Doors open at 7:00pm
Concert begins at 7:30pm

PROGRAM

Piano Sonata in D Major, D. 850
I.     Allegro vivace
II.    Con moto
III.   Scherzo. Allegro vivace
IV.   Rondo. Allegretto modernato

- Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

***** Intermission *****

Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 49
Three Mazurkas, Op. 30
Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52

- Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1839)
 

MARTINO TIRIMO

Martino Tirimo’s playing is often compared to that of Schnabel, Arrau and Rubinstein and his extensive discography of over 50 recordings for EMI, BMG, Warner and other companies include the piano concertos of Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Tippett (with Tippett conducting), the complete solo works of Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, all Janacek works and the first complete set of Schubert’s 21 Sonatas on 8 CDs (EMI). His urtext edition of the Schubert Sonatas is published by Wiener Urtext in 3 Volumes, with his completions to the unfinished movements. For his Rachmaninov 2nd Concerto and Paganini Rhapsody, one of EMI’s best sellers, he received a Gold Disc.

Tirimo was born into a musical family in Cyprus and from the age of 6 was already playing much chamber music with his father, a fine violinist and conductor. As child prodigy, he appeared both as pianist and conductor, at 12 conducting La Traviata seven times at a
festival with soloists from La Scala, Milan. At 13 the family moved to London and at 16 he won the Liszt Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, later completing his studies in Vienna and with Gordon Green whom he regarded as his greatest mentor. He came to world attention in 1971/72 when he won the international competitions in Munich and Geneva and has since appeared with all the major London and UK orchestras as well as the leading orchestras in Berlin, Cleveland, Dresden, Leipzig, Munich, Prague, Vienna and other centres, with conductors such as Barbirolli, Boult, Masur, Sanderling
and Rattle. He has also directed from the keyboard several cycles of the Beethoven Concertos, with the Dresden Philharmonic, notably in Germany and at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

He has given numerous series devoted to Mozart’s complete works, Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas, Schubert’s 21 Sonatas, Robert and Clara Schumann’s principal works, as well as series of Mozart Concertos, directing the Prague Chamber Orchestra.
In 2004 performances included concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and at the Athens Festival, during the Olympic period, with the Vienna Philharmonic. As conductor he has frequently appeared with the Dresden Philharmonic as well as other orchestras such as the English Chamber, Prague Chamber and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. His compositions include the film score for “ The Odyssey” , which was screened in 8 episodes on Channel 4 and other TV stations in Europe and USA.
Among his TV appearances, memorable was his performance of the Tippett Piano Concerto which was transmitted live from Coventry Cathedral in celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday. Since 2002 he has also been more active in
chamber music, touring extensively with his Trio, the Rosamunde Trio. In 2004 he had the honour to run with the Olympic torch, perhaps the first classical musician to have done so. During 2009-2010 he gave several series devoted to Chopin’s complete works, in celebration of the composer’s 200th anniversary of birth, including 10 concerts at London’s Kings Place which also contained the 6 works for piano and orchestra.

In 2015, he performed in London all the major works of Schubert and in 2016 undertook an unusual series devoted to all the great Piano Quintets, each concert given with a different distinguished string quartet. In the past two years he has also toured in China, Korea and Japan.

The Daily Telegraph has described him as ‘a pianist of vision’ and ‘an inspiring poet of the piano’ whilst Music and Vision declared that ‘Tirimo’s playing belongs to a past generation of ‘greats’. Listening to him I conjure up aural images of Solomon, Arrau, Kempff, Serkin, Schnabel, Backhaus and Rubinstein. Throughout the evening one was consistently
aware that this supreme musician placed himself entirely at the service of the composer’.