CARL PETERSSON – piano
ANNA PIETRZAK – guitar
ONLINE CONCERT
Thursday, December 17, 2020 | 7:30 PM
The recital was available for 30 days after the premiere date.
The musical community in Vancouver has recently been greatly enriched by the arrival of the remarkable Anna Pietrzak, Polish classical guitarist and Carl Petersson, Swedish pianist. We are happy and privileged to present them in this online recital. We are certain they will make wonderful contributions to our city’s cultural fabric.
CARL PETERSSON
Artist’s website
Born in 1981 in Lund, Sweden, Carl Petersson began playing the piano at age fifteen. Within ten years, he graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with degrees in piano and pedagogy under José Ribera. During his studies, he took part in numerous international master classes in Denmark, Sweden, and Israel. Carl was awarded the Tel-Hai International Piano MasterClasses scholarship four years in succession, where he studied with Pnina Salzman, Victor Derevianco, Emanuel Krasovsky, Staffan Scheja, and Nikolai Petrov.
Carl continues to perform in Canada, the United States, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, France, the Czech Republic, Germany and Israel. Past performances included venues such as the Canadian National Arts Gallery in Ottawa, the Glenn Gould Studio at the CBC in Toronto, Canada, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in China and the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, USA. Carl has collaborated with conductors JoAnn Falletta, Kerry Stratton, Jiri Starek and Niklas Willén with orchestras such as Buffalo Philharmonic, the Toronto Concert Orchestra, and the National Czech Radio Orchestra. Carl is frequently invited to participate in international music festivals such as the Music and Beyond in Canada, the International Chopin Festival in Antonin, Poland and the Beethoven Festival in Teplice – which he inaugurated together at a gala concert with the Teplice Philharmonic and the choir of the Czech Philharmonic.
In 2013 Carl Petersson received his Ph.D. from the Music Academy in Kraków, where he assisted Mariola Cieniawa’s class. In 2008 he played an acclaimed recording of two Friedrich von Flotow piano concertos with the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra, released on the Sterling label. In 2011, Carl recorded Leopold Godowsky’s Java Suite for Sterling, followed by the duets for cello and piano of Jacques Offenbach and Friedrich von Flotow a year later. During his Canadian tour, he made a live recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto at CBC Radio to great critical acclaim. In 2015, Carl released his next album with the piano concertos by Edvard Grieg and a reimagined version of Grieg’s unfinished piano concerto composed by Helge Evju. In 2016, Carl released his second album for Grand Piano with world premiere recordings by Per Nørgård, the Siemens Music Prize winner. Today Carl is an active recording artist with the Naxos label.
As a lecturer, Carl Petersson has been invited as a guest speaker at, among others, The Royal Swedish Academy of Music, University of Toronto, Tel Aviv University, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, University of Ottawa and the New England Conservatory which have joint programs with Harvard University.
ANNA PIETRZAK
Artist’s website
Laureate of over a dozen domestic and foreign guitar competitions in Austria, Greece, Poland and Romania, Anna Pietrzak is also the recipient of multiple scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture and the City of Wroclaw.
Anna performs solo, in chamber music ensembles and with orchestras in Poland, Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Spain, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and Slovakia. As a chamber musician, she has a long-time collaboration with the Mexican singer Julieta Gonzalez Springer and the Swedish pianist Carl Petersson. Anna is also a frequent lecturer at guitar courses and an adjudicator of instrumental competitions.
Anna has released three albums that all received highly positive notices from the press. The Albums are: ‘La Catedral – 20th Century Guitar Music’, the crossover ‘GITANA Electric – Eclectic’ and ‘Farewell’ where she performs in a duo with her brother Łukasz Pietrzak.
‘Farewell’ is the culmination of a long-term cooperation of the Pietrzak siblings, which came to an end in May 2009 with the premature death of Łukasz Pietrzak.
Anna graduated with honors from the Academy of Music in Wrocław where she studied with Marek Zieliński and prof. Piotr Zaleski. In 2012 she received her doctorate from the Academy of Music in Wroclaw. She is also a graduate of the Conservatory of Music in Pireus in Greece in the guitar class of Costas Cotsiolis. She perfected her skills in master classes held by renowned guitarists like Aniello Desiderio, Joaquin Clerch, Carlo Domeniconi, Pavel Steidl, Ivo and Sofia Kaltchev and Peter & Zoltan Katona.
Now residing in Vancouver, Anna Pietrzak is dedicated to teaching students of all ages and levels. Until 2019 she a was a guitar lecturer and chamber music teacher at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music and the Ryszard Bukowski Secondary Music School in Wrocław, Poland. She also worked as a guitar teacher at the Fryderyk Chopin Primary Music School in Oleśnica between 2000 to 2019. Because of her enthusiasm, dedication and experience, many of Anna’s students have been laureates of national and international guitar competitions.
FRYDERYK CHOPIN: Grande Valse Brillante in E-flat major, Op.18
LUIGI BOCCHERINI: Introduction and Fandango, arr. Julian Bream
ISAAC ALBENIZ: Iberia, Book I
1. Evocation
2. El Puerto
3. Corpus Christi en Sevilla
SERGIO ASSAD: Seis Brevidades for solo guitar
MAREK PASIECZNY: Eight Miniatures for piano and guitar
REN GUANG/arr. BURDETI DUO: Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon
Charles-Valentin Alkan-Étude Op.39 No.3 “Scherzo diabolico”
Hans Haug – Fantasia for Guitar and Piano
“I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these obscure corners of Beethoven’s output. The pianism is superb and the recording is nice and clear. … Mr. Petersson clearly relishes the delight and glee in much of this music, and he presents it very well. He plays with no sense of embarrassment at the over-the-top sheer craziness of some of the music, and his honest approach works very well. I look forward to hearing more Beethoven from this pianist, maybe some of the sonatas, and to spinning this disc often and laughing again at the explosions!”
Jonathan Welsh -MusicWeb International –
“Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883), composer of Martha and protector of Offenbach. Here are two piano concertos that concise a whimsical virtuosity worthy of Weber. The Concerto No. 2 in four movements with it’s Allegro Marziale emphasized snare rolls deserves to get out of oblivion. Brilliant performance thanks to the young Swedish pianist Carl Petersson. Five Stars.”
-Diapason-
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2-23 October 2021 – The Eighteenth International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw