'Mozart Reincarnate' Pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout Joins The Australian Chamber Orchestra For National Tour

Kristian Bezuidenhout - the virtuoso pianist known as 'Mozart reincarnated' - will reunite with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) next month on a nationwide tour from 24 June to 9 July. Born in South Africa, raised in Australia, and educated in the US, Bezuidenhout rose to fame at the age of 21, winning first prize at the prestigious Bruges Fortepiano Competition. He is known internationally as one of the world's leading performers of Mozart.

Bezuidenhout, who grew up in the Gold Coast before moving abroad to study at the Eastman School of Music, credits his upbringing in Australia as being 'truly remarkable' in shaping his musical development and outlook, and relishes every opportunity to return to the country.

"Australia is a place that holds very strong and happy memories for me on many levels, most vividly because it's the place where I started learning piano," Bezuidenhout said. "I recall Australia as being truly remarkable at that time for the richness and seriousness of its classical music education. There was this sense in both my primary school and high school that music is absolutely one of the most important aspects of a rich education and needs to be treated just as seriously as anything else."

Bezuidenhout first encountered the music of Mozart when he saw the film Amadeus as a child. The movie made a lasting impression and has left the pianist 'madly obsessed' with the composer to this day.

"That film... just blew my mind. The love that comes through for Mozart's music is so extraordinarily poignant," Bezuidenhout said. "And since then, it's been clear to me that Mozart's music changed the course of what is possible musically and emotionally in such profound ways...The depth of characterisation and the depth of latent emotional content under the surface of his music is mind-blowing."

Bezuidenhout will play alongside an intimate ensemble of ACO musicians, including Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, Principal Violin Helena Rathbone, Guest PrincipAl Viola Florian Peelman and Principal Cello Timo-Veikko 'Tipi' Valve, who will together perform some of Mozart and Schumann's most magnificent and moving music written for strings and piano.

Bezuidenhout and the ACO Principals will perform Mozart's Piano Concert No. 13, a work that Bezuidenhout describes as "astonishingly ground-breaking for its time". Mozart wrote of the concerto that it could be "performed with full orchestra...or merely a quattro", which is how it will be presented in these concerts. Schumann's String Quartet No.3 and Piano Quintet will bookend the program. Composed in 1842, Schumann's 'chamber music year' and also not long after he married his beloved Clara, these two magnificent works have been described as "the most perfect of all the products of [Schumann's] genius".

Bezuidenhout last appeared with the ACO in 2014, when he toured with the Orchestra to The Netherlands, the UK, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria.

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