Two generations of award-winning classical
virtuosity. This concert features works
by Rachmaninoff and the world’s premiere
of a new four hands transcription of Capriccio
on Gypsy Themes, op.12, E Major.
Program
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Variations on a Theme of Corelly, dminor,
op.42
Performed by Dmitri Ratser
Sonata #2, b flat minor, op.36
Allegro agitato
Allegro molto
Performed by Anita Ratser
~ Intermission ~
Capriccio on Gypsy Themes, op.12,
E Major
(Author's transcription for four hands)
World premiere Perfomed by Anita and Dmitri
Ratser
Suite #1 ("Phantasie") for
two pianos,op.5,g minor
"Barcarola"
"Night and love"
"Tears"
"Sacret Solemnity"
Dmitri Ratser, piano
Dmitri Ratser attained status in the pantheon
of Russian musicians by being added to the
roster entitled “Soloists of the Moscow
Philharmonic” in 1990. A First Prize
winner in competitions, as late as 1986
– Budapest’s Liszt International
Jubilee Competition, he also distinguished
himself with top prize in Moscow’s
All-Union Rachmaninoff Competition in 1983.
One of the few internationally acclaimed
pianists who include the complete works
for piano and orchestra of Sergei Rachmaninoff
in their regularly performed repertoire,
he is so highly regarded an interpreter
of Rachmaninoff that he performed at ceremonies
opening the composer’s birthplace
home as a museum in the village of Ivanovka
near the town of Tambov in Russia.
Born in Moscow, in 1953, Dmitri Ratser
comes from a family of professional musicians.
Adjudged at an early age to be possessed
of an unusually fine talent, the young artist
became one of the select few to study at
the Moscow conservatory under its famed
pianistic pedagogue Flier. Dmitri Ratser
began playing outside the former U.S.S.R.
only as recently as 1989 when he appeared
in Vienna for the first time. He toured
annually throughout the myriad countries
that comprised the U.S.S.R. and the Eastern
Bloc of European nations during the 1980’s.
Discovered by American impresario and artists’
manager Maxi, Gershunoff while on a trip
to Moscow in 1989, Mr. Ratser was appearing
on “World Radio-Moscow” in a
“Live” broadcast which Mr. Gershunoff
thought was a recording of Vladimir Horowitz.
When the performer and the circumstance
were announced, the American manager proceeded
to contract the artist and auditioned him,
to reassure himself that the artist he heard
on the radio and Dmitri Ratser were one
and the same. When this proved true, arrangements
were immediately begun for the 1990/1991
concert season which marked Dmitri Ratser’s
introduction to the American concert-going
public in East and West Coast recitals.
He returned to the U.S.A in the Winter and
spring of the 1991/1992 concert season,
making his North American orchestral debut
with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. He was
invited to return to Austin each subsequent
season since his debut. In the 1993/1994
concert season his tour consisted of some
forty concerts, including a performance
at Carnegie Hall and with the National Symphony
Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich at
the Kennedy Center.
e has been heard in repeated appearances,
by popular demand, on such prestigious recital
series as that at the Ambassador Auditorium
in Pasadena, California where he joined
the only other stellar pianists being reinvited
in consecutive seasons: Andre Watts and
Ivo Pogorelich. In fact, Dmitri Ratser has
been consistently re-engaged to perform
in consecutive seasons in over three-quarters
of the Venues in which he has appeared in
the United States. The reasoning for this
popularity can perhaps be found in the words
of the Los Angeles Times: “Ratser’s
performance took one’s breath away
with its mesmerizing single-mindedness,
it inexorable force, it stunning virtuosity.”
Anita Ratser, piano
Born to a family of professional pianists,
piano winner, Anita Ratser, age 16, showed
her talent for music at a very early age.
By age eight, she had made her concert debut
with with Moscow Radio Orchestra performing
the f minor Piano Concerto by Bach. A frequent
performer at the best-known concert halls
in Moscow, Ratser’s performance of
Grieg’s Piano Concerto in a minor
earned her first prize in the 2003 Lennox
Competition, She has won national and international
competitions including te First Television
Competition of Young Talents, the Rachmaninoff
125th Anniversary International Competition,
and the 45th Cincinnati International Piano
Competition. Currently a student at the
Central Music School of Moscow Conservatoire,
Ratser often appears in duo piano recitals
with her father, concert pianist, Dimitri
Ratser.
|
2002-2003 Events
