Visit WQXR to listen to this feature. In our third episode of “New York in Concert”, we bring you performances from two concerts from the 92nd Street Y, a nonprofit community and cultural center serving New York City since 1874. First, pianist Garrick Ohlsson brings his mastery of Beethoven and Chopin to the stage in an empty Kaufmann Hall. This concert took place on March 14th, after…
Ohlsson made the piano sing in the gently elusive middle movement, rich with overtones of Rachmaninoff and Schumann with only an occasional nod to the twentieth century
“Pianist Garrick Ohlsson joined New and the orchestra for the work, bringing unapologetic athleticism to the starkly dramatic opening passage and later, still in the first movement, to the torrential cadenza. Ohlsson made the piano sing in the gently elusive middle movement, rich with overtones of Rachmaninoff and Schumann with only an occasional nod to the twentieth century; he moved full…
A leading exponent of the music of Chopin who also commands an enormous catalogue of works, ranging from the Baroque to the 21st Century.
ABC Classic The master recitalist recalls how a performance by Sviatislav Richter changed him forever as a musician, how and why the music of Chopin became a defining passion in his life, and he describes the challenges that Scriabin’s mystical works hold for a pianist. His duet with Tamara is, fittingly, a piece by Chopin, but it’s not what you might…
...nobility is exactly what came to mind on Sunday night when listening to Ohlsson’s first ever Australian piano recital.
“When it comes to pianists, it’s often illuminating to trace pedagogical lineages. American pianist Garrick Ohlsson can trace his back to Franz Liszt, via one of Ohlsson’s teachers, the great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, and Arrau’s teacher, Liszt student Martin Krause. It’s a form of nobility. And nobility is exactly what came to mind on Sunday night when listening to Ohlsson’s…
Garrick Ohlsson returned to The Conrad in downtown La Jolla Saturday, November 9, to play another all-Brahms piano recital. With his evident affection for the repertory, his superlative technique, and his insight into what makes Brahms’ piano music distinctive, his recital also turned into a graduate level master class for anyone who plays piano or has ever studied the instrument.
“From Brahms’ early Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5, and the Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35, Book II, to the mature Op. 79 Rhapsodies and the Op. 116 Fantasies, Ohlsson’s every phrase illuminated important aspects of this rich body of piano music, amplifying the sheer joy of experiencing Brahms played with such command and panache.” San Diego Story
Ohlsson used his pianistic soft power — a commanding technical arsenal deployed with judicious restraint — in the service of Beethoven’s penchant for insistence, pushing the first movement’s boil of trills and passagework to the foreground, making the slow movement’s pleas hushed and voluble by turn.
“Ohlsson used his pianistic soft power — a commanding technical arsenal deployed with judicious restraint — in the service of Beethoven’s penchant for insistence, pushing the first movement’s boil of trills and passagework to the foreground, making the slow movement’s pleas hushed and voluble by turn. By the rambunctious finale, ensemble and soloist were on the same quirky page,…