The 250th anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth. The piano sonatas produced by the celebrated composer during his lifetime are a shining and awe-inspiring achievement in the history of music. The 32 sonatas will be performed as a single series, at eight venues in the Tokyo area, by the brilliant pianist Konstantin Lifschitz. During this two-week period, we will delve deeply into the masterpieces revered as the “New Testament of the piano.” This brief musical journey will take us to eight different cityscapes abounding in spring’s new greenery. Join Konstantin Lifschitz on a “Beethoven journey” through time and space!
[Ticket sales] General ticket sales start Friday, January 31 Ticket sales to *members start Monday, January 27
[Price（All seats reserved）] S seats - ￥3,000 A seats - ￥2,000 *Detailed ticket sale information to be announced later.
[Reservations]
Westa Kawagoe 1st floor Information Office (9:00-19:00, except on days when the hall is closed for inspection etc.)
Westa Kawagoe Online Ticket Service: https://www.westa-kawagoe.jp/ *On the first day of sales, opens at 12:00 noon
Presented by Westa Kawagoe(Designated administrator NeCST)049-249-3777
Konstantin Lifschitz（Piano）
2015 is the release year of Konstantin Lifschitz's new recording of the Goldberg Variations, performed most recently at the Rheingau Music Festival as part of his cycle featuring all the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Lifschitz's Grammy-nominated previous version of those Variations, recorded at the age of seventeen, affirmed his position in the ranks of the leading pianists of today.
Konstantin Lifschitz was born in 1976 in Kharkov. Already at the age of 5 he began his studies at the Gnessin Special Music School in Moscow, where Tatiana Zelikman was his teacher. He furthered his studies in Russia, England and Italy under such musicians as Alfred Brendel, Leon Fleisher or Charles Rosen.
Since his debut in Moscow, Lifschitz has performed with famous orchestras e.g. the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra or the London Symphony under conductors including Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Neville Marriner, Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Mikhail Yurovsky, Marek Janowski, Andrey Boreyko, Vladimir Spivakov, Yury Temirkanov, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alexander Rudin. He also performs solo recitals at major festivals and in the most important concert halls worldwide.
As a passionate chamber musician, Konstantin Lifschitz has collaborated with such artists as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Leila Josefowicz, Misha Maisky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Lynn Harrell, Carolin Widmann, Natalia Gutman, Jrg Widmann, Sol Gabetta, Vadim Repin, Eugene Ugorski, Alexander Rudin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky.
His recording of Ludwig van Beethoven complete Violin Sonatas with Daishin Kashimoto, the concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker, was released by Warner Classics in January 2014.
Konstantin Lifschitz's diverse repertoire is reflected through his numerous discography, which includes Bach Musical Offering, Gottfried von Einem Piano Concerto with the ORF- Symphony Orchestra (Vienna Radio) under Cornelius Meister, Brahms Second Piano Concerto and Mozart Piano Concerto KV 456 under Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as well as Bach Art of Fugue, which has been an important focus of his work over the years. Konstantin won the German award Echo Klassik already with his debut recording, featuring Music by Bach, Schumann, Medtner and Scriabin.
In 2008, a live recording of Lifschitz's performance of Bach Well-Tempered Clavier (Books I and II) at the Miami International Piano Festival was released on DVD by VAI. Many of his CDs have reaped exceptional reviews. He has recorded all seven keyboard concertos of J.S. Bach with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, leading from the piano; he also appears more and more as a conductor with such ensembles as the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Wernigerode, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra Vilnius, Musica Viva Moscow, Lux Aeterna and Gabreli Choir Budapest, Moscow Virtuosi, Solisti di Napoli Naples, Dalarna Sinfonietta Falun or Chamber Orchestra Arpeggione Hohenems. In February 2015, he will be collaborating with the Century Orchestra Osaka on an all-Mozart program, to be performed in Osaka Izumi Hall.
Konstantin Lifschitz is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and has been appointed a professor of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts since 2008.
Konstantin Lifschitz The Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas （10-CD set）
Recordings of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas performed by Konstantin Lifschitz, the Ukrainian pianist renowned for his extraordinary artistry, will be released as a 10-CD box set to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. These are Lifschitz’s most recent performances of the works, recorded in concerts of “The 32 Piano Sonatas” held at the University of Hong Kong in 2017. This long-awaited box set is proudly offered by the Alpha label―currently one of the most talked-about classical music labels―for the Beethoven anniversary year. The Japanese edition is a complete limited edition including Japanese language notes. (Sale price: ￥7,000 including tax)
Catalog number: NYCX-10117 ￥7,000 (including tax) with Japanese language notes
