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Pictures taken Fri 9 July
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From one former St Eds music scholar to another - great to hear and see you doing so well. Fantastic as ever - reminds me of 1993 and Warneford House music evenings! Best wishes.
Alex Traill
What enjoyment. A majestic performance from a young maestro. An honour and pleasure to be present.
Chris Lamb, Lavenham
Amazing! FK really puts his mark on any piece he plays. In the G Minor Ballade we knew we were getting something a little different when the loud pedal was held down throughout the introductory bars.
Through the concert there were plenty of reminders of the great Vladimir Horowitz – FK’s emphatic use of bass octaves, his dramatic changes in tempo, his clarity and his propensity to play many of the most difficult passages at an impossible speed. Freddy Kempf seems happy to take risks! As with Horowitz’ recordings, this really keeps you on the edge of your seat &, like Horowitz, he managed it successfully 99% of the time.
It was so appropriate that the final encore was Horowitz’ version of Stars & Stripes – I’d never worked out how that could be played by only one person!
It was the best concert I’ve been to in years!
Charles Macready, Bury St Edmunds
Quotes
‘Kempf has the maturity and musicality with which to harness his gifts to artistic ends. He has the fearless exuberance of youth. He is prepared to take risks, a readiness that brings spontaneous combustion to his playing; but he has sensitivity, too.’ The Telegraph
‘The most dazzling display, meanwhile, was that of pianist Freddy Kempf in the first and third Chopin Ballades and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No 1, full of style and bravura.’ Guardian 2009
Biography
Freddy Kempf is one of today’s most successful young artists performing to sell-out audiences all over the world. He has built a unique reputation both as an explosive and physical performer not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist.
Born in London in 1977 Freddy began piano lessons at the young age of four. He came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition following a memorable performance of Rachmaninov Paganini Variations. It was perhaps his award of third prize in the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow that rapidly established his international career. For him not to have won the first prize provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him “the hero of the competition” and his unprecedented popularity with Russian audiences since then has been reflected in several sold-out concerts and numerous television broadcasts.
Many international debuts followed including engagements at the Munich Gasteig, the Alter Oper in Frankfurt, Berlin’s Philharmonie & Konzerthaus, New York’s 92nd Street “Y”, Chicago’s Grant Park festival, Vienna’s Musikverein & Konzerthaus, Salzburg’s Mozarteum and the Concertgebouw amongst others. His immense versatility as a performer has since taken him all over the world from opening the Shanghai Concert Hall in October 2004, to recording Chopin’s Etudes for DVD in a Chateau close to Paris for BBC Television and acclaimed Beethoven Concerto Cycles in London and Sydney.
Freddy has worked with the world’s leading orchestras and acclaimed conductors such as the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and Kurt Sanderling, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti and Matthias Bamert, City of Birmingham Symphony/Oramo, La Scala Philharmonic/Chailly, St. Petersburg Philharmonic/Temirkanov, Russian State Symphony/Sinaisky, Dresden Symphony/Herbig, Seattle Symphony/Schwarz, San Francisco Symphony/Tortelier, Philadelphia Orchestra/Sawallisch, NHK Symphony/Simonov, European Union Youth Orchestra/Ashkenazy, Prague Philharmonia/Belohlavek, Rotterdam Philharmonic/Viotti, the Residentie Orkest/Jaarvi, Vancouver Symphony/Tovey, Luxembourg Philharmonic/Krivine and the Sao Paolo State Symphony/Kalmar.
Recent and forthcoming highlights include engagements with the Royal Philharmonic in Europe, at London’s Cadogan Hall and Royal Festival Hall, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTE, English Chamber, projects with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Brabants Orkest, Salzburg Mozarteum, Orchestra della Toscana, Bergen Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, a major UK tour with the Moscow Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Westdeutsche Sinfonia, Oregon Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, KBS Symphony and New Zealand Symphony, amongst others. A favourite to Australian and Asian audiences, Freddy will return for concerts with the Tasmania, Adelaide and Queensland Orchestras and in September 09 will undergo an extensive tour of Japan with the Royal Philharmonic.
A committed recitalist, Freddy has built up dedicated audiences world-wide appearing at London’s Barbican Centre and Cadogan Hall, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Munich’s Herkulessaal, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Osaka’s Symphony Hall, Grande Teatro di Verona, Milan Conservatorio’s Sala Verdi, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Moscow’s Great Hall of the Conservatoire and St. Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall. Current highlights include return visits to the Moscow Grand Conservatory, St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Conservatorio G. Verdi Milano and in October 2009 Freddy will perform a UK recital tour with a programme featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations in leading concert halls including London’s Cadogan Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Newcastle’s Sage Gateshead, Cardiff’s St. David’s Hall and Dublin’s National Concert Hall.
Freddy records exclusively for BIS Records, for whom he has recorded recital discs of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Schumann and his most recent release includes the works of Mussorgsky, Ravel and Balakirev. This recording has already been received with critical acclaim being chosen as Editor’s Choice in the Gramophone Magazine and Geoffrey Norris writes for the Telegraph that:
Freddy Kempf here tackles three giants of the piano repertoire and conquers them with spirit and imagination. Armed with all the necessary technical resources, he is able to bring colour and well-defined character to Pictures from an Exhibition, revealing how ingeniously Mussorgsky exploited the piano’s palette of sound without the aid of all those later arrangers who chose to embellish it with orchestral timbres.
One of those was Ravel, whose Gaspard de la nuit here glows, ripples and, in “Scarbo”, bristles with malevolence. The bravura of Balakirev’s Islamey is brilliant.
Freddy’s next release will be an all Prokofiev disc including piano sonatas and concerti with the Bergen Philharmonic and Andrew Litton.
June 2009
Summer Q and A (coming soon)
Q1 Who or what always puts a smile on your face?
Q2 What was your earliest childhood memory of summer?
Q3 Are you going anywhere nice for your summer holidays?
Q4 What is your favourite city?
Q5 What are you reading at the moment?
Q6 What music are you currently listening to?
Q7 What’s your favourite summer drink?
Q8 What food would you most associate with summer?
Q9 Which composer would you most like to have met?
Q10 How would you like to be remembered?
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After concert supper 1
After concert supper bookings is now closed.
MAIN:
Beef slow cooked in Adnams ale & garnished with pearl onions
VEGETARIAN:
Crumble topped haricot beans & aromatic vegetables baked in a rich tomato sauce (V)
Creamy mashed potatoes
A bouquetiere of seasonal vegetables
DESSERT
Classic chocolate tart served with drambuie and orange infused pouring cream
Tea, coffee & herbal infusions
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