Piano Recital with Elisha Abas

The 13th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival continues in The Shoe Factory with a Piano Recital by Israeli pianist Elisha Abas. The great-great grandson of composer Alexander Scriabin, Abas was a child prodigy who first appeared on the world stage at the age of six. After nine busy years of touring the world, he took a break from performing in public, and became, in the meanwhile, a professional footballer in Israel’s premier league, before returning to the world stage in 2004.

"His performance of Mozart's piano concerto No 23 sounded sophisticated and lush, as if two old masters devoted themselves to a late work of godlike Mozart." Berliner Morgenpost - Sept 2010

The great-great grandson of composer Alexander Scriabin, pianist Elisha Abas was a child prodigy who first appeared on the world stage at the age of six. He was the life-long student of Pnina Salzman, and by the age of 11, he appeared with great masters such as Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, Zubin Mehta, and Arthur Rubinstein who became his mentor.

Abas achieved many awards throughout his career, having won the first prize in the America Israel Cultural Foundation Music Competition for eight consecutive years and the first prize in the Claremont Piano Competition. After nine busy years of touring the world, he took a break from performing in public, and became, in the meanwhile, a professional footballer in Israel’s premier league. He also gained a degree in law before returning to the world stage in 2004. In 2007, he returned to Carnegie Hall to great critical and public acclaim. His career took off ever since, even though Abas has been extremely selective as with regards to his public performances.

He has given recitals throughout the world, amongst others, a tribute recital to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust organized by the United Nations in New York, at the Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Israel Radio's Kol Hamusica Festival, and the New York Chamber Music Festival to which he will return again this year. His concerto appearances have included Mozart’s No.23 with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in Caracas on invitation by Gustavo Dudamel, and with Mahler International Orchestra in Berlin, Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, Chopin’s No.2 with the Symphony Orchestra of Karelia, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Staatstheater Orchestra Kassel, with which he will appear again in 2014 in Rachmaninov’s No.3. Forthcoming concerts include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the Israel Symphony Orchestra, and return visits to the Symphony Orchestra of Karelia and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel in Brahms’ No.1, as well as recitals and chamber music in Israel, Europe and the US.

Elisha Abas’ latest CD in works by Chopin and American-Israeli composer Ronn Yedidia was released earlier this year by Urlicht AudioVisual in New York. With the same label, he also released a CD with Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba conducted by Yoel Gamzou. His live recording of the Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 with International Mahler Orchestra was released in 2010 by FOLIPRO Berlin.

Programme:

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
Polonaise in C-sharp minor, Op.26. No.1 (1836)
Nocturne No.20 in C-sharp minor, Op.posth. (1830)

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Arabesque in C major, Op.18 (1839)
Kinderszenen, Op.15 (1838)

Franz Liszt (1811–1886)
Funérailles (1849)

Interval

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
Mazurka in A minor, Op.7, No.2 (1830-31)
Mazurka in F minor, Op.7, No.3 (1830-31)
Mazurka in A minor, Op.17, No.4 (1833)
Mazurka in B minor, Op.33, No.4 (1838)

Ronn Yedidia (b.1960)
Two Waltzes

George Gershwin (1898–1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (1924)

TICKETS
Ticket price: €10
Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org