KONSTANTIA GOURZI Anájikon

 

ANÁJIKON

William Youn SCHUMANN - SCHUBERT - LISZT

This album is a musical journey through popular romantic pieces: from Schumann's "HumoreskeOp. 20 ", a selection of Schubert's" Valses sentimentales", Liszt's "Soirées de Vienne ", works by Clara Schumann such as the" Scherzo no. 2 " to works such as" Ständchen" by Schubert / Liszt or " Ichhabe'in IhrAuge" by Clara Schumann / Liszt.

The award-winning pianist William Younhas been described by critics as a “genuine poet” with “sovereign, bravura technique of touch”. After early studies in Korea and in the USA, William again changed continents to study at the Hanover University of Music and at the Piano Academy Lake Como, where he worked regularly with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Dmitri Bashkirov, Andreas Staier, William Grant Naboréand Menahem Pressler. Based now in his adopted hometown of Munich, Germany, William performs internationally from Berlin via Seoul to New York with major orchestras, including Cleveland Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Mariinsky Theater and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

As chamber musician, William enjoys close collaborations with Nils Mönkemeyer, Sabine Meyer, Julian Steckel, CarolinWidmann, Veronika Eberle, Johannes Moser and the Signum Quartet. He also performs increasingly on fortepiano, including at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival and the Mozart Festival in Würzburg. William has recorded for Sony Korea and ArsProduktion. Other recordings include a first disc of works by Brahms with Mönkemeyer, and 'Mozart with Friends' with Sabine Meyer, Julia Fischer and Mönkemeyer, which was named Chamber Music Recording of the Year at ECHO Klassik2017.

Nils Mönkemeyer / William Youn / Signum Quartett BRAHMS

These CDs feature performances by a Grand Old Man of the viola and one of the instrument’s most celebrated present advocates. Now in his seventies, Rainer Moog can look back on a career that started with a prize at the Munich Competition and included a stint as principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, followed by several decades of unassumingly successful work as a teacher in Cologne. Nils Mönkemeyer (b.1978) enjoyed a run of competition successes before inheriting his teacher’s position at the Munich Hochschule in 2011. Both players have made a number of recordings during their respective careers but not many of Moog’s are available on CD, making this, his second recording of the Brahms sonatas, all the more welcome.

Moog’s view of these pieces is the loving result of countless performances and long reflection on the music: his pacing and phrasing feel absolutely natural, and rubato sounds inevitably right. Moog relishes the music’s broad intervals with heartfelt portamentos. Although he keeps mostly to the higher, ‘clarinet’ version of both sonatas, he does make an exception for the beginning of the F minor piece – the warmth of the C and G strings is too good to lose! Moog’s tone may not be as immediately seductive as, say, William Primrose’s

or Yuri Bashmet’s but its sinewy quality fits the music’s autumnal mood like the proverbial glove. Hashiba is a thoughtful partner throughout.

In a booklet interview, Mönkemeyer claims to play the E flat major Sonata ‘from the clarinet part’ but of course he does no such thing: some telltale double-stops and the odd changed pitch point to the usual viola part, albeit restored (mostly) to the original, higher octave. Conversely, Mönkemeyer keeps to the traditional, ‘low’ version of the F minor Sonata, which suits the piece’s tragic hue but results in anticlimactic octave drops. Mönkemeyer’s tempos are consistently on the broad side and, combined with his suavely sweet trademark tone (and a more resonant acoustic than in Moog’s more closely balanced recording), they make for a very different, to my ears more mannered experience. Youn is a stimulatingly proactive collaborator. Mönkemeyer’s coupling of the Hungarian Dances is lightweight in comparison with Moog’s, who includes Fuchs’s very Brahmsian Sonata and Kiel’s rarely recorded Romances, redolent of late Schumann. (Carlos Maráa Solare)

Nils Mönkemeyer / Julia Fischer / Sabine Meyer / William Youn MOZART WITH FRIENDS

Artistic brilliance and innovative programming are the trademarks with which Nils Mönkemeyer has rapidly made his name as one of the 'most internationally successful violists' (Harald Eggebrecht, Süddeutsche Zeitung), and dramatically raised the profile of his instrument.

Under his exclusive contract with Sony Classical, Mönkemeyer has released numerous CDs over the past years, all of which have won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. His programmes run the gamut from rediscoveries and first recordings of original 18th century viola literature, to contemporary repertoire and arrangements of his own.

Mönkemeyer has been a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2011 - the same institution at which he himself studied with Hariolf Schlichtig. Previous tenures include a two-year professorship at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden, and an assistant professorship at the Reina Sofia College of Music in Madrid.

Nils Mönkemeyer works together with conductors such as Mario Venzago, Markus Stenz, Sylvain Cambreling, Mark Minkowski, Michail Jurowski, Christopher Hogwood, Michael Sanderling, Karl-Heinz Steffens and Simone Young, performing internationally in London's Wigmore Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Brussel's Bozar, Berlin and Cologne Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Frankfurt Alte Oper, and in concert halls in Munich, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Bremen, not to mention countless festival venues. He is currently a '360º artist' at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and artist in residence of both the Echternach International Festival and the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the 2015/2016 season Mönkemeyer will perform with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Musiciens du Louvre, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Barocksolisten.
His various chamber ensembles, such as his trio with Sabine Meyer and William Youn, the Julia Fischer Quartet, his duo with William Youn and his Barroco Español project, are guests at numerous festivals this season: Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Schubertiade Hohenems, Heidelberger Frühling, Kissinger Sommer, Musikfest Stuttgart, Audi Sommerkonzerte, Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Further chamber concerts will take him to Taiwan, Korea and Benelux, and to concert halls such as the Bremen Glocke, Dusseldorf Tonhalle, Gothenburg Konserthuset, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Zurich Tonhalle and Berlin Philharmonie.