Mikhail Lezdkan & Bela Hartmann

Performers

Notes on the performers

Mikhail Lezdkan studied at the Leningrad Conservatoire, and while still a student he won second prize in the Belgrade International Cello Competition in 1984. After graduation he worked in a well-known chamber ensemble, the Soloists of Saint Petersburg. In 1991 Mikhail moved to France where he led the cello section of the Lyon Opera Orchestra, and became artistic director of a chamber music ensemble in Lille. With the violinist Vanessa Mae, in 1995 and 1996 Mikhail toured Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Mikhail played in the Contemporary Music Festival, St Petersburg in 1987, giving the first performance in Russia of Messagesquisse for solo cello by Pierre Boulez. In 2003 he gave the first European performance of the Cello Concerto by the Israel composer Gil Shohat, in the Royal Concert Hall, Stockholm.

He has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Belgrade Radio Orchestra, several chamber orchestras in France, the St Petersburg Hermitage Orchestra, and in England with Southern Pro Musica, Petersfield Orchestra and Havant Chamber Orchestra.

Mikhail is a committed chamber musician, and in recent years has appeared in chamber concerts across Southern England, featuring music from the standard repertoire for cello and piano and for piano trio (he is a member of the recently-formed Damira Piano Trio). In the summer of 2018 he toured Japan for three weeks as part of a small chamber ensemble.

In October 2020 he took part in a Festival of Russian Music in Vannes, Brittany, performing trios by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Concerts planned for autumn 2021 include recitals with pianists Bela Hartmann and Angela Zanders and organist Camilla Jarnot. In June 2022 he joined Petersfield Symphony Orchestra for a performance of the Cello Concerto by Dvořák.

Since becoming a semi-finalist at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2000 Béla Hartmann has enjoyed a wide ranging career, performing in venues from New York (Carnegie Hall) and London (Wigmore Hall) to smaller venues across the UK and Europe. His London series of the complete Piano Sonatas of Schubert at Steinway Hall culminated in the release of his highly praised debut CD of Schubert Piano Works (Meridian), and his performances for the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe at St James’s Piccadilly featured Beethoven’s piano variations, including the monumental Diabelli Variations. Aside from that his repertoire includes contemporary works by composers such as Birtwistle, Boulez and Bussotti, and he gave UK premieres of works by Widmann and Petr Eben. His most recent CD features the early Piano Concerto in A Minor by Mendelssohn, recorded with the Keld Ensemble. Béla Hartmann is also a keen musical essayist and has published articles and reviews on a wide range of music-related topics.

Béla Hartmann studied with Vadim Suchanov and Nicolas Economou in Munich, John Bingham at Trinity College of Music, London, and with Elisso Virssaladse in Munich.

As a teacher Béla Hartmann has worked with pupils of all ages and levels from beginners to post graduate music college students. His pupils have enjoyed successes at concerts, competitions and auditions, have performed piano concertos, gained diploma qualifications and gone on to pursue professional careers. He has adjudicated in competitions and given masterclasses as well as lecture recitals.

Béla Hartmann only recently began composing but has in that time written a variety of small and large pieces for aspiring pianists. He is particularly interested in chamber music collaborations between early and intermediate pupils. His own concert pieces often take their inspiration from vocal works by Brahms and other late romantic composers, and the poetry of Rilke.

Programme

Programme notes

Leoš Janáček

Pohádka

1. Con moto – Andante
2. Con moto – Adagio
3. Allegro

Pohádka (traditionally translated as Fairy Tale, or more literally from the Czech: A Tale) is a chamber composition for cello and piano by Czech composer Leoš Janáček.

Pohádka is based on an epic poem by the Russian author Vasily Zhukovsky entitled The Tale of Tsar Berendyey, which unsurprisingly piqued Janáček’s interest in Russian culture. The composition presents scenes from the story rather than being a complete description of the tale.

It was composed at a difficult time for Janáček, following the death of his daughter Olga and when he was still seeking musical recognition. Much of the music is in keys or modes with six flats, which gives the music a somewhat veiled quality similar to Janáček’s piano work In the Mists. Several different versions of the piece existed during his lifetime, although only the last is usually performed today. It is his only published composition for this combination of instruments.

Source: Wikipedia

Felix Mendelssohn

Cello Sonata No. 2 in D, Op. 58

1. Allegro assai vivace
2. Allegretto scherzando (in B minor)
3. Adagio (in G major)
4. Molto allegro e vivace

Felix Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58, was composed in late 1842. The main theme of the first movement is a reworking of an unrealised Piano Sonata in G major. The Cello Sonata, which was dedicated to the Russian/Polish cellist Count Mateusz Wielhorski, has four movements.

Of particular interest is the Adagio, because it mirrors Mendelssohn’s fascination with the music of J. S. Bach. (He was then musical director of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig and, as such, Bach’s distant successor.) The movement consists of a chorale in Bach’s typical style, played by the piano in rich arpeggios. In between the phrases of the chorale, the cello plays recitative-like passages, which resemble the recitative of the Fantasia in the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903, and quotes its final passage.

Source: Wikipedia