Dubai, UAE
The UAE’s majestic Dubai Opera will be graced with the presence of the legendary French/Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris on Monday 12th February, as the maestro, a winner of the International Cziffra Competition and Queen Elisabeth Competition, recipient of the Albert Roussel Foundation Prize and the Alex de Vries Foundation Prize, and founder of the Katsaris Piano Quintet, travels to the emirate to take part in the 2024 InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group. Showcasing all of his inimitable talents, Katsaris will be delivering a solo piano recital and, throughout the course of the evening, will interpret a number of works chosen from across the whole spectrum of classical music, presenting music from the pens of historic giants all the way up to contemporary musical geniuses. The programme will open with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude in C minor, BWV 921, also known as Fantasia, before moving to Joseph Haydn’s Sonata No. 48 in C major Hob. XVI:35, followed by Franz Liszt’s transcription of Franz Schubert’s Klavierstück No. 2, D. 946. Next comes the Alexey Shor-Mikhail Pletnev Piano Sonata in A minor, a contemporary work composed in collaboration between the famed pianist and the renowned award-winning composer, Alexey Shor, after which Katsaris will present three pieces from Frederic Chopin – the Valse in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2; Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66; and Polonaise in A-flat major "Heroic", Op. 53. The pianist shall then put forward his own arrangement of Liszt’s Czárdás obstiné, which will be succeeded by a spontaneous improvisation on four notes given by the audience as well as on various themes. Finally, Katsaris will conclude the lengthy programme with two related works, starting with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Six Variations on a Theme from The Ruins of Athens in D Major, Op. 76, before a performance of Franz Liszt’s Fantasy on Motifs from Beethoven's Ruins of Athens.
Cyprien Katsaris, the French-Cypriot pianist and composer, was born in Marseilles in 1951. He first began to play the piano in Cameroon where he spent his childhood, at the age of four, with Marie-Gabrielle Louwerse. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire where he studied piano with Aline van Barentzen, Monique de la Bruchollerie, and chamber music with René Leroy and Jean Hubeau, he won the International Young Interpreters Rostrum-UNESCO (Bratislava 1977), the First Prize in the International Cziffra Competition (Versailles 1974) and he was the only western-European prize-winner at the 1972 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Competition.
His major international career includes performances with the world’s greatest orchestras: Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Philharmonia (London), NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Myung Whun Chung, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Simon Rattle, Antal Doráti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Charles Dutoit, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Christoph von Dohnányi and Karl Münchinger, who on the festive occasion of his farewell concert in 1986, with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, personally invited Mr. Katsaris to perform the Haydn D major Concerto. Mr. Katsaris has recorded extensively for Teldec (Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin, Warsaw 1985; Grand Prix du Disque Franz Liszt, Budapest 1984 and 1989; British Music Retailers Association’s Award 1986; Record of the Year 1984, Germany, for the 9th Symphony of Beethoven/Liszt), Sony Classical, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG/RCA, Decca, Pavane, and now on his own label, PIANO 21. In addition to the standard repertory, such as the complete Concertos by Mozart, recorded live and performed in Salzburg and Vienna with Yoon K. Lee and the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie, he has revived long lost works such as the Liszt/Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in the Hungarian style which he has recorded with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1992, the Japanese NHK TV produced with Cyprien Katsaris a thirteen-program series on Frédéric Chopin which included masterclasses and his own performance. On 17 October 1999, the New York concertgoers offered Mr. Katsaris a standing ovation in Carnegie Hall for his recital dedicated to Frédéric Chopin, performed on the day of his 150th death Anniversary.
On 27 January 2006, the day of the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s birth, he was the soloist at the inaugural concert of the Mozart Orchestra Mannheim founded and conducted by Thomas Fey. In March 2006 Cyprien Katsaris was the first pianist ever to give masterclasses in Franz Liszt’s house in Weimar since Liszt, who taught there for the very last time in 1886, the year of his death. In August 2008, he was invited to give two concerts on the occasion of the Beijing Olympic Games at the National Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to the world premier of a concerto for ten pianos and orchestra – China Jubilee – by the composer Cui Shiguang, he improvised on an ancient Greek melody, and on, inter alia, Chinese melodies, in tribute to the universality of the Olympic Games. On 10 July 2014 Cyprien Katsaris performed in the first concert at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
He has been a member of the jury of the following International Competitions: Chopin (Warsaw 1990), Liszt (Utrecht 1996), Vendôme Prize (Paris 2000), Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud – Ville de Paris (2001), Beethoven (Bonn 2005), Giorgos Thymis (Thessaloniki 2011) and Scriabin (Moscow 2012). In addition he was appointed Artistic Director of the Echternach International Festival (Luxembourg) from 1977 to 2007. Cyprien Katsaris is “Artist of UNESCO for Peace” (1997), “Commandeur de l’Ordre de Mérite du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg” (2009) and “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters” (France 2000). He also received the “Médaille Vermeil de la Ville de Paris” (2001) and the “Nemitsas Prize” (Cyprus, 2011). He is a member of ADAP, the Association of Artists for Peace, and Honorary President of “Lisztomanias International”. In May 2023 the pianist Cyprien Katsaris was awarded the Franz Liszt Honorary Prize 2023 by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and the Neue Liszt Stiftung. Throughout his life, the pianist has contributed greatly and in a special way to a profiled new view of the piano works of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) in all their fullness. Early on, the pianist and composer included the hitherto largely unnoticed large area of Liszt's transcriptions in his concert programmes.
