Roger Woodward
Wednesday 4 June, 7.30pm
Roger Woodward’s repertoire embraces all styles and periods with currently over one hundred recordings and videos for DGG, Decca, EMI, RCA, BMG, Warners, ABC Classics, Etcetera Records BV, Polskie Nagrania, CPO, Unicorn, and most recently Celestial Harmonies BV. In October, 2006, Celestial Harmonies’ release of the Chopin’s Nocturnes was reviewed in Frankfurt’s Musik an sich… by Sven Kerkhoff:
“The complete recording of Chopin’s Nocturnes has no equal. Woodward approaches them with great gentleness. Virtuosic tinkering with the keyboard is foreign to him. His concentrated interpretation is well thought out, now and then pensive and contains embellishments of astonishing yet never conceited liberties that demonstrate how strongly and in what a breathtakingly modern way Chopin has worked with sound colours. Ethereal sound constructions rise and dissolve like phantastic dreamscapes. But those landscapes are of such ravishing beauty and the farewell from these intangible constructions so painful, that one has to continually catch one’s breath. Whoever could not, until now, marvel at or cry over Chopin will learn it here…Unconditional recommendation!”
In November 2006 David Hood reviewed the same recording for Libretto, 3MBSFM, in Melbourne Australia, “this recording is superb ... the pianist is so identified with the music that it can truly speak through his fingers. The music has been fully prepared, with six editions consulted and facsimiles of autographs. This collection stands with those of Moravec and Rubinstein in sheer style and excellence. There is magic in Woodward’s portrayal of these matchless songs of rest and peace… romance and storm.”Whilst recording the Chopin Nocturnes, Woodward also recorded two magnum-opus contemporary German piano cycles: Hans Otte’s Stundenbuch (Book of Hours) and Peter Michael Hamel’s Des Klang von Leben (Of the Sound of Life). In October 2006, the musicians of the Alexander String Quartet joined him to record the F minor Chopin Piano Concerto and Beethoven C major Piano Quartet Woo36. Earlier in 2006, after performances of the Brahms Piano Quintet, the Alexander String Quartet and Woodward recorded the Shostakovich Piano Quintet in New York. They record the Brahms Piano Quintet and Piano Quartets next season. The ASQ and Roger Woodward celebrated the Centenary of the composer’s birth at the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, last September with performances of the Violin, Cello and Viola Sonatas, Pieces for Two Violins and Piano, the Piano Quintet, and eight of the Preludes and Fugues for piano. Woodward had previously performed the complete cycle of Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, recorded for RCA (UK).
In January 2007, Woodward appeared for Radiobremenklavierfest after which he recorded the Debussy Préludes and Bach Partitas with Ulrich Kraus. In summer 2007, he records Schumann and J.S.Bach’s 'Das Wohltemperierte Clavier' before performing in Gdansk, Poland, where the Order of Solidarity is to be conferred. In September 2007, he performs Chopin with James Judd in Adelaide and both books of the Bach Preludes and Fugues in Sydney. During the second part of 2007, Celestial Harmonies will release a Xenakis a recording of 'live' performances from Vienna, London, Vienna, Frankfurt and Sydney. The London Guardian described him as a “pianistic genius”; Le Monde de la Musique, Paris, for his Debussy performances, as “magnificent”; in Edinburgh, he was described as a “musician’s musician” and at the Toulouse Festival, the French Press wrote: “Roger Woodward compte parmi les musiciens internationaux de premier plan à notre epoque”. Roger Woodward performs with the major orchestras and conductors including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, New York, Los Angeles and Israel Philharmonics, Orchestre de Paris, the Cleveland Orchestra, London Orchestras and EEC Mahlerjungendorchester directed by Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Eliahu Inbal, Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Roger Norrington, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, and Edo de Waart. He also worked with Paavo Berglund, Eric Leinsdorf, Witold Rowicki, Georges Tzipine, Georg Tintner and Walter Susskind. He performed new works by Gilbert Amy, Jean Barraqué, Anne Boyd, James Dillon, Franco Donatoni, Morton Feldman, Rolf Gehlhaar, Peter Hamel, Askell Masson, Richard Meale, Olivier Messiaen, Hans Otte, Arvo Pärt, Horatiu Radulescu, Larry Sitsky, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Toru Takemitsu, Xu Xiao-song and Yannis Xenakis. As a composer, Woodward was commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris for the bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution with his works performed in the UK, Poland, France, Spain and at the Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music. His passion for chamber music involved him in performances with a wide range of artists including the Vienna Trio, Alexander, Arditti, Edinburgh and Tokyo String Quartets, Frank Zappa, Ivry Gitlis, Synergy Percussion (Sydney) and with the Sydney Dance Company in a production of Xenakis’s 'Kraanerg'.
He founded and directed the London Music Digest, Kötschach-Mauthner Musiktage, Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music and Joie et Lumière series, Bourgogne and performed at international festivals on five continents, including Sviatoslav Richter’s Festival at Grange de Meslay, Tours, on several occasions; has made television documentaries for the BBC with Xenakis and Boulez and video documentaries with Stockhausen, Cage and Arvo Pärt. He is Commander of the Polish Order of Merit and is about to receive the Polish Order of Solidarity; a Chevalier in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; Officer of the Order of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of Australia, where he was designated a lifelong National Treasure by the Australian National Trust. Roger Woodward studied piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, with Prof Alexander Sverjensky (a pupil of Sergei Rakhmaninov) and in the class of Prof Zbigniew Drzewiecki (a pupil of Ignazy Paderewski and lifelong friend of Szymanowski and Artur Rubinstein) at the National Chopin Academy for Music, Warsaw. He works with young artists in many countries and participates on the Juries of international competitions. Together with the musicians of the Alexander String Quartet he is Professor at the San Francisco State University and author of publications covering a wide field.
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