Tchaikovsky prizewinner to play with N.Z.S.O.

Press, 14 September 1988, Page 24

Tchaikovsky prizewinner to play with N.Z.S.O.

Christchurch celebrates the United States this month with the visit of two noted.pianists and a concert of contemporary American music.

An American concert pianist, Roman Rudnytsky, above, will perform in the Great Hall at the Arts Centre tomorrow at 8 p.m. and on Friday at 1.10 p.m.

Roman Rudnytsky is a prizewinner of 10 piano competitions, including second prizes in the International Leventritt Competition (1865) and the International J.S. Bach Competition in Washington D.C. (1960) and Laureate of both the F Busoni and A Casagrande Competitions in Italy (1967 and 1971). Born in 1942 in New York into a musical family, Rudnytsky began studying the piano at the age of four and gave his first full recital at seven. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York and the Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria. His teachers have included Rosina Lhevinne, Egon Petri, Wilhelm Kempff, Friedrich Wuhrer and Leon Fleisher. He has served on the faculties of several American universities.

Since 1972 he has been a member of the piano faculty of the Dana School of Music of Youngstown State University, Ohio.

In 1987 Rudnytsky gave concerts in Britain, Spain, Majorca, Martinique and Nassau. He also completed his fifth Australian tour, with more than 35 concerts. In 1988 he has played in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Singapore and Sabah. He previously toured New Zealand in 1983 and 1985. His concert tomorrow will include a Mozart’s “Sonata in A Minor,” Schubert’s “Impromptu in C Minor Op. 90 no. 1,” five pieces from “Annees de Pelerinage” by Liszt, and music by Chopin, Debussy, Gershwin, and Schumann. On Friday, his lunchtime recital, sponsored by Amuri Corporation, will feature Beethoven’s “Sonata in E Flat Op. 31 no. 3” and music by Ravel.

Barry Douglas, the first Westerner in 30 years to win outright the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow, will appear as soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in a concert at the Town Hall on Saturday.

Douglas will perform Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto under the principal guest conductor, Franz-Paul Decker, who is conducting his second stint with the N.Z.S.O. for 1988.

Born in Belfast in 1960, Douglas studied in Belfast, in London at the Royal College of Music with John Barstow, and more

recently with Maria Curcio in London. After winning the Moscow medal in 1986, he appeared in Amsterdam, Munich (in recital and with the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Sir Colin Davis), Frankfurt, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Vienna, Milan and Tokyo. In March he returned to the U.S.S.R. as soloist with the 8.8. C. Symphony Orchestra.

In May he gave recitals in Paris, London and Milan. He has made his Hollywood Bowl debut and is due to make a New York debut with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Saturday’s programme also includes Elgar’s popular “Enigma Variations” with its well-known themes and interesting history. The variations are musical pictures of 14 of the composer’s friends.

The opening item in the concert is Ashley Heenan’s “War and Peace.” Heenan was to have written an Overture for the concert but ill health prevented him from completing the commission. Instead the orchestra will perform his suite composed for the Bristol Old Vic Company’s 1963 production of “War and Peace.” An introduction estab-

lishes the heroic mood of the era, the opposing armies and their initial clash at Austerlitz. Then follows Pierre’s contemplation of his emotional involvement with Natasha; Napoleon’s advance to Borodino; the morning after the battle and the dying standard-bearer; the return of Marshal Dutuzov’s army to Moscow; Andrei, his developing regard for Natasha; and the seriously wounded Andrei’s reunion with Natasha. The Suite ends with allusion to the shattered and disillusioned French retreating from Russia. The concert will begin at 8 p.m.