Park ICM Concerts at the 1900 Building
Plamena Mangova, Piano
Sunday, March 11, 4:00 p.m
1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods, Kansas 66205
Called the “Brilliant Bulgarian,” Pianist Plamena Mangova will create a rare opportunity for classical music lovers in Kansas City on Sunday, March 11th, at the 1900 Building. Mangova, whose “flying fingers and unpretentious display of power (have) thrilled and astounded her audiences with virtuosic extremes time and again,” will be offering a fabulous first act of Beethoven, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Chopin, and Ginastera.
The second half of the evening will feature a rarely performed transcription of the Fifteenth Symphony of Dimitri Shostakovich. This Kansas City Premiere will feature Mangova accompanied by Noah Geller (Kansas City Symphony Concertmaster), Timotheos Petrin (a Curtis-Graduate award winning cellist), spectacular arx duo, and percussionist virtuoso Jonny Allen.
The arranger, the well-known Russian pianist Victor Derevianko, recalls the creation of this arrangement:
“I first became acquainted with the Fifteenth Symphony a couple of months before its premiere. In Soviet Russia all composers, including the world-famous Shostakovich and Prokofiev, were obliged to present their new compositions to the Union of Composers, where their colleagues and the musical ideologues had to approve and authorize public performance. My colleague, the pianist Mikhail Muntian, and I were invited to perform the symphony in a transcription by the composer for two pianos before this exalted gathering. The symphony was approved, and in January 1972 it was given its premiere. After getting to know the music so spontaneously, and then hearing it in concert, a strange idea came to me – to transcribe the symphony for a chamber ensemble consisting of a trio with piano, percussion and celesta… to my surprise and happiness, Shostakovich approved wholeheartedly of the transcription.”
Symphony No. 15 in A-major, Op. 141, by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and arranged by Victor Derevianko for violin, cello, piano, and 13 percussion instruments. Tickets $20, Students $10 with ID.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
10 Variations on the theme “La stessa, la stessissima” from the opera Falstaff by Antonio Salieri, WoO 73
Franz Liszt
Sonetto di Petrarca N.104 S.270
Sergei Rachmaninov
Etude-Tableaux op.33 N.9 in C-Sharp Minor
Frederic Chopin
Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor Op. posth
Alberto Ginastera
Three Argentinian Dances Op.2
1- Danza del viejo boyero
2- Danza de la moza donosa
3- Danza del gaucho matrero
***Intermission***
Dmitri Schostakovich
Symphony N.15 in A Major Op.141 (arr. Victor Derevianko) for Violin, Cello, Piano, Percussion and Celesta
Allegretto
Adagio — Largo — Adagio — Largo
Allegretto
Adagio — Allegretto — Adagio — Allegretto
Noah Geller – Violin
Timotheos Petrin – Cello
arx duo, Jonny Allen – Percussion
Noah Geller, Violin
Timotheos Petrin, Cello
The arx duo
Jonny Allen, Percussion
Biographies
Plamena Mangova won the second prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007 and embarked on an international career. She made her studies with Marina Kapatsinskaya at the Pancho Vladigerov Sofia State Music Academy in Bulgaria, and then at the Queen Sofia Higher Music School, Madrid with the eminent teacher Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez Mehner. She also worked with Abdel-Rahman El Bacha at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium and received the advice of renowned musicians such as Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck, Krystian Zimerman and Andras Schiff. She is a Laureate of various prestigious international piano and chamber music competitions, including “Paloma O’Shea” in Santander and “Vittorio Gui” in Florence, as well as the Juventus Festival in France.
Plamena performs with leading orchestras, such as the philharmonic orchestras of Rotterdam, Radio France, Luxembourg, Tokyo, National Orchestra of Belgium, European Union Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, RAI Torino Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, MDR Orchester Leipzig, RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Verbier Festival Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Tatarstan, St. Petersburg, Trondheim, Taipei, New Zealand, Bulgarian Radio Orchestra…
Conductor collaborations include Sir Colin Davis, Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Andrew Davis, Emmanuel Krivine, Walter Weller, Maxim Vengerov, Emil Tabakov, Tadaaki Otaka, Jaap van Zweden, Dmitri Jurowski, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Karl Heinz Steffens, Gilbert Varga, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Alexander Sladkovsky, Cristian Mandeal, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Howard Griffiths, Pinchas Steinberg and François-Xavier Roth.
A keen chamber music player, she has performed with Maria Joao Pires, Boris Berezovsky, Augustin Dumay, Kolja Blacher, Sergej Krylov, Mihaela Martin, Jian Wang, Pascal Moragues, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Alexander Kniazev, Frans Helmerson, Mihaela Martin and the Ysaye String Quartet among others.
Plamena performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, BOZAR Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Munich Herkulesaal, Bonn Beethovenhaus, Philharmonic Halls of Vilnius and Riga, South Bank Center London, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Moscow Conservatory concert hall, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Arsenal de Metz, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, and at major festivals such as Progetto Martha Argerich Lugano, Verbier Academy, La Folle Journée Nantes and Tokyo, La Roque d’Anthéron, Rostropovich Festival in Moscow and Baku, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Santander, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Montpellier Radio France Festival, Festival de Menton, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Bach Akademie Stuttgart.
Her first solo CD recording (Shostakovich) was awarded a “Diapason d’Or of the year 2007”. A chamber music disc by the same composer followed with soprano Tatiana Melnychenko, violinist Natalia Prischepenko and cellist Sebastian Klinger which was awarded the Superfonic Prize in Pizzicato magazine. Her Beethoven disc (sponsored by the Belgian Bank Fortis), was highly praised by France Musique and Diapason, as were her exceptional recordings of Strauss’ Burleske (2008) and Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 (2010) with the Belgium National Orchestra and Walter Weller (Fuga Libera label). The latter was highly praised by Bryce Morrison in Gramophone magazine. The last CD, highly praised too, was recorded with the cellist Alexander Kniazev and dedicated to Franck and Ysaÿ.
Recent and future highlights performances of 2017-18 season include: her debut with the Staatskapelle Berlin Orchestra (in the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin); a performance with the Hamburger Symphoniker at the Elbphilharmony in Hamburg; concerts with the National Polish Orchestra, the Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Latvian National Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic and Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra; in collaboration with the conductors Lawrence Foster, Gilbert Varga, Howard Griffith, Pablo Heras-Casado, Jun Markl, Yaron Traub, Andris Poga, and Mark Kadin. She will also perform in recital at the Maison de la Radio in Paris and will participate at several festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Folle Journée in Nantes, the Dubrovnik Festival and the Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem. Moreover, she is invited to give a masterclass at the Park University, Kansas City – USA.
Noah Geller, Violin
Violinist Noah Geller has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad. At the invitation of Music Director Michael Stern, Geller became the Kansas City Symphony concertmaster in 2012. He has since appeared frequently as soloist with the Symphony. He made his solo recording debut on the Kansas City Symphony’s most recent release with Reference Recordings featuring music by Saint-Säens. In addition to his activities at the Symphony, Geller is an enthusiastic music educator. Upon his arrival in Kansas City, he was appointed to the position of adjunct associate professor of violin at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance.
Geller began his professional career in the first violin section of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2007 while still pursuing his master’s degree. He served as acting assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Geller also has performed as guest concertmaster with the Symphony Orchestras of Pittsburgh, Houston, and Beijing (China National Symphony). In addition to his large scale orchestral activities, Geller appears regularly with the dynamic and spirited conductor-less group, East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO).
An active chamber musician, Geller has performed at the Marlboro, Kingston, Saratoga, Heartland and Skaneateles festivals, and he has appeared on the Lyon and Healy (Chicago), Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Lyric Chamber Music Society (New York) series, among others. He is an original member of Shir Ami, an ensemble dedicated to the music of composers whose lives were adversely affected by the Holocaust. Geller has organized and presented concerts by Shir Ami for the Kansas City community, garnering remarkable support and enthusiasm.
Geller grew up in the Chicago area, studying privately with Jennifer Cappelli. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with Hyo Kang, Donald Weilerstein and Cho-Liang Lin. Geller currently lives in Kansas City with his wife, percussionist Mari Yoshinaga, and their dog, Monkey. He performs on a violin made by Andreas Postacchini c. 1840.