Back to Press Release List > - Pianist Yefim Bronfman Returns to Carnegie Hall in Recital on Monday, April 12

Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim Bronfman returns to Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage on Monday, April 12 at 8:00 p.m. for a solo recital of Beethoven’s Thirty-Two Variations on an Original Theme in C Minor, Jorg Widmann’s XI Humoresken, Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien, and Tchaikovsky’s Sonata in G Major.

Mr. Bronfman was featured as a Perspectives artist in Carnegie Hall’s 2007–2008 season during which Widmann’s XI Humoresken (commissioned by Carnegie Hall) received its world premiere. In a review of the May 4, 2008 world premiere performance, The New York Times wrote “This set of short piano works takes its cue from Schumann in the pieces’ flightiness, variety and virtuosic demands…this work moves easily between lyricism and jaggedness, innocence and self-conscious sophistication. The most striking piece, “Zerrinnendes Bild” (“Streaming Image”), was a study in tightly compressed virtuosity.”

Artist Information
Pianist Yefim Bronfman is known for his commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts, which have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide for his solo recitals, orchestral engagements, and catalogue of recordings. Mr. Bronfman began the 2009–2010 season playing Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto, which was composed for him, under Mr. Salonen’s direction at the Edinburgh, Helsinki, and Lucerne Festivals. He also focuses intensely on Brahms’s Second Concerto over the course of this season, playing it with the orchestras of Cleveland, Kansas City, Cologne, London (Philharmonia), Ottawa, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. His recital tour this season includes stops in Japan as well as European and North American cities, including Rome, Vienna, Warsaw, St. Paul, Toronto, and New York. A major event of early 2010 was his participation in Alan Gilbert’s first European tour as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Bronfman was an “On Location” artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2008–2009 season, performing two concerts with the orchestra under Maestro Salonen, as well as touring the Far East with them and giving a chamber music concert. Also during 2008–2009 he opened both the San Francisco Symphony and the New York Philharmonic seasons.

Mr. Bronfman was born in Tashkent in the former Soviet Union, in 1958, and moved to Israel with his family in 1973. Also in the same year, he moved with his family to the US, where he went on to study at the Juilliard School, Marlboro Music Festival, and the Curtis Institute of Music, with Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. In 1978, he made his New York Philharmonic debut. His New York recital debut followed in 1982. In 1991, he gave a series of joint recitals with violinist Isaac Stern in Russia, marking his first public performances there since his emigration to Israel with his family at the age of 15. Also in 1991, he was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists. Mr. Bronfman’s discography is large and varied, including solo recitals, concertos, and chamber music. He won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has recorded the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas, the five Prokofiev piano concertos, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3, and has been nominated for multiple Grammy and Gramophone Awards. His most recent releases are a disc of compositions by Esa-Pekka Salonen, including the Piano Concerto composed for him, recorded with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; a recital disc—Perspectives—which complemented his Carnegie Hall series; and all of Beethoven’s piano concertos and the Triple Concerto.

Program Information
Monday, April 12, at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
YEFIM BRONFMAN, Piano

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Thirty-Two Variations on an Original Theme in C Minor, WoO 80
JÖRG WIDMANN XI Humoresken
ROBERT SCHUMANN Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Sonata in G Major, Op. 37

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.

Ticket Information
Tickets, priced at $34, $40, $51, $69, $93, and $102, are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.

For Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.

In addition, for all Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts.

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Image from top of release: Photo by Steve J. Sherman