Violinist Jennifer Koh and Pianist Shai Wosner Perform in Recital Presented by Peoples' Symphony Concerts

In their one and only New York recital as a duo this season, violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Shai Wosner perform a range of repertoire from their nearly ten years of musical collaboration. The program reflects their shared commitment to music of the past and present, comprising three violin sonatas-Beethoven's G major (Op. 96), Debussy's G minor (L. 140), and Fauré's A major (Op. 13)-and two contemporary works, György Kurtág's Tre Pezzi (1979) and Kaija Saariaho's Tocar (2010). Peoples' Symphony Concerts presents the recital at Washington Irving High School on Saturday, October 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Single tickets ($13; general admission) will be available on September 14 via phone:(212) 586-4680; web: http://pscny.org/; or the box office on concert night.

The Beethoven sonata is drawn from the duo's ongoing recital series Bridge to Beethoven, which launched in 2015 and explores the impact of Beethoven on a culturally diverse group of composers and musicians. This project features new commissions from composers Andrew Norman, Vijay Iyer, and Anthony Cheung as companion pieces to Beethoven's violin sonatas. Beethoven's Op. 96 was originally paired with Mr. Cheung'sElective Memory on the final program of the series. The two French sonatas on the upcoming recital program, by contrast, stem from a much earlier collaboration exploring the French violin-and-piano repertoire of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

The inclusion of György Kurtág's Tre Pezzi harks back to Ms. Koh and Mr. Wosner's 2013 recording, signs, games + messages (Cedille Records), which includes this work alongside other works by the composer and fellow Central European modernists Béla Bartók and Leoš Janá?ek. Explaining their interest in this repertoire, Ms. Koh and Mr. Wosner write in their notes for the recording: "The folk components in these works are as fundamental as harmony and rhythm, and their use goes far deeper than the merely exotic. ... the various [folk] allusions of Kurtág's enigmatic aphorisms ... transform what may have begun as folk influence into part of the composer's distinctive inner world."

Ms. Koh and Mr. Wosner were among the earliest champions of Kaija Saariaho's Tocar("To Touch"), which they began performing shortly after its composition in 2010. According to the composer, who will be in attendance for the upcoming performance,Tocar is "about the encounter of two instruments as different as the violin and piano," asking the question: "how could they touch each other?" Ms. Koh is especially noted as an advocate for Ms. Saariaho's music, which she has premiered as a soloist and chamber musician and recorded on two albums for Cedille Records. This performance ofTocar is part of her year-long focus on the composer's works.

Among Ms. Koh and Mr. Wosner's other performances as a duo this season is a recital presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The concert, which takes place on March 21, is a continuation of their Bridge to Beethoven series and will feature the Philadelphia premiere of Vijay Iyer's Bridgetower Fantasy, which was inspired by Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, also on the program.

Named Musical America's 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. An adventurous musician, she collaborates with artists of multiple disciplines and curates projects that uncover connections between music of all eras. She believes that all the arts and music of the past and present form a continuum and has premiered over 50 works written especially for her. Ms. Koh has been heard with leading orchestras around the world, including the BBC Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and NHK Symphony. In 1994, she won top prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and her new recording Tchaikovsky's complete works for violin and orchestra was released by Cedille Records on September 9.

Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. He is known for imaginative programming that links music of the past and present, as in his recent recording with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra that pairs concertos and capriccios by Haydn and Ligeti. Mr. Wosner is a recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, 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. This season, Mr. Wosner launches a new solo recital series that focuses on Schubert's last six piano sonatas, and his recording of Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano with Ralph Kirshbaum will be released by Onyx Classics this fall.

Hailed in The New York Times as "Top Music for Bottom Dollar", The Peoples' Symphony Concerts series has presented the world's foremost concert artists and ensembles at the lowest admission prices of any major series in the country. The series was founded by conductor Franz Arens, with the purpose of bringing the best music to students and workers for minimum prices. It continues that tradition today by offering a six-concert series for as little as $42, or $7 per ticket. In addition to Ms. Koh and Mr. Wosner, the 2016-17 season's guest artists include pianists Yefim Bronfman, Paul Lewis, and Garrick Ohlsson; violinists Pamela Frank, Augustin Hadelich, and Christian Tetzlaff; and two of chamber music's leading ensembles-the Juilliard Quartet and The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

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