Événement

The Artistry of Tamara Friedman

Seattle's mistress of the fortepiano, Tamara Friedman, explores the rich repertoire for early pianos, from Lodovico Guistini ("The First Published Music for the Piano) and Haydn to Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin, and even a bit of Bartok - all on her magnificent 1814 Johann Peter Fritz grand fortepiano!

"Exemplary musicianship and true flair!" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

THE INSTRUMENT.

Tamara Friedmans fine replica of a Johann Peter Fritz grand fortepiano (Vienna, 1814) was built by Christopher Clarke (Cluny, France, 1985). The case is veneered in highly figured walnut with French polish. The keyboard has bone naturals and ebonized fruitwood accidentals. The Viennese action, in which the small, light, leather-covered hammers are mounted directly on the keys themselves, gives a direct and sensitive link between the player and the strings. This six-octave piano is particularly distinguished by its refined tonal registers, from full, reedy basses starting at FF, through mysterious tenor and fluty soprano ranges leading to lark-like trebles ascending to f4.

THE PROGRAM.

Rondo in C Major, Op. 51 No. 1 (1797) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Sonata in D Major, Op. 1, No. 4 (1732) Lodovico Giustini (1685-1743)
(The First Published Music for the Piano)

Sonata in C Minor, Hob. XVI:20 (1771) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Sehr Lebhaft from Faschingschwank aus Wien, Robert Schumann (1810-56)
Op. 26, No. 1 (1839)

Impromptu in F Minor, D. 935, No. 1, Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Op. posth. 142 No. 1 (1827)
Andante from the Sonata in A Major, Op. posth. 120, D. 664 (1819)

Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55 No. 2 (1842-44) Frédéric Chopin (181049)

Six Romanian Folk Dances (1915) Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

THE MUSICIAN.

Pianist Tamara Friedman, praised for the depth, wit, and humor of her performances (Seattle Times) and for her exemplary musicianship and true flair! (Journal American), attended the Oberlin Conservatory and received her masters degree from the Mannes College of Music (NYC). She has collaborated with such artists as Stanley Ritchie, Jaap Schröder, Tanya Tomkins, and Max van Egmond, and appears with violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock as Duo Amadeus. In the Pacific Northwest, she has performed on the Seattle Camerata, Allegro Baroque and Beyond, Belle Arte, Early Music Guild, Gallery Concerts, Mostly Nordic, and Musique du Jour Presents! series and for the Governors Chamber Music Festival. In the summers she is a featured artist on the Kennebec Early Music Festival (Bath, Maine).

Tamara has been lecturer/performer in early piano workshops for Bard College, Pacific Lutheran University, the Western Early Keyboard Association, and many groups of Northwest music teachers, and maintains a private studio in Seattle, where she teaches modern piano and fortepiano on the collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century keyboard instruments on display at SEKM! the new Skagit Early Keyboard Museum.