Thursday, 8 August 2013
Odeion
19:30

(pay only R140 for a season ticket of two concerts: 
Leslie Howard performing with the Odeion String Quartet on 7 August and Leslie Howard piano recital on 8 August)

Annual re-engagements on five continents and a 130-CD discography attest to the burgeoning popularity of Leslie Howard.  Leslie is renowned world wide as a concert pianist, composer, conductor, chamber musician and scholar.  He is citizen of both Britain and Australia – he was born in Melbourne, but has been resident in London since 1972.  Leslie has earned an extraordinary claim to immortality, having accomplished a feat unequalled by any solo artist in recording history – his 97-CD survey (for Hyperion) of the complete piano music of Franz Liszt.  It encompasses 300+ world premières, including works prepared by Howard from Liszt’s still unpublished manuscripts, and works unheard since Liszt’s lifetime.  This monumental project merited his entry into the Guinness Book of World Records, six Grands Priz du Disque, the Medal of St. Stephen, the Pro Cultura Hungarica award and a mounted bronze cast of Liszt’s hand.  At an ceremony at Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on Leslie “Member of the Order of Australia” for his service to the arts as piano soloist, composer, musicologist and mentor of young musicians. 

Howard’s performances of chamber music and lieder include collaboration with some of the greatest artists of our time, including the Amadeus, Britten and Endellion String Quartets as well as Salvatore Accardo, Augustin Dumay, Erick Friedman, Ani Kavafian, Benny Goodman, Charles Neidich, Steven Isserlis, Nathaniel Rosen, Torlief Thedeen, Geoffrey Parsons, Sir Thomas Allen, Yvonne Kenny and Dame Felicity Lott. He has been a featured artist at many international music festivals, including the American festivals of Santa Fe, Newport, La Jolla, Palm Beach and Seattle, and at such European festivals as Brescia-Bergamo, Como, Edinburgh, Schleswig-Holstein, Bath, Camden, Cheltenham, Warwick and Wexford.

His discography includes many world première recordings, such as the four Piano Sonatas of Anton Rubenstein, the second and third Piano Sonatas of Tchaikovsky, a 2-disc survey of Glazunov’s piano music, and a 3-disc collection of Percy Grainger’s piano works. 

Program:

Beethoven:      
Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, Op. 27 No. 1
Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27  No. 2 “Moonlight”

Schubert:
Fantasy in C major, D760 “Wanderer”

Liszt:
Sonata, S178

Admission:
R100 (adults), R80 (pensioners), R50 (students and learners), R50 (group booking of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket.

Enquiries:      
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)