“The Heifetz of the flute.” – GRAMOPHONE

Hailed by Gramophone as “the Heifetz of the flute,” MARINA PICCININI is widely recognized across the world

as a daring, dynamic artist with varied musical interests. She is internationally-acclaimed for her interpretive

skills, intensely communicative performances, technical command, and powerfully magnetic stage presence,

with a distinct and global perspective that informs her work as one of the most compelling advocates of both

traditional and new works. Much sought after as a soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist, she has

garnered special attention for her commitment to the music of our time and for expanding the repertoire of her

instrument.

Growing up in a multi-national, multi-lingual household brimming with Italian, Brazilian, and Swiss cultural ties,

and having resided in the far-flung locations of Sao Paulo, Zurich, Newfoundland, Toronto, New York City, and

Vienna, the flutist brings the vibrant spirit of her rich heritage to all of her artistic endeavors. Ms. Piccinini’s

artistic tapestry is also woven with threads both musical and non-musical, ranging from her love of Bachian

intricacies and her talents in the visual arts, to her dedication to kung fu and Buddhist thought. As a 36th-

generation Shaolin Fighting Monk, she relishes an ideology that inspires self-discovery, discipline, finding joy,

and having no limits – all of which she brings to her instrumental artistry.

Ms. Piccinini’s repertoire is among the most diverse of today’s preeminent artists. Collaborating with some of

the foremost living composers, she has commissioned and premiered works by John Harbison, Lukas Foss,

Michael Colgrass, Paquito D’Rivera, Matthew Hindson, Michael Torke, David Ludwig, and Roberto Sierra,

among many others. These projects have taken her across multiple continents, including a tour of her most

recently commissioned work, a flute concerto written for her by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Aaron Jay

Kernis, which she premiered with the London and Rochester Philharmonics, Chautauqua Symphony, and

Detroit Symphony, and recorded for Naxos with the Peabody Institute Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

Recent and upcoming season highlights include a return engagement with the London Philharmonic conducted

by Dennis Russell Davies for a recording of Miguel Kertsman’s Flute Concerto; the World Premiere of Kernis’

Air for flute and orchestra with the Korean Chamber Orchestra conducted by Patrick Gallois at Seoul Arts

Center; tours with Musicians from Marlboro, including concerts at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center,

The Smithsonian in DC, and Boston’s Gardner Museum; collaborations with the Brentano Quartet, the Beijing

Guitar Duo, and with Vienna Philharmonic Principal Harpist Anneleen Lenaerts at the Aspen Music Festival

and for Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with conductor Bruno Weil and The Bruckner Orchester Linz, Austria

and at the Moritzburg Festival in Dresden; a North American recital tour with pianist Andreas Haefliger at the

Kennedy Center, Rockefeller University, Dallas’s Nasher Sculpture Center, and in Akron, Ohio; and

appearances with guitarist Meng Su in San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. Her trio, Tre Voci, appears at London’s

Wigmore Hall, premiering a new work written for it by Toshio Hosokawa, and in Mexico City, Philadelphia,

Boston, Los Angeles and beyond.

Acclaimed for her “intent, glittering musicianship” (Sunday Times [London]), she is a familiar and much-

admired figure at the world’s foremost concert venues. She has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Hong

Kong, Vienna, Vancouver, Tokyo, Saint Louis, Montreal, Toronto and National Symphonies, London and

Rotterdam Philharmonics, and Ravenna Chamber Orchestra, and has worked with some of the world’s most

celebrated conductors, including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Pierre Boulez, Myung-whun

Chung, Gianandrea Noseda, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and Alan Gilbert. She has also performed with the Tokyo,

Mendelssohn, and Takács Quartets, NEXUS percussion ensemble, and the Beijing and Brasil Guitar Duos. A

regular partner of pianists Andreas Haefliger and Mitsuko Uchida, she is a longtime Resident Artist at the

Marlboro Festival, and performed at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival at Ozawa’s personal invitation.

A prodigious recording artist, she can be heard on the Avie, Claves, and ECM labels, including Tre Voci’s

debut CD of works by Tōru Takemitsu, Claude Debussy, and Sofia Gubaidulina; a DVD of Schoenberg’s

Pierrot Lunaire from the Salzburg Festival, along with an accompanying documentary entitled Solar Plexus of

Modernism; Bach’s complete flute sonatas and solo partitas with the Brasil Guitar Duo; the flute sonatas of

Prokofiev and Franck with pianist Andreas Haefliger; and Belle Époque, with pianist Anne Epperson; sonatas

by Bartók, Martinů, Schulhoff, Dohnányi, and Taktakishvili; and an acclaimed recording of her dazzling new

arrangement of the Paganini Caprices (published by Schott Music).

Her intense commitment to education inspired her to create the Marina Piccinini International Masterclasses

(MPIMC), which, after a decade at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute, has recently moved to the New World Center

in Miami, launching an exciting new partnership with the New World Symphony. She is currently on the faculty

of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and was formerly Professor at the

Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany. She also regularly gives masterclasses

worldwide in conjunction with her performances.

Ms. Piccinini was the first flutist to win the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. Her career was launched when

she won First Prizes in the CBC Young Performers Competition in Canada and the Concert Artists Guild

International Competition in New York City.

Marina Piccinini was born into a family of distinguished scientists. She studied with Jeanne Baxtresser and

Aurèle Nicolet, and received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she worked

with the legendary Julius Baker. She lives with her family in Vienna, Switzerland and the US.

Photo: Marco Borggreve

PRESS THE WASHINGTON POST “a flutist whose technique and musical intelligence deserve mention in the same breath with Galway and

Rampal…effortless skill and impressive stylistic versatility.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES

“…an absolutely first-rate player…power and exuberance…a musician who hears and understands with great

intelligence.”

THE SUNDAY TIMES [LONDON]

“[Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto] was a virtuoso vehicle for soloist Marina Piccinini, whose intent, glittering

musicianship made it even more streamlined.” (Kernis Flute Concerto, UK Premiere, London Philharmonic

Orchestra)

FINANCIAL TIMES

“The flute part [for Kernis’ Flute Concerto] is a virtuoso challenge and Marina Piccinini was the expert soloist.”

BACHTRACK

“Soloist Piccinini, played [Kernis’ flute concerto] with assurance throughout and, in two technically demanding

cadenzas, amply demonstrated why Kernis wrote this work specifically for her…in the rousing Finale, a

“virtuoso romp” inspired by 70s rock legend Jethro Tull, Piccinini stormed through its challenges and brought

off this UK premiere with aplomb.”

THE WASHINGTON POST

“There is something deeply satisfying, awe inspiring, almost sacred in hearing a long-standing collaboration

between two master musicians. The incomparable flutist Marina Piccinini and her no less talented husband,

pianist Andreas Haefliger, offered up such an experience at the Kennedy Center. When Piccinini plays the

flute, you’re left wondering how there can be so many ways for a human being to breathe. They share an

intelligence, intensity of focus and a no-nonsense demeanor that directs all energy toward the music’s fullest

realization.”

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

“…absolutely breathtaking virtuosity…she clearly relished the huge, expressive range the work allowed her to

explore” (Kernis Flute Concerto, World Premiere, Detroit Symphony Orchestra)

THE BALTMORE SUN

“The flute is both protagonist and commentator [in Kernis’ concerto]…it generates a manic, jazzy edge, only to

dissipate in a questioning wisp. Piccinini met the work’s technical demands with her usual aplomb.”

DALLAS OBSERVER

“Piccinini and Haefliger performed with tangible and remarkable devotion and virtuosity throughout the

monumental program.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Piccinini, produces an equally active and outgoing quality in her music…a distinct and engaging personality.”

TIME OUT HONG KONG

“The dynamic nuances and tonal coloring from Piccinini’s flute lifted every turn and phrase.”

Music

Pianist, flutist collaboration yields lyrical evening

Marina Piccinini. (Marco Borggreve)

There is something deeply satisfying, awe inspiring, almost sacred in hearing a long-standing collaboration between two

master musicians. The incomparable flutist Marina Piccinini and her no less talented husband, pianist Andreas Haefliger,

offered up such an experience Thursday night at the Kennedy Center, thanks to Washington Performing Arts. When

Piccinini plays the flute, you’re left wondering how there can be so many ways for a human being to breathe. As for

Haefliger, each keystroke is a poetic act. They share an intelligence, intensity of focus and no-nonsense demeanor that

directs all energy toward the music’s fullest realization.

First was a hauntingly atmospheric “Nocturne,” written for the pair in 2012 by the French composer Marc-André

Dalbavie, a pupil of Boulez. The Prokofiev Sonata in D unfolded with a calm, articulate eloquence, and Piccinini spun out

its lyrical passages with delicate simplicity.

Thomas Adès’s solo piano homage to John Dowland, “Darknesse Visible,” was played with a subtlety that belied the

richness of touch and nuance in Haefliger’s performance. It segued into an ecstatic performance of that most ecstatic of

sonatas, César Franck’s for violin and piano, heard here in Piccinini’s adroit transcription for her instrument. As with the

best transcriptions, this one brought out structural and textural aspects often concealed in the original.

The concert, which began with music by a student of Boulez’s, ended with the master himself, the “Sonatine” Op. 1 from

1946. This famously thorny, difficult music emerged as a virtuoso tour de force that had the audience on its feet at the last

note.

Virtual concert offers performances that would’ve

been impossible to achieve live

July 30, 2020

Marina Piccinini recorded eight parts for flute and one for piccolo for the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’ “Siren for Solo Flute, 7 Flutes and Piccolo.” Shown is a still shot from the performance, presented by Seattle Chamber Music Society as part of its Virtual Summer Festival. (Courtesy of Seattle Chamber Music Society)

Melinda Bargreen

Music lovers wait all year for those electric moments in the Nordstrom Recital Hall, when small ensembles of

some of the world’s finest musicians gather onstage for the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival of

great classics and bold new works.

This year, the coronavirus pandemic has forced the Society, like most other festival presenters, into uncharted

territory: “virtual” concerts, streamed online. They’re recorded in the SCMS’ Center for Chamber Music in

Seattle and in other sites, and accessed online by patrons who listen and watch from afar on their computers or

other devices. So how’s that working out?

First, it is futile to imagine that virtual concerts can replace the galvanic energy of being in the same room with

musicians whose spontaneous intensity and virtuosity can make music lovers forget to breathe. Sharing in the

moment that force field of live music is not something you can duplicate on a screen.

And yet: it can come pretty darned close, as you learn to immerse yourself in that online world. Today we

experience so much on screens that many music lovers are accustomed to hearing and watching performances

online. A “virtual festival” also offers the chance to experience performances that would be impossible to

achieve live — like Aaron Jay Kernis’ “Siren for Solo Flute, 7 Flutes and Piccolo.” The incredibly nimble

flutist Marina Piccinini played all the parts, recorded and captured simultaneously on the screen as if in a

Zoom meeting. The intricacy of the interweaving musical lines, the wonderfully dexterous and subtle

playing, and the sheer virtuosity of Piccinini’s technique were all heightened by the clever manipulation

of the images. This performance, premiered on Wednesday evening, must be seen and heard to be

believed.

And you can get to know new and challenging repertoire in a way not possible with one hearing. Wednesday’s

concert, recorded July 22, featured four works by Kernis (whose Violin Concerto — composed for and recorded

by James Ehnes and the Seattle Symphony — won two 2019 Grammy Awards).

Hearing Kernis talk about his “Mini Kernis Festival” on Wednesday evening, with three world premieres

among those four works on the program, was particularly illuminating and timely. His “Elegy (for those we

lost),” composed two months ago in memory of the victims of COVID-19 and premiered by pianist Alessio

Bax, could not have been more “in the moment” with its quiet lyricism rising to an anguished crescendo and

subsiding again in resignation. Kernis’ “Un Bacio,” premiered with beautiful clarity by solo pianist Joyce Yang,

proved an epic piece of substantial difficulty.

A lighter note was sounded in Kernis’ 2012 ”Feng Shui for Your New Home,” which the composer called “a

benediction for the new physical home of the festival” (the Center for Chamber Music). With Kernis at the

piano, tenor Nicholas Phan deftly negotiated some challenging settings of verses about the ancient art in which

the forces of energy are balanced to harmonize individuals with their environment.

And then, there was silence. No rip-roaring ovation; none of the electricity generated between thrilling

performers and a delighted audience. The virtual world, post-concert, can be a chilly place.

ARTS & CULTURE

With Tre Voci, PCMS tests College of Physicians as new venue

Peter Dobrin

HANNAH SHIELDS

Can you imagine Ravel's Sonatine being played on any instrument but piano? It takes some nerve to play

transcriptions of much-loved music that is loved, in part, because of the way it falls on a particular instrument.

But if you're a harp-flute-viola trio, you have to do something.

That something Monday night for Tre Voci was a mix of transcriptions and works written especially for this

odd ensemble type whose oddness can be a virtue in the right hands.

It wasn't the only novelty for Monday's Philadelphia Chamber Music Society listeners. PCMS was dipping a toe

into a venue new to it, Mitchell Hall at the College of Physicians, where musicians of the Philadelphia

Orchestra have been playing chamber music for the last couple of years.

The space seems ordered up from Central Casting, old-world division, with its oils of formidable figures in dark

robes looking down from high walls. It seats about 325, slightly less than the lecture hall PCMS often visits at

the American Philosophical Society. (Both spaces are cheaper to rent than the 625ish-seat Perelman at the

Kimmel.)

Tre Voci might have benefited from an acoustical shell to focus the sound, but the acoustic was plenty present,

and the Mitchell has a warm resonance.

The trio brought with it a work of some occasion — the local premiere of Arabesque, commissioned from

Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa by Tre Voci in part with PCMS support.

The piece probably merits more than one listen. (Why don't groups follow premieres with a repeat of the same

work later in the program?) But here it seemed limited, centering its action on a few pitches, ramping up

tension, and then relieving it. Instrumental colors —where they overlap or dovetail and where they don't —

were a focus. And then it seemed to go out on the wind.

The strongest performance of the evening was in Arnold Bax's Elegiac Trio. Color is the star here, too, though

violist Kim Kashkashian's sound was dry rather than ringing, a characteristic quite different from those of her

colleagues. Flutist Marina Piccinini has a varied palette, but she has presence without sounding forced. Harpist

Sivan Magen has an earthy energy; he is not afraid to explore the more percussive side of the instrument, often

with great virtuosity.

In an arrangement for just viola and harp of the Suite populaire espagnole by Manuel de Falla, you wished

Kashkashian could have reached deeper for the vocal origins of her part. A transcription for flute, viola, and

harp of music from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet by Gilad Cohen was highly inventive — viola took the part of

cellos and horns here, flute as violins there.

But it raised the same questions as the Ravel Sonatine, here in an arrangement by Carlos Salzedo. Why

transcribe? There has to be a better reason than a dearth of authentic repertoire.

There are solid benefits to hearing the two-piano-and-chorus arrangement of Brahms' A German Requiem. The

character of the music changes in a way that opens passages of understanding. It emerges somehow more

modest and contemplative.

The most compelling reason for hearing the Ravel and Prokofiev in their altered states might have come from

the charisma of the performers, but these musicians were only partially able to make their case. The rest of the

time you pined to hear the original.

PAGANINI 24 Caprices How on earth does one transfer Paganini’s Op 1, a vade

mecum of idiomatic violin pyrotechnics, to the flute?

Though some inevitably work better than others, a high

proportion of the 24 Caprices, perhaps surprisingly,

sound in Marina Piccinini’s resourceful arrangements as

though they might have been specially written for the

instrument. Among the best are No 5 in A minor, the

presto section of No 11, No 17 (its sostenuto opening

rewritten to provide an alternative to the violin’s long

held minims) and the famous final A minor variations of

No 24 (Var 8 uses staccato tonguing to convey the

violin’s pizzicato and arco exchanges).

Author: Jeremy Nicholas

PAGANINI 24 Caprices

Ms Piccinini is the Heifetz of the flute. Her fluency and articulation are quite literally breathtaking – no

cheating in any of the innumerable and lengthy pages of rapid passagework, every note as clear as a bell

– putting one in mind of the great John Amadio. With a liquid, honeyed tone throughout its considerable

range (down to a low B natural at the end of Caprice No 2) and superbly recorded, I have rarely heard the

solo flute sound quite as beautiful as this. The Caprices in her hands emerge as a collection of miniature

tone-poems each with its distinct character.

Just five seconds shy of 100 minutes is too much at a single sitting, no matter how beguiling the playing

– I suggest a disc at a time – but whatever, do try and hear Marina Piccinini who, as well as being an

extraordinary musician, is also, I learn from the booklet, ‘a 36th generation Shaolin Fighting Monk’. No,

really.

American Record Guide

May/June 2016

Kernis: Flute Concerto

(World Premiere)

Detroit Symphony Although Music Director Leonard Slatkin deserves huge credit for

leading the Detroit Symphony through a difficult 2010 strike and

rebuilding the ensemble from the ground up, one really has to wonder

if he’s still enjoying himself. Now 71, Slatkin was (and remains) an

exceptional talent from a proud musical family. However, his recent

work in Detroit has been uninspired and his programming has been

erratic. But on January 21 he created a program that appeared to play

to the orchestra’s strengths and proved largely satisfying.

The major attractions on this program were clearly two concertos.

John Williams’s Trumpet Concerto (1996) has some terrific solo

writing for the instrument, and Hunter Eberly played with

tremendous confidence and a full, appealing tone. As principal trum-

pet, his rapport with the conductor and orchestra was never in doubt.

This performance, recorded as part of the Detroit Symphony’s

partnership with Naxos, was played with great energy. Unfortunately,

the work itself is a flawed one. John Williams is still an outstanding

and creative composer, but his best work is in the movie theatre.

Certainly there’s no questioning his mastery of orchestration; but,

aside from the solo line, there’s not much that’s memorable. Of

course, it was fun to hear echoes of the great Williams film scores;

but, in an effort to distance himself from the cinema, the composer

simply appeared

uninspired.

On the other hand, Aaron

Jay Kernis’s work is

almost always interesting,

and his new Flute

Concerto is no exception.

(He can be a quirky

composer; he once wrote

a concerto for toy piano

and orchestra and has a

number of varied musical

influences.) This was

written for flutist Marina

Piccinini, and she played

it with absolutely breath-

taking virtuosity. Not only does Kernis under-

stand fully her interpretive capabilities (she

made sounds on the instrument I didn’t know

were possible, and certainly didn’t know I

would like), but she clearly relished the huge

expressive range the work allowed her to

explore.

Kernis’s notes on the piece split the work into

light and dark, and, while I’m not a huge fan of modern program

music, I have to admit this worked very well. This was partly because

of the nature of the flute. A concerto with nothing but pretty sounds

and rapid runs tires the ear quickly, but I give Kernis credit for

engaging me for nearly 25 minutes. Aside from a few moments when

the orchestra swamped the flute, the Detroit players captured the

moods and flavors of the piece very well.

The program also had two popular French orchestral works. Nothing

about the “greatest hits” hodgepodge from Bizet’s Carmen was

particularly special. The woodwinds and strings did make some

memorable solo turns, but the big moments fell a little flat. Ravel’s

Bolero made a stronger impression with Slatkin building the piece

impressively and the soloists showing off. Audience response was

enthusiastic at the close, though neither concerto was universally

applauded earlier. Nonetheless, the concertos were the real heart of a

rather odd program.

“This was written for flutist Marina

Piccinini, and she played it with

absolutely breathtaking virtuosity. Not

only does Kernis understand fully her

interpretive capabilities (she made sounds

on the instrument I didn’t know were

possible, and

certainly didn’t know I would like), but

she clearly relished the huge expressive

range the work allowed her to explore.”

Hunter Eberly

Leonard Slatkin conducts the Peabody Symphony Orchestra – Russian Easter

Festival & Enigma Variations – Marina Piccinini plays Aaron Jay Kernis’s Flute

Concerto [live webcast]

Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall, Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

Reviewed by Colin Anderson

Leonard Slatkin completed his week at the Peabody Institute – including masterclasses and recording sessions – with this concert of similarly opus-numbered standards bookending a recent Flute Concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis written for Marina Piccinini. In the first movement, ‘Portrait’, the flute starts an incantation; there was some enchantment, the music becoming quicker and texturally busier, if not for long, although the faster stuff soon returns. This is volatile music that paints pictures ... but of what or whom? ‘Pastorale-Barcarolle’ continues the restless mood, whimsically so given the title, and, like the first movement, the contrasts proved jarring. ‘Pavan’ promises something intimate, and was for a few seconds, but it never quite goes beyond the basics and is soon fidgety – again – with an intensity and rapidity that arrives from nowhere. To end is the

quicksilver ‘Taran-Tulla’, the most engaging movement.

Overall, though, whatever the ear-catching moments there were too few to sustain half-an-hour. No praise is too great for

Piccinini, however, playing with poise and alacrity, every challenge conquered, and a word too for the assured principal

double bassist; he had a party.

The concert opened with a postcard from Russia. From solemn chorale to celebratory ending, Rimsky-Korsakov’s

Russian Easter Festival Overture works on an expansive scale, with much beguiling scene-setting, then exuberance, the

suggestion of a populace engaged in a ceremony of chant, and the approximation of bells. It was an excellent choice, as

something seasonal and to display the solo (cello, violin, trombone) and corporate skills of the Peabody Symphony

Orchestra, a very talented crew.

Elgar’s Enigma Variations is a masterpiece of musical portraiture and musical substance; immortal. Slatkin, an Elgarian to his fingertips, led a wise account on young shoulders, freshly seasoned and perfectly attuned to each character, whether eloquent, tender, intimate, wild or (the composer himself) grandiose. Slatkin avoided false sentiment, Boult-like in the overall architecture. ‘Nimrod’, hushed, deeply-felt and noble, emerged as part of the plan, with a thoughtful pause in its wake. ‘Dorabella’ stammered less than usual and Dan was a japing bulldog. Whether it’s Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage that is quoted from on clarinet in Variation XIII (‘***’) or Schumann’s Piano Concerto, there can be little doubt that the latter was advocated here. Another enigma! As for the pomp of ‘E.D.U’, this was done without show and the end (unnatural-sounding organ aside) was suitably rounded. Following which Slatkin made a touching address reminding that music is a no-barrier art-form and also that young musicians, such as those of Peabody, face competition ahead and will need much support and that we should help spread the word.

Overall, though, whatever the ear-catching moments there were too few to sustain half-an-hour. No praise is too great for

Piccinini, however, playing with poise and alacrity, every challenge conquered, and a word too for the assured principal

double bassist; he had a party.

The concert opened with a postcard from Russia. From solemn chorale to celebratory ending, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture works on an expansive scale, with much beguiling scene-setting, then exuberance, the suggestion of a populace engaged in a ceremony of chant, and the approximation of bells. It was an excellent choice, as something seasonal and to display the solo (cello, violin, trombone) and corporate skills of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, a very talented crew.

Elgar’s Enigma Variations is a masterpiece of musical portraiture and musical substance; immortal. Slatkin, an Elgarian to his fingertips, led a wise account on young shoulders, freshly seasoned and perfectly attuned to each character, whether eloquent, tender, intimate, wild or (the composer himself) grandiose. Slatkin avoided false sentiment, Boult-like in the overall architecture. ‘Nimrod’, hushed, deeply-felt and noble, emerged as part of the plan, with a thoughtful pause in its wake. ‘Dorabella’ stammered less than usual and Dan was a japing bulldog. Whether it’s Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage that is quoted from on clarinet in Variation XIII (‘***’) or Schumann’s Piano Concerto, there can be little doubt that the latter was advocated here. Another enigma! As for the pomp of ‘E.D.U’, this was done without show and the end (unnatural-sounding organ aside) was suitably rounded. Following which Slatkin made a touching address reminding that music is a no-barrier art-form and also that young musicians, such as those of Peabody, face competition ahead and will need much support and that we should help spread the word.

Intriguing exploration of American adventurers from the London Philharmonic Orchestra By David Truslove, 13 February 2017

This exploration of American music made an uninterrupted journey from the eccentricities of Charles Ives to the minimalism of Philip Glass. To this was added the symphonic distillation of John Adams’ opera Dr Atomic and the UK première of a Flute Concerto by the contemporary composer Aaron Jay Kernis. It was certainly a programme representative of American Adventurers, strong-willed individuals, mavericks unafraid to push boundaries and their juxtapositions bound by the Southbank Centre’s Belief and Beyond Belief series investigating music expressing both the divine and the human spirit.

Under its Principal Guest Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the London Philharmonic Orchestra began the evening with twenty minutes of pulsing rhythms in the shape of The Light – Philip Glass’ response to a commission from Cape Western Reserve University

in 1987, and on which site the speed of light was discovered a century earlier by physicists Michelson and Morley. Glass’ trademark arpeggios, abrupt tonal shifts and metrical displacements were all there and handled with superb control. The eventual arrival of brass and percussion to its throbbing soundscape made for more compelling listening but, despite additional instrumental layers and subsequent colouring, I was unmoved by its relentless repetitions – more mechanical than musical.

The Flute Concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis, for medium-sized orchestra (including a mandolin), could not have been more dissimilar. No musical idea in its four-movements ever outstayed its welcome, this musical journey seemingly transformed itself before any one mood or tempo could settle. Its eclectic style, veering somewhere between an expressive lyricism (notably the Pavan) and a restless hedonism (TaranTulla) was underpinned by a largely conservative harmonic idiom, its opening Portrait also referencing the Second

Viennese School. Soloist Marina Piccinini played with assurance throughout and, in two technically demanding cadenzas, amply demonstrated why Kernis wrote this work specifically for her. In the more extravagantly scored sections of the work the orchestra threatened to overwhelm her, but in the rousing Finale, a “virtuoso romp” inspired by 70s rock legend Jethro Tull, Piccinini stormed through its challenges and brought off this UK première with aplomb.

After the interval it was the quiet mysticism of Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question that left its own haunting impression. The reduced string section of the LPO produced a wonderfully velvet-smooth tone, seemingly indifferent to off-stage trumpeter Paul Beniston, whose lonely wonderings posed “the perennial question of existence”. Orozco-Estrada shaped its six minute span with fidelity and infinite care.

The platform re-filled with the large forces required for John Adams' Dr Atomic Symphony: an electrifying orchestral summary of his 2005 opera about the testing of the first atomic bomb and the moral dilemma of its creator Robert Oppenheimer. Its opening movement “Laboratory” commanded attention and the depiction of an electrical storm “Panic” brought echoes both of “Shaker Loops” and string playing of superb discipline and precision. Elsewhere, brass solos made their own distinctive impact and in the closing movement, “Trinity”, its heartfelt trumpet solo derived from Oppenheimer’s soliloquy “Batter my heart” (John Donne) brought a poignant return to Ives. Throughout, the LPO was on terrific form.

Wenn Solistin und Orchester eins werden

Wiener Konzerthaus. Ein idealer Nielsen mit Marina Piccinini, Jukka-Pekka Saraste und den Symphonikern.

(c) Die Presse/Michaela Seidler Die Schwierigkeit bei einem Instrumentalkonzert besteht darin, dass Solist und Orchester zur selben Zeit im selben Raum dasselbe Stück spielen sollen. Oft genug klingt das nämlich nicht so, entsteht der Eindruck, als spiele man beherzt aneinander vorbei.

Wie sich ein Instrumentalkonzert aber im Idealfall anhört, war kürzlich im Wiener Konzerthaus zu erleben, als die famose italienische Flötistin Marina Piccinini und die Wiener Symphoniker unter Jukka-Pekka Saraste Carl Nielsens nicht allzu oft zu hörendes Flötenkonzert musizierten. Nun lädt das Werk – mit seiner engen, oft kammermusikalisch anmutenden Verzahnung von Solostimme und Orchester – zwar förmlich zur Kooperation, doch Notentext und Umsetzung sind eben zwei verschiedene Dinge, und die Umsetzung durch Piccinini und ihre Mitstreiter war schlicht perfekt. Wunderbar dialogisch musizierend, etwa in Zwiegesprächen der Flöte mit dem Fagott oder der Bratsche, warf man sich lustvoll die Motive zu, agierten Solistin und Orchester mal als Mitstreiter, mal als Antipoden und fanden zu einer bezwingend geschlossenen Darstellung dieses in sich so vielgestaltigen und charakterlich abwechslungsreichen Werkes. Piccinini bestach dabei durch einen auch bei stärkerer Beanspruchung herrlich abgerundeten, anheimelnden Flötenton. Obwohl Nielsen keinen effektvollen Abschluss gewährte – großer Jubel für alle Beteiligten.

An instrumental concert was recently experienced in the Wiener Konzerthaus when the famous Italian flautist Marina Piccinini and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste performed Carl Nielsen's flute concerto, which is not often heard. The work - with its close, often chamber music-like interlocking of solo voice and orchestra - literally invites cooperation, but the musical text and implementation are two different things, and the implementation by Piccinini and her colleagues was simply perfect. Wonderful dialogues between the flute and the bassoon or the viola, the motifs were thrown to each other with relish, the soloist and orchestra acted sometimes as comrades-in-arms, sometimes as antipodes, and found a compellingly coherent representation of this intricately diverse and varied character Work. Piccinini impressed with a wonderfully rounded flute tone, even with heavy use - big cheers for all involved.

ARTS & CULTURE

Brentano Quartet and Marina Piccinini in Kernis premiere at the Kimmel

April 5, 2018

Peter Dobrin

MARCO BORGGREVE

Every listener has a work that makes him wince, and mine is that reliable musical patron saint of tasks dull and

dutiful, Mozart's Flute Quartet in C Major, K 285b. The lack of tension and harmonic interest in the first movement

opens up to a bit more nourishment in the second, but the best possible thing that could happen to it came

Wednesday night: the intriguing sound of its lead voice in flutist Marina Piccinini.

The main event perhaps at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert at the Perelman was the Philadelphia

premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis' Air for Flute and String Quartet, lovingly realized by Piccinini and the always-warm

Brentano String Quartet. The work is from 1996, two years before the Bensalem-born composer won the Pulitzer in

music for his second string quartet, and more amiable writing might not exist.

Flute is dominant (it even gets a cadenza), but the overwhelming asset is mood, and the strings lay it on like

silk. Agitation arrives toward the middle, but for the most part Kernis' Air is quietly expectant in a gentle world.

Piccinini in both Mozart and Kernis came across as a sensitive player with a deep sound that grows and

stretches to suit the specific emotional intent of the moment. Two works for string quartet alone occupied

the Brentano the rest of the program, which was dedicated to Michael Tree, the Guarneri Quartet violist who

died Friday. The Brentano's marvelous qualities shone through both the Mozart String Quartet in C Major, K

465 and Beethoven String Quartet in C Minor, Opus 18, No. 4.

Virtuoso flutist Marina Piccinini immerses students in

Peabody experience

She hosts International Flute Master Classes June 23-28

Virtuoso flutist Marina Piccinini conducts a week of master classes and performs June 23 with her Peabody students.

Bret McCabe Experience has taught Marina Piccinini that the sublime takes work. The Peabody Institute faculty member and

virtuoso flutist knows that the leap from the good performance to the one that sends chills down the spine is

attainable. Musical erudition allows a performer to understand a piece of music, the context of its creation, and

sometimes the composer's intentions. Technique gives a performer the skills to master the mechanics of a score.

And physical conditioning prepares the body to do those skills. But the line between good and great isn't

haphazard. It's the result of hard, interpretive exploration of the relationships between performer and instrument,

performer and score, performer and sound.

Piccinini works on all of those elements with students during her International Flute Master Classes at Peabody,

which take place this year from June 23 to 28. "You're searching to try to find out what the answer is, how to

present it so that it's something that communicates to the audience," Piccinini says of playing a piece, a process

she goes through with her students. How she communicates that series of actions depends on the student.

"Sometimes people come and they're physically very restricted, and you can see it's a little bit about them being

nervous. So before you can even get to that, you have to find the key that gets inside their imagination. And

when you do that, it's amazing because they relax and they smile and then they're on fire."

Speaking by phone from her home in Vienna, Piccinini explains how her summer program is different from the

usual master class setup, where a performer or composer works with students for a day onstage in front of an

audience. Her five-day master classes are an immersion in the Peabody experience. Students, who range from

undergraduate age to postgraduates, start each morning with warm-up exercises before the four-hour master

classes with Piccinini begin. Over the course of the week, each student plays three different pieces for her and

she, flute in hand, interacts with them one on one.

"It's always very entertaining because, after all, it is a performance, so there's a lot of laughing that goes on, a

lot of play acting," she says. "Sometimes I can put the flute to my lips and I play, and then they know exactly

what I mean, or they have a feeling. And that's a beautiful thing because you can bring the whole room to you.

There's a way of playing that you can feel the audience getting really quiet and listening. And that aura, that

tension in the room, because we were together during this process, they can have that in their imagination

forever. And if they have it in their imagination, they will remember that and find their own way of re-creating

that. And then, of course, that's when you've opened the door and they walk through it."

Piccinini supplements these master classes with movement and breathing workshops, lectures and presentations

from flute makers from around the world, question-and-answer sessions with guest artists, and opportunities to

work with top-notch pianists and Peabody students, creating a setting "that will promote every single aspect of

what it is to be a musician," Piccinini says.

The week kicks off with a June 23 opening gala, featuring a repertoire of five flute pieces that concludes with

Henry Brant's Angels and Devils, a 1932 composition for solo flute and flute orchestra, performed by Piccinini

and her current Peabody students. A free public recital June 28 will showcase the master class students

performing pieces they worked on during the week. It's a chance to see the results of Piccinini's work with the

musicians. And it serves as a reminder to the students that what they've been doing—all that intensive fine-

tuning to make a performance as great as it can be—that's the performer's job. The work of constantly refining

and understanding technique, score, physicality, and interpretation is the only way greatness can be achieved.

"You're always learning [as a musician], and it wouldn't be any fun if you didn't," Piccinini says. "What I'm

doing, what [the students are] doing, it's all the same. And for them to see that, I think, is also hugely important.

It's not a magic trick. It's a part of the process. Every famous musician they know, that's the way they live their

lives."

Tre Voci. Takemitsu: And then I knew ’twas wind.

Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp. Gubaidulina:

Garten von Freuden und Traurigkeiten

The Strad Issue: May 2015 Description: Three become one in works for Debussy’s classic combination Musicians: Kim Kashkashian (viola) Marina Piccinini (flute) Sivan Magen (harp) Composer: Takemitsu, Debussy, Gubaidulina

Many good things have come out of the Marlboro Music Festival over the years and the meeting of musical minds on this CD is up there with the best of them. These three performances have been allowed to season over several years before being recorded in 2013. Debussy’s Sonata, the iconic composition for this particular combination of instruments, receives a definitive interpretation that reflects its mercurial nature. Its uniquely personal amalgamation of old styles and forms – Pastorale, Tempo di menuetto – with a new harmonic language is realised by the three musicians with absolute conviction, bringing to life both the music’s nostalgia and its dancing joy.

Takemitsu’s work – its title taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson – references Debussy, even discreetly quoting its beginning, but goes much further in its timbral explorations, as does Sofia Gubaidulina’s similarly poetry-inspired work. Both composers require numerous and varied special playing techniques from all three instruments in their typically detailed scores. Their instructions and the musical reasons behind them have been scrupulously internalised by the players, who perform with wonderful clarity, aided by a close but warm recording which enables one to follow their every nuance. The CD’s sound quality and sophisticated presentation are typical of ECM’s fastidious standards.

CARLOS MARIÁ SOLARE

Cupid comes to Tuesday Musical: a chat with flutist Marina Piccinini by Christine Jay

What happens when the “Heifetz of the flute” (Gramophone) and a sensational pianist “at his

peak” (International Record Review) converge to play music together? On February 9th in Akron’s

E. J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present a “Valentine’s Day prelude” recital given by the

husband­and­wife duo of flutist Marina Piccinini and pianist Andreas Haefliger. Prepare for more

than just sparks to fly — this recital should inflame even the most frozen of hearts.

Ardent? Yes, but this duo is more than just a romantic married couple who perform together ––

they function as a high­precision team. “Andreas Haefliger is just an amazing soloist,” Piccinini

said during a recent telephone conversation. “When you have a partner like him to do a recital

tour, you’re very careful to choose works that are incredible chamber pieces for both

instruments.”

The program for the Tuesday Musical recital and for the duo’s subsequent recitals across North

America, including a concert on the “Virtuoso Series” at The Kennedy Center, features Sergei

Prokofiev’s Sonata in D, Marc­André Dalbavie’s Nocturne, César Franck’s Sonata in A, and the late

Pierre Boulez’s Sonatine. “The Prokofiev and the Franck are enormous sonatas. Boulez’s Sonatine

is an amazing piece, and the Dalbavie is a short piece that was written for us. Dalbavie was a

student of Boulez, so there’s a connection there. The program is really based on repertoire that is

fantastic and is absolutely on the same interest level and involvement for both instruments.”

Fittingly for a Valentine’s Day prelude, Piccinini and Haefliger first met through music as students at the Juilliard School. “He was

playing the Brahms d­minor concerto as soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra, and I was principal flute. When I finally met him, I felt I

already had because I heard him play. It’s difficult to separate the musician and the individual –– which did I fall in love with first? I

think it was both.” Returning to the present, Piccinini said, “We’ve been working together for such a long time, but we don’t often

get to tour together because we’re both busy. So when we do, it’s like an extra perk.”

Similar to any lasting relationship or marriage, a great duo consists of phenomenal soloists who value each other’s talent to

produce an even greater music than they can create alone. Clearly Piccinini and Haefliger hold each other in high esteem. In

addition to this recital tour, the duo has recorded two albums dating from 1995 and 2006. Of their musical life together, Piccinini

said, “We both put an incredible amount of attention into our work.”

Sparks will surely fly in Akron’s E. J. Thomas Hall on Tuesday evening, but come see if the husband­and­wife team of Piccinini and

Haefliger can make even Cupid swoon.

Published on ClevelandClassical.com February 1, 2016.

Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival

‘Paris and Shanghai’, at Hong Kong City Hall Theatre, cleverly balanced Chinese songs and French chamber

works by Debussy, Franck and others

Ken Smith

After two reasonably successful outings, the ambitious Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival

entered its third season last week with something of a rebranding. The first of the changes was the calendar,

with the festival shifting from its previous spot during a typically eventful spring to the traditionally dead time

between western and Chinese New Years. Then came the matter of personnel.

Under its founding artistic director, the Hong Kong-born, Juilliard-trained cellist Trey Lee, the festival had

initially assembled well-matched rosters of local players and young competition winners, some of whom were

discovering individual pieces for the first time. Violinist Cho-Liang Lin, a veteran artistic director of music

festivals in places ranging from La Jolla, California, to his native Taipei, now comes to the HKICMF with

practically the entire roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on his speed dial. And yet the

underlying success of HKICMF 2.0 lay less in world-class playing by marquee names than in finding a similar

collaborative balance on a higher plateau.

That balance found its way into the repertory as well. Although Wednesday’s concert at Hong Kong City Hall

Theatre was nominally billed “Paris and Shanghai”, a mixture of Chinese songs and French chamber works

supposedly evoking a French Concession salon in the 1920s, specific works seemed programmed with more

pragmatic reasons in mind.

Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp opened the evening, with Lin’s sweet lyrical tone in fluid contrast to

harpist Naoko Yoshino’s rhythmical solidity. The Shanghai Quartet and pianist Shai Wosner let the strains of

Chausson’s Chanson Perpétuelle waft evocatively around soprano Ying Huang. Flutist Marina Piccinini floated

smoothly through Jean-Pierre Rampal’s arrangement of Franck’s Violin Sonata.

Pleasant pieces all, but merely pleasant. The thinking behind their presence became apparent only after the

interval, when a handful of players appeared in markedly different contexts. Huang, after sustaining the mood

of the Chausson, played for contrast in Huang Zi’s Five Chinese Songs (arranged for singer and string quartet

by Shanghai Quartet second violinist Yi-Weng Jiang). Piccinini and Yoshino returned with violist Paul

Neubauer in Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, offering such transparency that the timbral interplay

became poetry unto itself.

Debussy and Ravel rounded out the evening, with Lin and Yoshino joined by violinist Michael Ma, violist

Andrew Ling, cellist Desmond Hoebig and double bassist DaXun Zhang in Debussy’s Danses Sacrée et

Profane, with Hoebig and Zhang replaced by Piccinini and clarinettist Zhai Yao-Guang in Ravel’s Introduction

and Allegro.

Review: Flutist Marina Piccinini and Pianist Andreas Haefliger in Recital | Soundings: New Music at the

Nasher | Nasher Sculpture Center

Something for Everyone

In the Nasher Sculpture Center's Soundings series, flutist Marina Piccinini and pianist

Andreas Faefliger give an interesting and wide-ranging concert.

by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs

Dallas — Soundings concerts, which specialize in the music of our time and are held in the acoustically challenged lower floor

auditorium of the Nasher Sculpture Center, are always thought provoking, sometimes thrilling and other times bewildering. The one on

Feb. 19 was some of all of the above.

Flutist Marina Piccinini and pianist Andreas Haefliger put together an eclectic program of music from the very-past, namely 1886,

right up to not-so-past 2012, taking us from lush neoromantic harmonies through the thicket of serialism and ending up with hypnotic

minimalism.

There was something for everyone to love or dislike. But when the concert was over, programming aside, one thing was clear: both of

these musicians are superb. Both have the technical prowess to play even the most complex works on the program with precision,

clarity and consummate musicianship. While the astringency of some of the music may have been off-putting, these two musicians

made the best possible case for every piece they played.

The most remarkable aspect of Piccinini’s playing is that she produces an amazingly clear sound that remains consistent at al l dynamic

levels. Many a decrescendo ended with a sound that was barely audible but no different than her loudest notes in pitch, placement or

purity.

In casting about for a metaphor, nothing really seems to capture her sound. “Icy” was a possibility but there was nothing cold about her

performance. “Electronically produced” describes the fact that there was amazing consistency in her tone and never an audible trace of

the air she uses to make the sound. Further, technically, she is flawless. Her fluttertounge is so fast that at first it sounded like some

new, as yet unheard, effect. Anther modernist effect, making two notes sound at once, was effortlessly produced.

However, the program was strange. The oddest work was a trip through the Franck Violin Sonata in an arrangement for flute and piano.

For me, it didn’t work at all because of the uniformity of the flute sound, perhaps exacerbated by Piccinini’s most noticeable trait. The

violin has the advantage of the bow, which can dig in with a growl or create a transparent glassy sound. Another violin effect that was

missing was playing the same note on different strings.

Oddly enough, one of the two other sonatas on the program was

another one that flutists and violinists share: Prokofiev’s Flute

Sonata, which dates from 1943. It was originally for flute, but the

composer made the arrangement for violin at the request of

violinist David Oistrakh. While this works better for violin than the

Franck works for flute, it is best in its original instrumentation.

The writing is so “flutey” that the violin is at a loss to duplicate it. A

good example is right at the opening. The main theme only gets to

the second beat of the second measure when there is a series of

four 16th notes on the same pitch: the flutes tongued effect works

better than any bowing possibility on the violin. (Many do not

share this opinion, by the way).

The final work, another sonata (called “sonatine”) was an early

work by Pierre Boulez (1946)—his first actually. It is admirable, but

not very accessible, to say the least. 1946 saw the flowering of the

serialization (12 tone) movement started by Arnold Schoenberg in

the 1920’s and taken up with a vengeance by the so-called

Second Viennese School (Anton Webern, Alban Berg, et al). While Schoenberg was still using the controversial composition method in

his unfinished opera, Moses und Aron, he retreated back to a reasonable semblance of tonality near the end of his life.

Not so with his disciples. And this brings us to Boulez, a composer, conductor, pianist and educator extraordinaire. He was a musical

colossus that strode across the 20th century (b. 1925) and into the 21st, influential until—and no doubt after—his death in January

2016.

In this sonatine, Boulez takes serialization to extreme lengths. He serializes everything: the pitches, the dynamics, the rhythms and

even the entrances. The result is certainly intense and even interesting here and there. Overall, seeing it diagramed would be

impressive, but it is difficult to follow aurally and audibly disjointed.

The most astringent selection was Elliot Carter’s Scrivo in vento ("written in the wind"), for unaccompanied flute. This work dates from

1991, when he was only in his 80s (he lived, and composed, until he was 104). It also lives up to his reputation of putting intellectualism

over musicality. This piece sounds like it has Tourette’s syndrome, unable to stop sudden fits of screaming amid the most placid music.

Haefliger got his solo turn with Thomas Adès’ Darknesse Visible, a work that dates from 1992 when the composer was in his early 20s.

He called it an “explosion” of a song by Englishman John Dowland, who lived in the 17th century. This simple troubadour-ish song is

treated in fragments and, although the composer says that no notes were added, it would take a careful examination of the score to

confirm that assertion.

The most recent piece on the program was by Marc-André Dalbavie, a Boulez protégé. His 2012 Nocturne was written for the Piccinini

and Haefliger duo. While his minimalist influenced style made the piece quite accessible, it sounded like it was “dashed off” for the

occasion without a lot of serious thought. Still, it was an enjoyable experience in the hands of the two superb artists, and no composer

can ask for more than that.

waren

absolvierte.

gefähr acht Jahre alt war, bekam ihr Vater

Vater Mozarts

wohl

te sie jedenfalls Querflöte lernen. Weil sie eine

Blockflöte.

Jahre tapfer durch.

For more information:

marinapiccinini.com

Booking and media inquiries:

Dworkin & Company Elizabeth Dworkin, elizabeth@dworkincompany.com Allison Weissman, allison@dworkincompany.com 914-244-3803 dworkincompany.com