Superstar trio make their U.S. debut as a unit in Santa Barbara
SUMMARY
- Tue, Oct 10 | 7 p.m. | Granada Theatre
- Three award-winning classical superstars come together for an evening of masterful chamber music
- In their U.S. debut as a unit, the trio will perform a program of masterworks from Haydn, Ravel and Mendelssohn
- The Thibaudet, Batiashvili, Capuçon concert is the opening performance of UCSB Arts & Lectures Great Performances Aand Great Performances Suite series
- $46 – $131 / UCSB Students $20 (Current student ID required)
- Tickets & Info: www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu or The Granada Theatre, www.granadasb.org, (805) 899-2222
“Sophistication and suavity, both clarity and freedom.” The New York Times on Jean-Yves Thibaudet
“Batiashvili’s fearless playing is tonally rich and technically immaculate.” The Guardian (U.K.)
“Fierce concentration and taut virtuosity.” Bachtrack on Gautier Capuçon
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano, Lisa Batiashvili, violin and Gautier Capuçon, cello, on Tuesday, October 10 at 7 p.m. at the Granada Theatre.Three friends and award-winning classical stars come together for an evening of chamber music at the highest level of cohesion and artistic insight. Gautier Capuçon’s powerful cello blends with the warm, brilliant tone of violinist Lisa Batiashvili and the finesse of Jean-Yves Thibaudet in a program of masterpieces that showcases their individual and collaborative gifts. “When you have the possibility to play incredible music with great friends onstage, this is just pure luxury,” Capuçon says. “There is nothing better than that.”
Program
Haydn: Piano Trio in E Major, Hob. XV:28
Ravel: Piano Trio in A Minor
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, op. 66
Lisa Batiashvili and Gautier Capuçon play the music of Ennio Morricone with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in 2019
ABOUT LISA BATIASHVILI
Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award-winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians. In 2021 Batiashvili formed and continues to lead the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, which serves her lifelong dream and commitment to supporting young, highly talented Georgian musicians to thrive in their musical careers.
Batiashvili is the Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt. For the 2022 festival, she performed Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Münchner Philharmoniker under the motto “Keep On Dancing.”
Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, Batiashvili’s latest album Secret Love Letters was released in August 2022, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Philadelphia Orchestra.
Her 2020 City Lights project marks a musical journey that takes listeners around the world to eleven cities with an autobiographical connection to music ranging from Bach to Morricone, and Dvo?ák to Charlie Chaplin. A twelfth city was added in 2022 with the release of her single “Desafinado,” celebrating Rio de Janeiro. At the renowned Concert de Paris on Bastille Day in 2020 she performed the title track “City Memories” which was broadcast internationally.
Batiashvili has won a number of awards: the MIDEM Classical Award, the Choc de l’année, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award and the Beethoven-Ring. Batiashvili was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015, was nominated as Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy (University of Arts, Helsinki).
Batiashvili lives in Munich and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector.
ABOUT GAUTIER CAPUÇON
Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing internationally with many of the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also a passionate ambassador for the Orchestre à l’École Association which brings classical music to more than 40,000 school children across France. In January 2022 Gautier Capuçon launched his own Foundation to support young and talented musicians at the beginning of their career and increasing his commitment to young artists. A multiple award winner, he is acclaimed for his expressive musicianship, exuberant virtuosity, and for the deep sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello “L’Ambassadeur.”
In summer 2020, mid-pandemic, Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across the length and breadth of France, free of charge, during his musical odyssey ‘Un été en France’. During July 2022, for the third edition of this project, he performed 15 concerts across the nation at locations including Autun, Clairveaux, Eauz and his hometown of Chambéry. He also showcases 14 young musicians and 8 young dancers within his concert presentations.
Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography. His latest album, Sensations, released in Autumn 2022, explores short pieces from a range of different genres. His album of romantic works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff in collaboration with Andreas Ottensammer and Yuja Wang was also released in Autumn 2022 by Deutsche Grammophon. 2020’s Warner Classics album Emotions features music from composers such as Debussy, Schubert and Elgar and has achieved gold status in France, remaining at Number 1 in the charts for over 30 weeks and selling more than 110,000 copies. Earlier recordings include concertos by Shostakovich (The Mariinsky Orchestra/Valery Gergiev) and Saint-Saëns (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Lionel Bringuier); the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley; Schubert’s String Quintet with the Ébène Quartet; Intuition with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris/?Douglas Boyd and Jérôme Ducros; an album of Schumann works, recorded live with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe/?Bernard Haitink; Beethoven Piano Trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley; Chopin and Franck sonatas with Yuja Wang; and a solo album featuring Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly as well as a “Best of” recording on the occasion of his 40th birthday.
Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Now, he performs with world’s leading orchestras, works with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrès Orozco-Estrada, Pablo Heras-Casado, Klaus Mäkelä, Andris Nelsons, and Christian Thielemann, and collaborates with contemporary composers including Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce Dessner, Jérôme Ducros, Henry Dutilleux, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann.
ABOUT JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET
For more than three decades, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has performed worldwide, recorded more than 50 albums, and built a reputation as one of today’s finest pianists. He plays a range of solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire – from Beethoven through Liszt, Grieg, and Saint-Saëns, to Khachaturian and Gershwin and to Olivier Messiaen, Qigang Chen, James MacMillan, Richard Dubugnon and Aaron Zigman.
Thibaudet has a lifelong passion for education and fostering young musical talent. He is the first-ever Artist-in-Residence at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where he makes his home. In 2017, the school announced the Jean-Yves Thibaudet Scholarships, funded by members of Colburn’s donor community, to provide aid for Music Academy students, whom Thibaudet will select for the merit-based awards, regardless of their instrument choice.
Thibaudet records exclusively for Decca; his extensive catalog has received two Grammy nominations, two ECHO Awards, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Edison Prize, and Gramophone awards. His most recent album, 2021’s Carte Blanche, features a collection of deeply personal solo piano pieces never before recorded by the pianist. Other highlights from Thibaudet’s catalog include a 2017 recording of Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, with whom he previously recorded Gershwin, featuring big band jazz orchestrations of Rhapsody in Blue, the Concerto in F, and the original version of Variations on “I Got Rhythm.” In 2016, on the 150th anniversary of Erik Satie’s birth, Decca released a box set of Satie’s complete solo piano music performed by Thibaudet – one of the foremost champions of the composer’s works. On his Grammy-nominated recording Saint-Saëns, Piano Concerti Nos. 2&5, released in 2007, he is joined by Charles Dutoit and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Thibaudet’s Aria – Opera Without Words, which was released the same year, features aria transcriptions, some of which are Thibaudet’s own. His other recordings include the jazz albums Reflections on Duke: Jean-Yves Thibaudet Plays the Music of Duke Ellington and Conversations With Bill Evans.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet was born in Lyon, France, where he began his piano studies at age five and made his first public appearance at age seven. At twelve, he entered the Paris Conservatory to study with Aldo Ciccolini and Lucette Descaves, a friend and collaborator of Ravel. At age fifteen, he won the Premier Prix du Conservatoire and, three years later, the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York City. Among his numerous commendations is the Victoire d’Honneur, a lifetime career achievement award and the highest honor given by France’s Victoires de la Musique. In 2010, the Hollywood Bowl honored Thibaudet for his musical achievements by inducting him into its Hall of Fame. Previously a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Thibaudet was awarded the title Officier by the French Ministry of Culture in 2012. In 2020, he was named Special Representative for the promotion of French Creative and Cultural Industries in Romania. He is co-artistic advisor, with Gautier Capuçon, of the Festival Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot.
ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Lisa Batiashvili, and Gautier Capuçon are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the UCSB Department of Music.
Tickets are $46 – $131: General Public / $20 UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
Tickets are also available through the Granada box office at (805) 899-2222 and granadasb.org
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2023-2024 season.