A pianist of considerable virtuosity and versatility, Ian Pace is enjoying a demanding and prestigious 2003-2004 concert season. He gave the Paris premiere of Pascal Dusapin's piano concerto À quia with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and appears on a 3 disc set released by Naïve of this work together with Duspain's complete études and a DVD of two programmes featuring Ian's work which were first broadcast on French television. Highlighs for the spring include the premiere of faux départs, a new piano quintet from Richard Barret which he performes with the Arditti Quartet at Ars Musica in Belgium and Cheltenham Festival in the UK.Renowned for exciting and engaging performances of the most demanding and intricate music of today, Ian Pace also regularly appears with the Arditti Quartet, having performed the piano quintet Spur by Beat Furrer in Vienna, Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Cheltenham - also live on BBC Radio 3. In October 2001 the Arditti Quartet and Ian Pace gave the premiere of Walter Zimmermann's new piano quintet De Umbris Idearum in Graz, Austria and they performed the Quintet by Carter at Ars Music Festival in March 2002. In September 2002 he appeared in 3 concerts with the Ardittis at Vevey, Switzerland
At the 2001 Berlin Bienalle he gave the first performances of specially commissioned works by Pascal Dusapin and James Dillon and at the Flanders Festival, he gave the premiere of a new piece from Brian Ferneyhough, Opus Contra Naturam, which he subsequently performed at De Ijsbreker in Amsterdam, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival - "ultra-polished recital" The Financial Times - Mostly Modern Series in Dublin, at IRCAM's Agora Festival in Paris and elsewhere. He has also been in residence at Northwestern University in Chicago, giving workshops for composers, masterclasses for performers as well as a major recital incorporating works by Liszt, Ravel and Sciarrino with pieces by contemporary British composers.
In January 2001 he presented the first performance of The History of Photography in Sound by Michael Finnissy, a 5 ½ hour long work which he performed again at the Flanders Festival in October and Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts in December 2001.
Pace's strength and conviction were magnificent. ...a remarkable journey of discovery. The Guardian
Pace's steely control of the idiom and sheer athletic power were deeply impressive. The Sunday Times
In January 2002 METIER released the latest in its Finnissy series with Ian Pace's astonishing recording of the Complete Verdi Transcriptsions and other works on 2 CDs.
"Throughout, Ian Pace's technique astounds, and his enthusiasm for this music is infectious. In his booklet note he calls the Verdi work 'one of the most significant contemporary cycles for piano'. His playing, and a splendidly sonorous recording, make that claim seem an understatement." International Record Review
"...Pace's hands traverse the keyboard with a vertiginous velocity matched by supreme delicacy of touch. And his pearly voicing of the multiple trills with wich the 6th Concerto ends is further evidence of absolute technical control..." Gramophone
"...The result is something thoroughly new, and entirely compelling, especially when given the ardent advocacy of Ian Pace whose ability to combine thoughtfulness with extreme virtuosity can be heard nowhere better than here." BBC Music Magazine
Tracts , a recital disc on NMC including music by Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough and others, was released in January 2001 to widespread critical acclaim.
Ian Pace is a powerful advocate for 'hard-edged' contemporary piano music, in which he is an acknowledged leader at the keyboard... this uncommonly well-filled CD is a perfect introduction to the esoteric field in which he flourishes... you will surely marvel at Ian Pace's virtuosity. Music on the Web
Britain's most uncompromising champion of new piano music tests the limits of mental power and physical prestidigitation in this collection... The Observer
In the past few years he also appeared at the Cheltenham International Music Festival, performing Debussy, Ligeti and others; MusICA Strasbourg, where he gave the world premiere of another new work by Pascal Dusapin - "Ian Pace est un pianiste extrêmement brillant..." Journal d'Alsace - and the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, where he performed sonatas of Beethoven and Michael Tippett. He has also been invited to perform at Ars Musica, Warsaw Autumn and Wien Modern amongst other major festivals and venues.In the past few years Ian Pace has given the world premieres of more than 100 solo pieces, many of which were written especially for him by composers as diverse as James Dillon, Pascal Dusapin, Michael Finnissy, Christopher Fox and Howard Skempton and Richard Barrett. He has recently performed the complete works of Kagel, Bangor Festival 2000; Stockhausen's Klaverstucke I-X in London, as well as complete piano works of Ferneyhough and Lachenmann, and presented a landmark 6-concert series of the complete piano music of Michael Finnissy in 1996.
As a recording artist, Ian Pace's first solo CD of piano music of Christopher Fox met with excellent critical acclaim and was followed by a CD of Fox's shorter piano works and song cycles with the soprano Amanda Crawley. His recording of Michael Finnissy's complete Gershwin Arrangements released in 2000 has been described in the press as:
unique and remarkable International Record Review
an extraordinary achievement The Wire
an incandescent performance by Ian Pace... Classical London
This disc deserves a place on the shelves of every serious collector.
Strongly recommended. BBC Music Magazine - Choice
Ian Pace's extensive repertoire of classical works includes in particular the Sonatas of Beethoven and Schubert, Liszt's original works and operatic transcriptions, the works of Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Ives, Janacek, Bartok, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and many others. Recent concerti performances include Rachmaninoff's Paganini Rhapsody and Shostakovich's Second at St John's, Smith Square, London. Ian Pace is also much in demand as a writer and lecturer on music and is a member of the piano faculty of the London College of Music. In April 2003 he begins a three year appointment as AHRB Research Fellow in the Creative and Performaing Arts at Southampton University.
All enquiries for concert bookings to Haferkorn Associates: |
To Contact Ian Pace,
|
All
rights reserved.