Mitsuko Uchida
Mitsuko Uchida is a performer who brings a deep insight into the music she plays through her own search for truth and beauty. She is renowned for her interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven, both in the concert hall and on recordings, but she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, and Boulez for a new generation of listeners. Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and The Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including the Gramophone Award for Best Concerto.
This season includes performances with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Sir Colin Davis, a tour of Japan with The Cleveland Orchestra, performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti, a European tour with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, the first part of a Beethoven concerto cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis (spanning two seasons), a European and US solo recital tour, song recitals with Ian Bostridge, concerts at the Salzburg Festival, and a special project performing Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire.
Ms. Uchida performs with the world’s finest orchestras and musicians in all the major concert halls. Performance highlights include her artist-in-residency with The Cleveland Orchestra, during which she directed all the Mozart concertos from the keyboard over a number of seasons. Ms. Uchida has been featured in the Concertgebouw’s Carte Blanche series, where she collaborated with Ian Bostridge, the Hagen Quartet, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; she also directed a performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire from the piano. She was a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist during the 2003–2004 season, and was also artist-in-residence at the Vienna Konzerthaus and with the Berliner Philharmoniker, where she performed a series of chamber music concerts and a Beethoven piano concerto cycle with Sir Simon Rattle.
Ms. Uchida records exclusively for Decca. Her recordings include the complete Mozart piano sonatas and piano concertos; the complete Schubert piano sonatas; Debussy’s etudes; the five Beethoven piano concertos with Kurt Sanderling; a CD of Mozart sonatas for violin and piano with Mark Steinberg; Die schöne Müllerin with Ian Bostridge for EMI; the final five Beethoven piano sonatas; and the 2008 recording of Berg’s Chamber Concerto with Ensemble intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez, and Christian Tetzlaff. Autumn 2009 saw the acclaimed CD release of Mozart’s concertos No. 23 in A Major (K. 488) and No. 24 in C Minor (K. 491), with Ms. Uchida directing The Cleveland Orchestra from the piano. A further disc in this series featuring K. 466 and K. 595 will soon be released. She recently released a disc of Schumann’s solo piano music, featuring the Davidsbündlertänze.
Ms. Uchida has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to the development of young musicians and is a trustee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. She is also Co-Director, with Richard Goode, of the Marlboro Music Festival. In June 2009, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
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