Columbia Sounds: Betsy Jolas, Music for Cello and Piano

In this portrait concert, renowned new-music specialists Anssi Karttunen and Nicolas Hodges perform works of the eminent Franco-American composer Betsy Jolas, including a world première. 

Program:

Quatre pièces en marge, pour violoncelle et piano (1983) 

Toi X 3,  pour piano (2018),  création mondiale

Episode Cinquième, pour violoncelle (1983)  B for Sonate, pour piano (1973)

Mon Ami, pour piano et violoncelle (1974)

Scion, pour violoncelle (1973)

Femme le soir, Huit Lieder pour violoncelle et piano (2018), création mondiale  

Lulling Songeries

Shall we…

Eh toi, la bas…?

Qui parle

Mots de sable

Sing Maria Bonjour…  

Biographies:

Anssi Karttunen (cello) is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and his collaboration with composers has led him to give over 160 world premieres of works by composers as diverse as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun. 28 works for cello and orchestra have been written for him: Tan Dun's Cello Concerto "Yi1", Magnus Lindberg's 2 Cello Concertos, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Concerto "Mania". Martin Matalon's Cello Concerto and Luca Francesconi's Cello Concerto "Rest"or Gualtiero Dazzi's opera "Le Luthier de Venice". Kaija Saariaho's Concerto "Notes on Light" was a Boston Symphony Orchestra commission for Anssi Karttunen. The most recent Concerto written for Karttunen is by Jukka Tiensuu, whose "Oire" he premiered in Tampere Finland in November 2014. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has commissioned a Concerto from Oliver Knussen for 2018. Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works and has also discovered many forgotten masterpieces and transcribed numerous pieces for cello, or chamber ensembles. His transcriptions include Brahms's Piano Quintet for String Quintet and Händel-Variations op. 24 for String Trio, Schumann's Cello Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra and Album for the Young for String Trio. Karttunen plays in the Zebra Trio with the Austrian violinist Ernst Kovacic and Canadian viola player Steven Dann. He appears in recitals with Magnus Lindberg and Nicolas Hodges, with the violinist Jennifer Koh and with the clarinettist Chen Halevi. He plays with many of the best orchestras of the world and in recitals and chamber music at major festivals in Europe: Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Helsinki etc.  

Born in London and now based in Germany, where he is a professor at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, pianist Nicolas Hodges approaches the works of Classical, Romantic, 20th century and contemporary composers with the same questing spirit, leading the Guardian to comment that: “Hodges' recitals always boldly go where few other pianists dare ... with an energy that sometimes defies belief.” In recent seasons, Hodges has become especially closely associated with the piano concertos of Elliott Carter (in 2004), Beat Furrer and Thomas Adès, with Hodges giving the premiere of the British Composer’s In Seven Days in London in April 2008. Other recent premieres include concerti written especially for Hodges by Georges Aperghis, Gerald Barry, Harrison Birtwistle, Francisco Coll, Hugues Dufourt, Pascal Dusapin, Luca Francesconi, Beat Furrer, Isabel Mundry, Brice Pauset, Rolf Riehm, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino and Miroslav Srnka. As a recitalist, he has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall (New York), IRCAM (Paris), Wigmore Hall (London) and his festival appearances have included the BBC Proms, Berlin (Musikfest), Brussels (Ars Musica), Cologne (Acht Brücken), Hamburg (Ostertoene), Lucerne Festival, Madrid (INAEM), Melbourne International Arts Festival, New York (Mostly Mozart), Paris (Festival d’ Automne), Salzburg (Festival and Biennale), Strasbourg (Musica), Stuttgart (Eclat), Tanglewood, Tokyo, Vienna (Wien Modern) and Zurich (Tage für Neue Musik). In chamber music Nicolas collaborates regularly with the Arditti Quartet, Adrian Brendel, Colin Currie, Ilya Gringolts, Anssi Karttunen and as a member of the Trio Accanto. *** Cosponsors Fritz Center Reiner for Contemporary Music; Columbia Global Centers | Paris; Department of Music, Columbia University; Columbia University Club of France; and Columbia Undergraduate Programs in Paris