Pianist Charles Rosen to Give Lecture and Recital at 92nd St Y 11/14

In celebration of the 200th anniversary year of Chopin's birth, Charles Rosen, one of the most widely respected pianists of our time, will give a lecture and recital at 92nd Street Y. A noted scholar on the life and music of Chopin, Mr. Rosen will lecture on "The Last Years of Chopin" at 11 a.m. on Sunday, November 14. On Saturday, November 20, at 8 p.m. he will perform a program comprised of Chopin's late works: Two Nocturnes, Op. 62; Barcarolle in F-sharp minor, Op. 60; Two Mazurkas; Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2; Ballade in F minor, Op. 52; and Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 65 with cellist Fred Sherry.

Tickets and information for Charles Rosen's lecture and recital are available by calling (212) 415-5500 or visiting www.92Y.org/Concerts .

"In these years, Chopin never lost his gift for the kind of passionate sustained melody he had learned from Italian opera," says Mr. Rosen. "The intensity of his style, already greater than that of any of his contemporaries, increased in two ways: the harmonic experimentation became more daring; and the texture became more dense with a new contrapuntal richness of the inner voices, as the last Nocturnes demonstrate powerfully."

At age 83, Mr. Rosen's breadth of endeavors reflects a remarkable synthesis of performing musician, scholar, writer, and lecturer. Internationally acclaimed for performances and recordings of works ranging from J. S. Bach to Elliott Carter, Mr. Rosen's unique combination of musical sensitivity and powerful intelligence produces interpretations of exceptional understanding and impact. He has been heard in major concert halls and at leading festivals throughout the world and continues to perform in music capitals here and abroad.

Mr. Rosen is particularly renowned for his interpretations of the Romantic repertoire, especially the works of Chopin, Schumann and Liszt. He inherited the great Romantic piano tradition in a direct line from some of its most illustrious proponents. Born in New York City, Mr. Rosen was enrolled at The Juilliard School at the age of six, leaving five years later to study with Moriz Rosenthal, a pupil of Liszt, and his wife, Hedwig Kanner, a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky. In 1951, the same year that Mr. Rosen received widespread critical acclaim for his New York debut, he received his doctorate in French literature from Princeton University and made his first recording, the world premiere on disc of Debussy's Études.

Mr. Rosen has been personally invited by such leading composers as Igor Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez, and Elliott Carter to record their works, and many of Mr. Rosen's recordings are considered touchstones against which subsequent interpretations have been measured. Among them are Bach's Art of the Fugue and Goldberg Variations and his Grammy-nominated interpretation of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.

As a writer, several of Mr. Rosen's books have become standards in the field of music study. His latest book, Music and Sentiment, was published by Yale University Press in June of 2010, and Piano Notes: The Hidden Life of the Pianist, a history/memoir published by Free Press in 2002, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Among others are The Classical Style, which won the National Book Award for Arts and Letters in 1972, has been translated into seven languages, and is considered a basic reference for professional musicians, and The Romantic Generation: Music 1927-1850, an expanded version of his six Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University, a portion of which was devoted to Chopin.

Sunday, November 14, 11 a.m. - Lecture
92nd Street Y, New York, NY

"The Last Years of Chopin"

Saturday, November 20, 8 p.m. - Recital
92nd Street Y, New York, NY
Charles Rosen, piano
Fred Sherry, cello

All-Chopin program
Two Nocturnes, Op. 62
Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60
Mazurka in F minor, Op. 63, No. 2
Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 63, No. 3
Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64, No. 2
Ballade in F minor, Op. 52
Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 65

Tickets and information for Charles Rosen's lecture and recital are available by calling (212) 415-5500 or visiting www.92Y.org/Concerts .

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