted pianist Robert Levin at Morse Recital Hall at The Juilliard School on Wednesday evening, January 31, 2024, 7:30pm as part of theschool's Daniel Saidenberg Faculty Recital Series. Highlights of the program will include the world premiere of Mr. Neidich’s own composition Lament for basset clarinet in A and piano; and a U.S. premiere of Landscape by the Light of the Moon by Russian composer Edison Denisov.
Mr. Neidich performs on a Grenser B-flat clarinet, a modern B-flat clarinet, a basset A clarinet, and a bass clarinet. Mr. Levin will perform on a Conrad Graf Fortepiano and a modern piano.
About Charles Neidich, clarinets
Clarinetist and conductor Charles Neidich has gained worldwide recognition as one of the most mesmerizing virtuosos on his instrument. With a tone of hypnotic beauty and a dazzling technique, Mr. Neidich has received unanimous accolades from critics and fellow musicians both in the United States and abroad; but it is his musical intelligence in scores as diverse as Mozart and Elliott Carter that has earned for Mr. Neidich a unique place among clarinetists. In the words of The New Yorker, "He's an artist of uncommon merit — a master of his instrument and, beyond that, an interpreter who keeps listeners hanging on each phrase."
In their most recent collaboration on the WA Concert Series, Mr. Neidich and Mr. Shams performed Alban Berg's Vier Stücke, Op. 5 for clarinet and piano at the Tenri Cultural Center in fall of 2019. Rorianne Schrade of the New York Concert Review wrote: "The duo captured these remarkable miniatures with vivid expressiveness and cohesion. Mr. Neidich, as ever, was one with the music in ways that impress it indelibly upon 'the mind’s ear.'" (October 28, 2019)
An ardent exponent of new music and a composer himself, he has expanded the technical and expressive possibilities of the clarinet and has championed the works of many of the world's most important composers. He is a leading performer on period instruments and has restored and reconstructed original versions of works of composers from Mozart to Copland.
With a growing discography to his credit, Mr. Neidich can be heard on the Chandos, Sony Classical, Sony Vivarte, Deutsche Grammophon, Musicmasters, Pantheon, and Bridge labels, and most recently in the Mozart Basset clarinet Concerto on historical instruments for Bremen Radio Hall Recordings. He is publishing editions of major clarinet and wind chamber music for Lauren Keiser Music and Southern Music, has made instructional videos for Play with a Pro, and together with Ayako Oshima publishes a monthly column in the Japanese magazine, Pipers.
Under Mr. Neidich's direction, along with his wife, fellow clarinetist Ayako Oshima, the popular Wa Concert Series, held at Tenri Cultural Institute, brings lesser-known composers and works to the attention of the international music community, synthesizing Mr. Neidich's lifetime of musical knowledge, exploration, and thoughtful reflection. In recent seasons, Mr. Neidich has added conducting to his musical accomplishments. He has guest conducted throughout the country and continues to serve as conductor of the Queens College Chamber Orchestra with whom he has performed the works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in historically informed interpretations.
In wide demand as a soloist, Mr. Neidich has collaborated with several of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Halle Staatsorchester, Orpheus, the St. Louis Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, San Diego Symphony, New City Chamber Orchestra of San Francisco, the Yomiuri and Tokyo Philharmonic, Hyogo PAC Orchestra, Tafelmusik, the Juilliard, Guarneri, American, Mendelssohn, and Parker Quartets.
A native New Yorker of Belorussian and Greek descent, Charles Neidich studied with the famed pedagogue Leon Russianoff. He received a BA, cum laude, in anthropology from Yale University. In 1975 he was granted a Fulbright grant for study in the former Soviet Union, and he attended the Moscow Conservatory for three years studying with Boris Dikov and Kirill Vinogradov.
In 1985, Mr. Neidich became the first clarinetist to win the Walter W. Naumburg Competition, which brought him to prominence as a soloist. He then taught at the Eastman School of Music, and during that tenure, joined the renowned New York Woodwind Quintet, an ensemble with which he still performs. His European honors include top prizes at the 1982 Munich International ARD Competition, the Geneva, and the Paris Accanthes International Competitions. Mr. Neidich has achieved recognition as a teacher in addition to his activities as a performer, and is currently a member of the artist faculties of CUNY Graduate School, The Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Mannes College of Music. He held the post of Associate Professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College for many years. In 2004, he was awarded the William Schuman Award for performance and scholarship at The Juilliard School. The Kitakaruizawa Music Seminar, now in its 13th season, was co-founded by Mr. Neidich and Ms. Oshima. In 2018 he was awarded a lifetime membership in honor of his artistic achievements by the International Clarinet Society and a medal for lifetime achievement from the National Society of Arts and Letters.
https://www.charlesneidich.net/About Robert Levin, modern piano & Conrad Graf Fortepiano
Pianist and Conductor Robert Levin has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. His solo engagements include the orchestras of Atlanta, Berlin, Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, Utah, and Vienna on the Steinway with such conductors as Semyon Bychkov, James Conlon, Bernard Haitink, Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. On period pianos, he has appeared with the Academy of Ancient Music, English Baroque Soloists, Handel & Haydn Society, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique – with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Nicholas McGegan, and Sir Roger Norrington.
https://www.rayfieldallied.com/artists/robert-levin