Skip to page content
  • WDCH
  • Pianist Eduardo Delgado Makes His Walt Disney Concert Hall Debut in La Phil Chamber Music Society Series Performance Featuring Members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
  • Apr. 28, 2009
  • All-Russian Program Features Works by Prokofiev, Arensky, and Stravinsky

    TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2009, AT 8 PM

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2008/09 Chamber Music Society series continues with a performance on Tuesday, April 28 that features Argentinian pianist Eduardo Delgado in his Walt Disney Concert Hall debut. Delgado will perform, with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Arensky’s Piano Trio No. 1. Members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic also perform Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 2, Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat trio and Stravinsky’s Octet.

    Prokofiev, along with other Soviet artists, was evacuated when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. During his stay in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Prokofiev wrote his String Quartet, inspired by the Kabardinian music uncovered upon his arrival.

    Arensky was a notable teacher whose pupils included Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Glière. Prior to taking up his teaching position, he studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov. However, Arensky’s major influence – notably in his Piano Trio No. 1 – is Tchaikovsky. The Piano Trio is in four movements, lushly lyrical and poignant in the main, the first movement built on three themes – darkly dramatic, broadly lyrical, and tempestuous.

    In 1918, with the first World War raging, Stravinsky and his friend, the novelist C.F. Ramuz, were safely living in Switzerland. With the Diaghilev company stranded and broke in Lisbon, performances of the ballets which had provided the principal source of royalties were non-existent, so the two conjured up a portable musical work, one that could be performed in virtually any space, in or out of doors, requiring only a handful of instrumentalists and actors. Histoire du soldat began its life with a text, one based on the tale of a naïve soldier outwitted by the Devil. It was bankrolled by the Swiss financier and amateur clarinetist Werner Reinhart, and in appreciation of his generosity Stravinsky created for him his Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo as well as the present Histoire suite.

    Stravinsky’s Octet was written in 1922 (a decade after The Rite of Spring), a time in which the composer was beginning to employ a more formal and structured method in his compositions. Composer Aaron Copland noted, “Here was Stravinsky, who had created a neo-primitive style all his own, based on native Russian sources... now suddenly...presenting a piece to the public that bore no conceivable resemblance to the individual style with which he had hitherto been identified. Everyone was asking why Stravinsky should have exchanged his Russian heritage for what looked very much like a mess of 18th-century mannerisms. [It] seemed like a bad joke that left an unpleasant after-effect and gained [him] the unanimous disapproval of the press. No one could have foreseen, first, that Stravinsky was to persist in this new manner of his, or second, that the Octet was destined to influence composers all over the world by bringing the latest objectivity of modern music to full consciousness by frankly adopting the ideals, forms, and textures of the pre-Romantic era. Thus was neo-classicism born.” (Although Stravinsky detested that term.) In rehearsing for the Octet’s premiere, the players were confounded by the work’s rhythmic complexities: enter the composer himself at the 11th hour, to make his debut as a conductor.

    The LA PHIL's 2008/09 Chamber Music Society season concludes on May 26 with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and pianist Christoph Eschenbach.

    International audiences and critics alike have consistently recognized the fiery intensity that EDUARDO DELGADO projects from the stage. “Virtuosity, clean sound, and passion. The best” (La Capital). This is the latest international acclaim for Delgado from a November performance both as a soloist and with Martha Argerich at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Together they played what critics hailed as an “unforgettable” version for two pianos of Tres Romances by Carlos Guastavino. His repertoire from Bach to modern composers shows that music affects Delgado deeply, emotion that he shares freely with every audience. “Music has been my life and my passion since my first recital when I was 7,” Delgado says. Delgado’s appearances have spread across four continents – Europe, South America, Asia, and North America. Following an appearance in Tokyo in the Pablo Casals Hall, critics hailed a “marvelous performance, deeply emotional as well as lyrical” (Musica Nova). Norwegian critics described Delgado as “a pianist of a thousand nuances, a fantastic experience.” In Russia, “Delgado’s Bach had brilliance, a profound meditation and a musical tone rarely heard” (Sovietskaya Kultura). Born in Rosario, Argentina, Eduardo Delgado began his early training with his mother, Amelia, followed by studies with Arminda Canteros in Rosario, and then continued with Sergio Lorenzi in Venice, Vicente Scaramuzza in Buenos Aires, Dora Zaslavsky of the Manhattan School of Music, and Rosina Lhevinne of the Juilliard School. His many awards and prizes include the Vladimir Horowitz Award, and grants from the Mozarteum Argentino, Martha Baird Rockefeller, and the Concert Artists Guild. Delgado has participated on such international competition juries as the William Kapell, the Gina Bachauer, and the Vega in Japan. In 2003, he served as a juror in the 2nd Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires. He has been on artist faculties of several universities in Japan as well as in California, and is in demand for piano master classes and workshops, such as his master class series in Osaka in 2004. He is on the faculty at California State University, Fullerton, where he has established a scholarship fund for talented pianists as a tribute to the renowned pianist Alicia de Larrocha. To help endow the scholarship, in 1998 he performed an inaugural recital with Madame de Larrocha at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA. Delgado is also the pianist of the Premiere Trio of Cal State Fullerton. Delgado has recorded with tenor José Cura for Erato Records and also the complete solo piano music of Alberto Ginastera in two volumes for MA Records in Tokyo. He recently recorded a CD in Buenos Aires of romantic works of Schumann, Chopin, and Mendelssohn. Martha Argerich presented Delgado at the 1997 Verbier Festival in Switzerland, at her festival in Lugano in 2002, and at the Argerich Festival in Buenos Aires in 2001 and 2003. Delgado spent the summer 2004 giving concerts and recitals across Argentina. In 1999 Delgado was awarded a medal by UNESCO of Buenos Aires, and also by the Mayor of Rosario, Delgado’s hometown, for his contribution as an ambassador of music. In 2003, he received the Magazine Award in Rosario. Delgado founded the Castle Green Historic & Cultural Society in Pasadena, California, where he resides.

    The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, presents the finest in orchestral and chamber music, recitals, new music, jazz, world music and holiday concerts at two of the most remarkable places anywhere to experience music — Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to a 30-week winter subscription season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil presents a 12-week summer festival at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the Association’s involvement with Los Angeles extends to educational programs, community concerts and children's programming, ever seeking to provide inspiration and delight to the broadest possible audience.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2009, AT 8 PM


    WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL

    111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles



    Chamber Music Society



    MEMBERS OF THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC



    PROKOFIEV String Quartet No. 2

           DAVID CHERNYAVSKY, violin

           ROBERT VIJAY GUPTA, violin

           MEREDITH SNOW, viola

           BARRY GOLD, cello



    ARENSKY Piano Trio No. 1

           DAVID CHERNYAVSKY, violin

           SERGE OSKOTSKY, cello

           EDUARDO DELGADO, piano



    STRAVINSKY Suite from Histoire du soldat (for violin, clarinet and piano)

           ELIZABETH BAKER, violin

           MICHELE ZUKOVSKY, clarinet

           JOANNE PEARCE MARTIN, piano



    STRAVINSKY Octet

           CATHERINE RANSOM KAROLY, flute

           DAVID HOWARD, clarinet

           SHAWN MOUSER, bassoon

           MICHELE GREGO, bassoon

           JAMES WILT, trumpet

           CHRISTOPHER STILL, trumpet

           STEVEN WITSER, trombone

           JOHN LOFTON, trombone

    Tickets ($24 - $49) are on sale now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office, online at LAPhil.com, or via credit card by phone at 323.850.2000. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and seating areas. For information, please call 323.850.2000.

    # # #

  • Contact:

    Sophie Jefferies, sjefferies@laphil.org, 213.972.3422; Lisa Bellamore, lbellamore@laphil.org, 213.972.3689; Photos: 213.972.3034