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OurConcerts.live Presents Pianist Orion Weiss in Virtual Recital Feat. Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214
OurConcerts.live Presents A Beacon Through Troubled Times,
a Virtual Recital Featuring Pianist Orion Weiss on February 27
All-Russian Program Features Works by Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev
Watch the Concert Trailer for A Beacon Through Troubled Times
"Weiss has both powerful technique and exceptional insight" – The Washington Post
New York, NY (January 31, 2022) — On Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 4:00pm ET, OurConcerts.live presents acclaimed pianist Orion Weiss in a virtual recital called A Beacon Through Troubled Times. Recorded in May 2021, the all-Russian program features Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 10 and Rachmaninoff’s 9 Etudes-Tableaux, plus a surprise Prokofiev encore. The live-streamed performance will be available to watch on OurConcert.live’s website and apps immediately following the livestream for 48 hours, expiring on March 1st at 11:59pm ET. Tickets will be available for purchase through the end of the VOD period. Watch the concert trailer for A Beacon Through Troubled Times.
“I have been practicing Rachmaninoff's ferociously difficult Nine Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39, in preparation for a recital of Russian piano music all written a little over a hundred years ago,” says Orion Weiss. “The Nine Etudes are the centerpiece of my concert, the last pieces Rachmaninoff wrote before escaping Russia in 1917. They are among his darkest works: ominous, wild, tumultuous and terrifying. In them, one can hear the violence of WWI and the October Revolution; the Bolshevik soldiers that occupied his home and their fires that engulfed his family’s estate; marching footsteps, trains, frantic sleigh rides, winter landscapes. Above all, one hears his emotional state: Rachmaninoff was always more interested in the narrative of emotions than in landscapes or dramatic action. In these tremendous pieces, written right before he fled his country and plunged forevermore into exile, his uncertainty and anxiety run like a constant thread. But even more prominently, one hears his sadness, heartbreak, courage, and resistance. The music is ultimately redeemed and exalted by the drive to persevere that enabled Rachmaninoff to escape such desperate circumstances. For me, they have been an inspiration over this last year, a beacon as I navigated through these troubling times. I believe the set of evocative etudes is essential music for all of us now, music of determination and perseverance, and with its final etude’s joyful ending, a triumphant message of hope.”
Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68, “Black Mass” (??1913) is featured on Weiss’s new album Arc I: Granados, Janácek, Scriabin, which will be released on First Hand Records on March 18, 2022. Arc I is the inaugural album of an ambitious three-part series and features important works for solo piano from the frantic years of 1911-1913 – the precipice before World War I: Granados’ Goyescas, Janácek’s In the Mists, and Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 9. Each struggle with the same impossible awareness of what was coming for the world, and in doing so, plunge further into modernity and despair. Album press copies and downloads available upon request.
Concert Information
A Beacon Through Troubled Times: An Online Recital from Pianist Orion Weiss
Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 4:00pm ET
Tickets: $15. Concert will be available to watch immediately following the livestream for 48 hours, expiring on March 1, 2022 at 11:59pm ET. Tickets will be available for purchase through the end of the VOD period.
Link: https://ourconcerts.live/
SCRIABIN: Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70R
RACHMANINOFF: 9 Etudes-Tableaux. Op. 39
PROKOFIEV: [Surprise Encore]
Orion Weiss, piano
About Orion Weiss
One of the most sought-after soloists in his generation of young American musicians, pianist Orion Weiss has performed with the major American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic. His deeply felt and exceptionally crafted performances go far beyond his technical mastery and have won him worldwide acclaim. With a warmth to his playing that reflects his personality, Orion has performed with dozens of orchestras in North America and has dazzled audiences with his passionate, lush sound.
Recent seasons have seen Weiss in performances for the Lucerne Festival, the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, the University of Iowa, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, the 92nd Street Y, and the Broad Stage, and at Aspen, Bard, and Grand Teton summer festivals. Other highlights include his third performance with the Chicago Symphony, a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the release of his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, and recordings of the complete Gershwin works for piano and orchestra with his longtime collaborators the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta.
Named the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year in September 2010, in the summer of 2011 Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.
Also known for his affinity and enthusiasm for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with the violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen, Benjamin Beilman, James Ehnes, and Arnaud Sussman; the pianist Shai Wosner; the cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the U.S. at venues and festivals including Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival, Sheldon Concert Hall, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Chamber Music Northwest, the Bard Music Festival, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, and Spivey Hall. He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005, he made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. He was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2002-2004, which included his appearance in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-2003 season at Alice Tully Hall performing Ravel’s La Valse with Shai Wosner.
Weiss’s impressive list of awards includes the Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at the Juilliard School, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Lyndhurst, OH, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Sergei Babayan, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February of 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In March 1999, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was immediately invited to return to the Orchestra for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in October 1999. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax. Learn more at www.orionweiss.com.
About OurConcerts.live
OurConcerts.live (OCL) is a leading live streaming service and platform dedicated to delivering the highest quality audio and video for virtual concerts around the world.
Founded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been honored to ensure and enable that the music never stops. In just the last year alone, we’ve streamed hundreds of events, from folk to classical to rock and beyond. OCL is dedicated to delivering the level of quality musicians demand, and are proud to have generated six-figure paydays for our many high-profile artists. Recent and upcoming concerts have included Pink Martini, Kelli O’Hara, Ben Folds, Chris Thile, and opera megastar Stephanie Blythe. Previous streams have included high profile figures including Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Andras Schiff, Claire Daines, and Billy Crystal.
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