A PIONEERING pianist is to play in Jersey next month.
Hardy Rittner, who specialises in 19th century music, is to perform an all-Chopin concert to open this year’s Moments Musicaux series.
He is described as a “pioneer” of historically-informed performance, whether played on period instruments or on the modern concert grand piano where his repertoire extends to contemporary music.
Mr Rittner is also the author of a book entitled Chopin’s Misunderstood Virtuosity.
For his Jersey concert at 7pm on 12 October at the Town Church, he will play a range of the composer’s music, including the well-known Sonata No 2 in B-flat minor which includes the celebrated funeral march as its third movement. He will also perform three Nocturnes, three Muzurkas, the C-sharp minor Polonaise and the Barcarolle in F-sharp minor.
Mr Rittner has performed in most European countries, appearing at prestigious venues including the Philharmonie Berlin – home of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf.
His concert engagements have also led him to the United States, Canada, South Korea, China and Taiwan, and currently he is professor of piano and artistic research at Musikhochschule Freiburg.
Organiser of the Moments Musicaux series Christine Jasper said they were looking forward to the first concert in a series which runs until June next year with a varied programme of recitals for solo instruments string, quartet and voice, continuing on 16 November at St Mark’s Church with tenor Laurence Kilsby and Ella O’Neill who will reprise a concert programme they perform later this month at London’s Wigmore Hall.
Ms Jasper said: “We subsidise and organise these concerts just to add to the music offering in Jersey, and it would just be wonderful, if there was a way for more people to know that they are happening,” she said.
Tickets for Hardy Rittner’s opening concert in the series are available at jerseyoperahouse.co.uk/new-show/hardy-rittner/
