FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mallory McFarland | Morahan Arts and Media
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SHRIVER HALL CONCERT SERIES PRESENTS
PIOTR ANDERSZEWSKI

Polish Pianist Returns to Shriver Hall in
Works by Bach, Szymanowski, Webern & Beethoven on
Sunday, April 23 at 5:30pm

"Anderszewski plays with a smiling elegance and takes the audience on a vast emotional journey…miraculous in its combination of poetry and logic." —The Guardian

www.shriverconcerts.org

Baltimore, MD (March 20, 2023) — In the continuation of its 2022-23 season, Baltimore’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists, Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS), presents the Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 5:30pm at Shriver Hall. A pre-concert talk takes place with The Peabody Institute’s Anna Celenza at 4:30pm and is open to all ticket holders.

Anderszewski makes his long-awaited return to Shriver Hall after his debut in 2012 and presents audiences a stunning program of works: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Overture in the French Style in B minor, BWV 831 is a slow, majestic introduction to the suite, replete with flourishes. Karol Szymanowski’s Twenty Mazurkas, Op. 50, of which Anderszewski plays selections from, illustrates the creative renewal sparked by the composer’s discovery of folk music from Poland’s Tatra Mountains in the 1920s. Szymanowski fused traditional elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm with his own distinctive brand of modernism. Anton Webern’s Variations, Op. 27 (1936) take just about six minutes to play and have a rigorous twelve-tone structure. They possess nuances of timbre, attack, pedaling, and tempo that contribute to the music’s delicacy and subtly expressive lyricism. Finally, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, a late-period work by the composer, juxtaposes passages of great tenderness and lucidity with lacerating eruptions of raw energy and emotion. According to The Guardian, “Every time Anderszewski plays Op. 110, his performance seems even more coherent, more perfect; it’s an exceptional experience”.

Piotr Anderszewski’s 2023 tour will mark his first U.S. performances since January 2020. Regarded as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation, he is a recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Award, and appears regularly in all of the world's major concert halls, both collaborating with leading orchestras and in solo recital. His recordings have received numerous accolades such as the Choc du Monde de la Musique, two BBC Music Magazine Awards (2012), two Gramophone Awards (2015 and 2021), and Grammy nominations for his Bach Partitas 1, 3 and 6, as well as a recording with works by Karol Szymanowski.

Shriver Hall Concert Series’ 22-23 Subscription Series at Shriver Hall continues with the Tetzlaff-Tetzlaff-Dörken Trio on Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 5:30pm in their first North American tour since 2019 and Grammy-nominated quintet Imani Winds on Sunday, May 14, 2023 at 5:30pm.

Concert Information
Piotr Anderszewski, piano
Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 5:30pm
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $44 Regular Admission; $10 Students
Link: https://www.shriverconcerts.org/piotr

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Overture in the French Style in B minor, BWV 831
KAROL SZYMANOWSKI: Selections from Twenty Mazurkas, Op. 50
ANTON WEBERN: Variations, Op. 27
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110

About Shriver Hall Concert Series
For more than 50 years, Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) has been “Baltimore’s finest importer of classical music talent” (The Baltimore Sun) and the area’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists with a mission to craft performances and educational programs at the highest level of excellence. A 5-time recipient of Baltimore Magazine’s distinction “Best Classical Music” in its annual “Best of Baltimore” issue, the coveted subscription series features many of the world’s most renowned soloists and ensembles, presented in The Johns Hopkins University’s Shriver Hall.

Founded in 1966 by Dr. Ernest Bueding, a pharmacologist at The Johns Hopkins University, and a group of similarly dedicated music enthusiasts, SHCS set out to make an important contribution to the vitality of an already vibrant city. When flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal walked onto the stage of Shriver Hall for the first concert, more than 1,100 people witnessed the launch of what is now recognized as a remarkable success story: Shriver Hall Concert Series. In the succeeding years SHCS has presented hundreds of acclaimed and emerging international artists in classical chamber music and recitals and a legacy of important debuts and premieres. In addition, SHCS collaborates with local schools and subsidizes hundreds of student tickets each season.

The list of artists presented by SHCS is remarkable—Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Ewa Podlés, Maurizio Pollini, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jordi Savall, András Schiff, Rudolf Serkin, Janos Starker, Daniil Trifonov, Lynn Harrell, Emmanuel Ax, Alban Berg Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, and Quartetto Italiano, among many others. SHCS also has a history of championing important musicians early in their careers, including Richard Goode, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Dawn Upshaw, Lang Lang, and the Emerson String Quartet. Commissioned composers include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Jonathan Leshnoff, James Lee III, Hannah Lash, Caroline Shaw, and Nina C. Young.

Designed specifically for the community, SHCS offers the Discovery Series, a series of free concerts presented in venues throughout the region focused on artists emerging on the national and international scene. Artists featured include Narek Hakhnazaryan, Colin Currie, Xavier Foley, Eric Lu, and the Dover Quartet. SHCS also offers the annual Spring Lecture Series, a series of free talks focused on annual topics related to the intersection of music and society, and a variety of student programs.

For more information, visit www.shriverconcerts.org.

About Piotr Anderszewski
Piotr Anderszewski is regarded as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation and appears regularly in all of the world's major concert halls. His collaborations with orchestras have included appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the London and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, which he also conducted from the piano. Recitals have taken him to the Barbican Center in London and the Royal Festival Hall, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Carnegie Hall and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

His recordings include Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, which received the Choc du Monde de la Musique; the Grammy nominated Bach Partitas 1, 3 and 6 as well as a recording with works by his countryman Karol Szymanowski. His album with solo works by Schumann received two BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2012, including the Recording of the Year. His recording of Bach's English Suites 1, 3 and 5 received the Gramophone Award for best instrumental album in 2015. After the solo album "Fantaisies" with works by Mozart and Schumann in February 2017, the Mozart Piano Concertos No. 25 & 27 with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe was recorded in January 2018. Then in 2021, his interpretation of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 was awarded the Gramophone Classical Music Award.

Recognized for the intensity and originality of his interpretations, Piotr Anderszewski has been a recipient of several high-profile awards over the course of his career, including the prestigious Gilmore Award, which is presented every four years to a pianist of exceptional talent.

The director Bruno Monsaingeon shot two award-winning documentaries about him for ARTE. The first, from 2001, sheds light on Anderszewski's special relationship to the Diabelli Variations, while the second, Piotr Anderszewski, Traveler Without Rest (2008), is an artist portrait and reflects Anderszewski's thoughts on music, concert activities and his Polish-Hungarian roots. A third documentary by Monsaingeon, Anderszewski plays Schumann, was shot for Polish television in 2010.

In autumn 2021, Piotr Anderszewski focused on twelve Preludes and Fugues from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Volume II. Warner released a recording of these works in early 2021, and Anderszewski performed them in recital in Berlin, Munich, Milano, Tokyo and Seoul. He also performed play-direct programs with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Kioi Chamber Orchestra Tokyo and the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra in Moscow. His website is anderszewski.net.

Image at top of release by Simon Fowler

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