12.30 lunchtime, Thursday 23rd June 2016
Piano 4 Hands / Piano Duo Lena Napradean and Nathan Ben-Yehuda artistes appear courtesy of the Royal Academy of Music Venue: Leatherhead Methodist Church |
Sponsor: 2016 Season Sponsor: Patricia Morgan Optician Supported by: Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society 
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Programme
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sixteen Waltzes for Piano Four Hands, Op 39 (1865) Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) from Ze Šumavy (From the Bohemian Forest) Op 68 (1883) V Silent Woods / Klid VI In Troubled Times / Z bouřlivých dob from Slavonic Dances Op 72 no 4, in Db major, Dumka, (A thoughtful or melancholic ballad) Op 46 no 4 in F major, Sousedská, (Swaying dance in three-four time) Op 46 no 8 in G minor, Furiant, (A rapid, fiery Bohemian dance) |
Free Concert, with a retiring collection to cover costs. Tea and coffee will be available after the concert.
Lena Napradean
Romanian pianist Lena Napradean boasts a strong personality, ready to tackle the difficult and the unknown. She has a love for contrasts, making sure that each performance leaves the audience with a wildly coloured experience.
From a young age, Lena has extensively performed throughout Romania, including the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and broadcasts by the National Romanian Radio House.
In 2010 Lena was selected on the young soloist programme of Académies Internationales d’Été de Grand Nancy giving her the opportunity to perform throughout France. Big part of her work is now focused on collaborative projects. Since 2014, she is part of the Vela Ensemble (piano, oboe and bassoon) an ensemble focused on exploring the world of transcriptions and the less heard music of the 20th Century. In 2015 she formed a piano duo with Nathan Ben-Yehuda, extending repertoire from orchestral scores to contemporary four-hands and two-piano music.
Her love for the unusual has pushed her to work with contemporary composers such as Stephen Montague, Eric Tanguy, Dan Dediu, Jules Matton, as well as the RAM Composition Department.
Born in 1993, Lena took her first piano lesson at the age of four. In 2000 she became a student of the George Enescu Music College in Bucharest where she studied with Prof Traiana Sabin until 2012. Since then she has been a student of Prof Pascal Nemirovski at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where her studies have been kindly supported by the Liversidge Award (2012), Leverhulme Trust Award (2013) and Ruth Clark Scholarship (2014, 2015).
Lena has taken part in masterclasses with Pierre Laurent-Aimard, Frank van de Laar, Marciej Pikulski, Pascal Devoyon, Yevgeny Sudbin, Kathryn Stott, Choong Mo Kang, and Pavel Gililov, and won the Grand Prix at Valsesia Musica Juniores International Competition (Italy), 1st prize at Jeunesses Musicales International Competition, Mozart International Competition, and National Piano Olympiad (Romania).
From a young age, Lena has extensively performed throughout Romania, including the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest and broadcasts by the National Romanian Radio House.
In 2010 Lena was selected on the young soloist programme of Académies Internationales d’Été de Grand Nancy giving her the opportunity to perform throughout France. Big part of her work is now focused on collaborative projects. Since 2014, she is part of the Vela Ensemble (piano, oboe and bassoon) an ensemble focused on exploring the world of transcriptions and the less heard music of the 20th Century. In 2015 she formed a piano duo with Nathan Ben-Yehuda, extending repertoire from orchestral scores to contemporary four-hands and two-piano music.
Her love for the unusual has pushed her to work with contemporary composers such as Stephen Montague, Eric Tanguy, Dan Dediu, Jules Matton, as well as the RAM Composition Department.
Born in 1993, Lena took her first piano lesson at the age of four. In 2000 she became a student of the George Enescu Music College in Bucharest where she studied with Prof Traiana Sabin until 2012. Since then she has been a student of Prof Pascal Nemirovski at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where her studies have been kindly supported by the Liversidge Award (2012), Leverhulme Trust Award (2013) and Ruth Clark Scholarship (2014, 2015).
Lena has taken part in masterclasses with Pierre Laurent-Aimard, Frank van de Laar, Marciej Pikulski, Pascal Devoyon, Yevgeny Sudbin, Kathryn Stott, Choong Mo Kang, and Pavel Gililov, and won the Grand Prix at Valsesia Musica Juniores International Competition (Italy), 1st prize at Jeunesses Musicales International Competition, Mozart International Competition, and National Piano Olympiad (Romania).
Nathan Ben-Yehuda
Nathan Ben-Yehuda has been recognized as an emerging artiste of impassioned energy, musical integrity, and pianistic refinement. His performances have been praised by music critics for their “elegance and drama”, capable of “generating sonorities of awesome power… sensitivity and daring quietude.”
Born in Los Angeles and studying piano since he was four years old, Nathan has performed in venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall's Rotunda in New York, Disney Hall in Los Angeles and in summer festivals, such as the Banff Centre, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Institute, Istituto Musica e Arte festival in Italy and the Burgos International Music Festival in Spain. He has been a California State Champion of the CAPMT Bartok and Contemporary Music Festival, First Prize winner of the MTAC Alice Frazier Kitchen Memorial Scholarship Competition, and the MTAC Artist of the Future Concerto Competition. In 2011, Nathan was awarded the Bronze Medal at the Seattle International Piano Competition. Most recently, he was awarded First Place and the Christian Carpenter Prize in the Royal Academy of Music Recital Prizes, for the best performance of a piano recital and best performance of the compulsory work for the competition.
Nathan’s recent ensemble activity includes appearances with the Nash Ensemble at Duke’s Hall, and Manson Ensemble performances conducted by Oliver Knussen. In 2015, he played with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in the world premiere of Mannequin by Unsuk Chin at Royal Festival Hall. Nathan has been exploring a diverse range of piano duo and two piano repertoire with Lena Napradean since 2015, including the complete duet works of György Ligeti, and the first ever two piano interpretation of a graphic score by Stephen Montague, among many other works.
Nathan has performed in numerous master classes with such artists as Thomas Adés, Imogen Cooper, Steven Hough, Ursula Oppens, Simone Dinnerstein, Ronan O’Hora, Yevgeny Sudbin, and Jeffrey Kahane. Nathan is currently a BMus student in piano performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Professor Hamish Milne. He will soon begin his Master’s degree studies at The Juilliard School, under Jerome Lowenthal.
Born in Los Angeles and studying piano since he was four years old, Nathan has performed in venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall's Rotunda in New York, Disney Hall in Los Angeles and in summer festivals, such as the Banff Centre, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Institute, Istituto Musica e Arte festival in Italy and the Burgos International Music Festival in Spain. He has been a California State Champion of the CAPMT Bartok and Contemporary Music Festival, First Prize winner of the MTAC Alice Frazier Kitchen Memorial Scholarship Competition, and the MTAC Artist of the Future Concerto Competition. In 2011, Nathan was awarded the Bronze Medal at the Seattle International Piano Competition. Most recently, he was awarded First Place and the Christian Carpenter Prize in the Royal Academy of Music Recital Prizes, for the best performance of a piano recital and best performance of the compulsory work for the competition.
Nathan’s recent ensemble activity includes appearances with the Nash Ensemble at Duke’s Hall, and Manson Ensemble performances conducted by Oliver Knussen. In 2015, he played with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in the world premiere of Mannequin by Unsuk Chin at Royal Festival Hall. Nathan has been exploring a diverse range of piano duo and two piano repertoire with Lena Napradean since 2015, including the complete duet works of György Ligeti, and the first ever two piano interpretation of a graphic score by Stephen Montague, among many other works.
Nathan has performed in numerous master classes with such artists as Thomas Adés, Imogen Cooper, Steven Hough, Ursula Oppens, Simone Dinnerstein, Ronan O’Hora, Yevgeny Sudbin, and Jeffrey Kahane. Nathan is currently a BMus student in piano performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Professor Hamish Milne. He will soon begin his Master’s degree studies at The Juilliard School, under Jerome Lowenthal.
Concert at Home
If you cannot be with us at the lunchtime concert
you can enjoy a similar Concert at Home by clicking through the buttons below:
you can enjoy a similar Concert at Home by clicking through the buttons below:
Comments online praise this recording of Brahms' Sixteen Waltzes, Opus 39.
The musicians are Lilya Zilberstein and Pablo Galdo.
The musicians are Lilya Zilberstein and Pablo Galdo.
From Dvorák's From the Bohemian Forest, Opus 68, we shall hear the final two pieces.
Firstly, here is No 5, Silent Woods, played by piano duo Gerwig & Gonzalez
(Christine Gerwig and Efraín González)
Firstly, here is No 5, Silent Woods, played by piano duo Gerwig & Gonzalez
(Christine Gerwig and Efraín González)
If the recording above doesn't take you straight into No 6, In Troubled Times, here is a direct link:
Dvorák wrote two sets of Slavonic Dances, Opus 46 in 1878, and Opus 72 in 1886.
The tunes are his own, in the rhythmic style style of Slavonic dance.
Here in a live performance from the Church of St Simon & St Jude, Prague, are Lukáš and Ivan Klánský with the melancholy ballad - Dumka - No 4 in the Op 72 set:
The tunes are his own, in the rhythmic style style of Slavonic dance.
Here in a live performance from the Church of St Simon & St Jude, Prague, are Lukáš and Ivan Klánský with the melancholy ballad - Dumka - No 4 in the Op 72 set:
This performance of the swaying dance or sousedská, No 4 from the Op 46 set, comes from Chris Breemer, a site administrator of pianosociety.com, and Franz-Josef Streuff, who sadly died in 2011.
They are performing on Breemer's French Gaveau grand piano.
They are performing on Breemer's French Gaveau grand piano.
We've heard one family performance, so let's have another one.
Here are brothers Benjamin and Christopher Yeh, with our final piece today,
the Furiant, a rapid, fiery Bohemian dance, No 8 from the Opus 46 set of Slavonic Dances:
Here are brothers Benjamin and Christopher Yeh, with our final piece today,
the Furiant, a rapid, fiery Bohemian dance, No 8 from the Opus 46 set of Slavonic Dances:
Below is an audio recording of the full set of Slavonic Dances, by the
Duo Crommelynck (Patrick Crommelynck and his wife Taeko Kuwata).
Why not leave it playing for an hour while you work ?
Duo Crommelynck (Patrick Crommelynck and his wife Taeko Kuwata).
Why not leave it playing for an hour while you work ?
We hope you have enjoyed your Concert at Home.
