Naxos Releases New Schubert Recording Featuring Cellist Amit Peled And The Aviv Quartet

Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled is featured on a new recording of Schubert's String Quintet in C Major, Op. 163, D. 956 with the Aviv Quartet, out today on Naxos. The album also includes a performance of Schubert's String Trio in B flat Major, D. 581 and was recorded at the Eglise de Chateau-D'Oex in Switzerland by producer, engineer, and editor Norbert Kraft. The booklet notes are written by Keith Anderson.

Of the recording, Peled says, "Standing firmly as the pinnacle of Mount Everest in chamber music, it has been my dream to record the Schubert Quintet for the longest time. Mesmerized by the legendary recordings of both the Alban Berg Quartet with Heinrich Schiff and the Juilliard Quartet with Bernard Greenhouse, when Naxos asked me to record it, I immediately thought of the Aviv Quartet, who studied in Germany with the Alban Berg Quartet. I studied intensely with Bernard Greenhouse so a mixture of both worlds and both legendary recordings is what we brought together with Naxos. During the recording sessions, we found our own collective voice through the piece and have given it our personal statement. Reaching the top of this monumental Musical Everest has truly been a dream for all of us and we hope that you will enjoy the view from up there as you listen to our recording."

About Amit Peled:

Israeli-American cellist, conductor, and pedagogue Amit Peled, a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, is acclaimed worldwide as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today. At 6'5" tall, Peled started life as a basketball player and was called "larger than life" and "Jacqueline du Pré in a farmer's body" when he enveloped his cello. Peled strives to break down the barriers of the concert hall, about which The Baltimore Sun wrote, "His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we'll need more of if classical music is to survive." From 2012 through 2018, Peled performed on the Pablo Casals 1733 Goffriller cello, which was loaned to him personally by Casals' widow, Marta Casals Istomin. Peled served as Music Director for CityMusic Cleveland for the 2019-2020 season.

Recent career highlights include Bach Suite cycles in the United States, Europe, and Israel; performances of the Saint-Saëns cello concerto at the Kennedy Center; a debut collaboration with the Peabody Chamber Orchestra led by Maestra Marin Alsop; a return to the Ravinia Festival in celebration of Peled's recording of Brahms Cello Sonatas on the Casals cello; a return visit as a soloist to the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico; performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto and Penderecki's Second Cello Concerto conducted by the legendary Krzysztof Penderecki himself; Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata recorded on the Casals cello; and a worldwide musical celebration of Beethoven's Sonatas for Cello and Piano to commemorate the composer's 250th anniversary.

In 2017, Peled published a children's book, A Cello Named Pablo, written by Marni Fogelson and illustrated by Avi Katz. Funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, it follows Peled's journey from the basketball courts of rural Israel to the world's great concert halls playing one of the most famous instruments of all time and continuing the legacy of Pablo Casals.

Peled has performed as a soloist with many of the world's top orchestras and in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium. Of his enthusiastically received Alice Tully Hall concert debut performing the Hindemith Cello Concerto, The New York Times wrote that Peled produces a "glowing tone, a seductive timbre and an emotionally pointed approach to phrasing that made you want to hear him again." Musical America named Peled one of the Top 30 Influencers of 2015.

Peled's extensive discography includes critically acclaimed CDs on the Naxos, Centaur, CAP, CTM Classics, and Delos Labels. His release Casals Homage, which features the legendary 1915 Pablo Casals program, topped the iTunes charts in 2016. Peled and the Amit Peled Cello Gang released a cello ensemble album on Peled's own label CTM Classics in October 2017. His recording, To Brahms with Love... From the Cello of Pablo Casals, features Brahms' Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 performed with pianist Noreen Polera and was released on CAP Records in June 2018.

One of the most sought after cello teachers in the world, Peled has instructed students who have gone on to garner First Prize at the Carlos Prieto International Competition in Mexico and top prizes and final appearances at prestigious international competitions such as the Schoenfeld International Competition in China and Young Concert Artists Guild in New York. The Amit Peled Cello Gang is composed of students from Peled's studio at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he has taught since 2003 and was one of the youngest professors ever hired by a major conservatory. The students in the Amit Peled Cello Gang range in age from undergraduate freshmen to second year master's students, and the group comes together often to perform works written or arranged for cello ensemble. Peled and the Cello Gang also record in professional studios and tour regularly around the country, performing cello concerti, cello choir repertoire, and more in an effort to give the conservatory students practical experience as professional touring artists. Peled is also the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the Mount Vernon Virtuosi, a chamber orchestra dedicated to launching the careers of recently graduated music students, which performs a five-program season in Baltimore, Silver Spring, and Rockville, Maryland.

As an active chamber musician, Peled is a founding member of the famed Tempest Trio with pianist Alon Goldstein and violinist Ilya Kaler. Their Dvořák CD on Naxos has been described as "The best 'Dumky' on disk ever!" by Fanfare Magazine. Peled frequently performs and gives master classes at prestigious summer music festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Schleswig Holstein and Euro Arts Festivals in Germany, Gotland Festival in Sweden, Prussia Cove Festival in England, The Violoncello Forum in Spain, and Keshet Eilon Festival in Israel, among others.

Raised on a kibbutz in Israel, Amit Peled began playing the cello at age 10. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife and children and performs on the only known copy of the "Servais" Stradivarius by Vuillaume ca. 1865. For more information, visit www.amitpeled.com.

About the Aviv Quartet:

Aviv Quartet (Sergey Ostrovsky and Philippe Villafranca, violins; Noémie Bialobroda, viola; Daniel Mitnitsky, cello) was awarded the Grand Prix and four special prizes at the Third Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition (1999), First Prize (Amadeus Quartet Prize) at the Charles Hennen Concours, International Chamber Music Competition for Strings (1999), the Schubert Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition 'Franz Schubert and Modern Music' (2003), Second Prize and the Inter- national Critics Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition (2003), and Second Prize at the Prague Spring International Music Competition (1998).

The Aviv Quartet has performed at leading venues worldwide including Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sydney Opera House, Cologne Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, The Louvre Auditorium, Théâtre de la ville in Paris, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn. The Quartet recently presented the Beethoven Quartet cycle in six concerts in Geneva. Its recordings for Naxos, including works by Hoffmeister, Schulhoff and Dohnányi, have been highly acclaimed for their freshness of spirit, vivacity, and outstanding ensemble performance. Aviv, Hebrew for 'spring', represents the Quartet's artistic philosophy of fresh thinking, stripping away artificial coverings to reveal true nature, sharper definition, and heightened awareness. Learn more at www.avivquartet.com.

Schubert Track List

Schubert - String Trio in B flat Major, D. 581 (1817)
1. I. Allegro Moderato
2. II. Andante
3. III. Menuetto: Allegretto
4. IV. Rondo: Allegretto

Schubert - String Quintet in C Major, Op. 163, D. 956 (1828)
5. Allegro ma non troppo
6. Adagio
7. Scherzo: Presto
8. Allegretto