After making his subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra more than 40 years ago, famed German pianist Menahem Pressler is set to make his solo piano debut at the Symphony Center later this month as part of The Symphony Center Presents PowerShares QQQ Piano series. In addition to all the awards and accolades Pressler has received in his 70-year career, his televised Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Eve concert was recently named 2015 Album of the Year by noted music commentator Norman Lebrecht.
At 92-years-old, Menahem Presser solo piano debut at the Sympony Center in Chicago is long overdue, but thankfully his devoted fans in the Windy City won't have to wait much longer to finally get their ultimate wish.
This January 24, Mr. Pressler will take the stage in Chicago for what will no doubt be a standout performance in their current The Symphony Center's PowerShares QQQ Piano series:
"The program opens with Mozart's Rondo in A Minor, one of the composer's more melancholy works for solo piano. This is followed by Schubert's Piano Sonata in G Major, D. 894
"Other works on the program include Debussy's vividly descriptive triptych Estampes with its three movements Pagodes (Pagodas), La soirée dans Grenade (Evening in Granada), and Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the rain), as well as a selection of Chopin's Mazurkas and Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major.
"Completing the program is Hungarian composer György Kurtág's "Impromptu al ongarese...to Menahem Pressler."
In addition to the positive press surrounding his Symphony Center solo piano debut is Norman Lebrecht's recently naming Pressler's 2014 New Year's Eve performance with the Berlin Philharmonic as 2015's Album of the Year (via Sinfini Music):
"Which album will I still refer to in five years' time? Probably all of them. Which freezes a moment in time so that I will know exactly where I was when I first heard it?
"This one: Menahem Pressler, aged 91, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major and a Chopin nocturne on live television at the Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Eve concert. Inimitable, indomitable."
For tickets to Menahem Pressler's Symphony Center solo piano debut later this month be sure to contact them online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604.
