Pianist Shai Wosner to Perform THE SCHUBERT EFFECT at 92nd Street Y, 1/28 & 2/1

92nd Street Y presents a series of two programs curated by pianist Shai Wosner and performed by Mr. Wosner and the Parker Quartet titled The Schubert Effect.

On Wednesday, January 28 at 7:30 p.m., Mr. Wosner plays Schubert's Sonata No. 20 in A major, D. 959 and Missy Mazzoli's 2007 work for piano and electronics, Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Pianos, which was written as a meditation on Schubert's A-major sonata. The Parker Quartet then performs Kurtág's Aus der Ferne V and Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" String Quartet.

On Sunday, February 1 at 3:00 p.m., the program opens with Schubert's Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703, the first and only complete movement of the composer's never-finished String Quartet No. 12. Following the Quartettsatz, each movement of Schubert's Six moments musicaux for solo piano, played by Mr. Wosner, will be juxtaposed with each movement from Kurtág's 2005 work Six moments musicaux for string quartet, played by the Parker Quartet. The program will then close with Schubert's "Trout" Quintet, performed by Mr. Wosner, Parker Quartet musicians, and Timothy Cobb on double bass.

Both recitals take place at 92nd Street Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall. Tickets priced from $35 to $57 are available online at 92y.org, by phone at (212) 415-5500, or in person at the box office.

Mr. Wosner recorded Schubert's Sonata in A major, D. 959 and Six moments musicaux, and Ms. Mazzoli's Isabelle Eberhardt Dreams of Pianos, all works to be performed at the 92nd Street Y, on an album released by Onyx Classics last month. For this release, Mr. Wosner also commissioned and performed the world premiere of Ms. Mazzoli's A Map of Laughter, a short work influenced by Moments musicaux No. 4, available as a bonus track by download only. A recent Wall Street Journal article featuring the album stated, "Both [Mazzoli] pieces are rendered with impressive fluency and empathy, qualities also evident in Mr. Wosner's lilting Schubert."

In the liner notes of this album, Mr. Wosner explains the concept behind The Schubert Effect programming: "There is hardly any characteristic of Schubert's music that is as contentious as it is fundamental than its sense of time. Its expansiveness, the 'heavenly length' of his instrumental works (to use Schumann's famous description) has been misunderstood by those who otherwise find his music deeply moving. Even Dvorák, a great admirer, lovingly wrote that Schubert simply 'doesn't know when to stop'. Perhaps the reason for this reaction is that in the heart of Schubert's sense of time-an inseparable part of what makes his music so profoundly expressive-lies a certain duality, a kind of a Schubert Effect."

Mr. Wosner has been widely praised for his interpretations of Schubert's solo works, both in concert and in recording. In the review of his all-Schubert solo recording released by Onyx in October 2011, Gramophone magazine wrote, "With this recital Shai Wosner declares himself a Schubertian of unfaltering authority and character." In recent seasons Mr. Wosner has performed a Schubert-themed recital program that pairs Schubert impromptus and sonatas with Jörg Widmann's Idyll and Abyss (Six Schubert Reminiscences).

About Shai Wosner - Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. He has appeared with major orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony in the US, and the Barcelona Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, LSO St. Luke's and Staatskapelle Berlin in Europe, among others. Mr. Wosner is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award-a prize he used to commission Michael Hersch's concerto Along the Ravines, which he then performed with the Seattle Symphony and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie-Saarbrücken in its world and German premieres.

This season, Mr. Wosner's orchestral engagements include a return to the Hamburg Symphony to perform Mozart concertos, following his debut with the orchestra last year; his debut with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec playing Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; and performances with the Indianapolis Symphony and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. His solo appearances include recitals at Atlanta's Spivey Hall, Eugene's Beall Concert Hall, Williams College, and for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, performing works by Schubert, Chopin, Haydn, Ligeti, Beethoven, and Ms. Mazzoli.

In April 2015, Mr. Wosner and violinist Jennifer Koh, frequent recital partners, premiere their four-part Bridge to Beethoven recital series. The project, which will continue in the 2015-16 season, pairs Beethoven's ten violin sonatas with newly-commissioned pieces by Anthony Cheung, Vijay Iyer, and Andrew Norman, as well as Jörg Widmann's 2010 work, Sommersonate.

About Missy Mazzoli - Missy Mazzoli is a Brooklyn-based composer whose works have been performed by soloists including pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Jennifer Koh; chamber ensembles including eighth blackbird, JACK Quartet, and the Kronos Quartet; orchestras including the American Composers Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra; and opera companies including the New York City Opera. She is currently Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Music Theatre-Group, and recently joined the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music.

About the Parker Quartet - Formed in 2002, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation. The New York Times has hailed the quartet as "something extraordinary," the Washington Post has described them as having "exceptional virtuosity [and] imaginative interpretation," and the Boston Globe acclaims their "pinpoint precision and spectacular sense of urgency." The quartet began touring on the international circuit after winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition as well as the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in France. Chamber Music America awarded the quartet the prestigious biennial Cleveland Quartet Award for the 2009-11 seasons. The Parker Quartet recently joined the faculty of Harvard University's Department of Music as Blodgett Artists-in-Residence.