Tzvi Avni: Piano Works Heidrun Holtmann

• Tzvi Avni (b. 1927): Piano Concerto:
• 1 Piano Concerto: I. Confrontations 09:42
• 2 Piano Concerto: II. Confession 06:48
• 3 Piano Concerto: III. Youth Images 08:08
• Piano Sonata "In Spite of All That":
• 4 Piano Sonata "In Spite of All That" 08:43
• Autumn Interludes:
• 5 Autumn Interludes: I. Difficult Decisions 03:08
• 6 Autumn Interludes: II. There Are Nights 02:28
• 7 Autumn Interludes: III. Always on the Road 03:17
• 8 Autumn Interludes: IV. Despite Everything 04:23
• Piano Sonata No. 3 "On the Verge of Time":
• 9 Piano Sonata No. 3 "On the Verge of Time" 13:05
• Prelude & Passacaglia "From There and Then":
• 10 Prelude & Passacaglia "From There and Then": I. Prelude. Andante meditativo 03:57
• 11 Prelude & Passacaglia "From There and Then": II. Passacaglia. In modo giudaico - Con moto 05:40
• Andante meditativo:
• 12 Andante meditativo 03:40
• Total Runtime 01:12:59

Info zu Tzvi Avni: Piano Works

Tzvi Avni is an established part of Israels culture. He provided important, even essential contributions during the process in which Israeli music was trying to find its identity. As a teacher he has shown many young composers ways to create their own work, and he was chairman of the Israel Composers League as well as artistic director of the World Music Days which took place in Israel in 1980. Since 1993 he has been chairman of the Israel Jeunesses Musicales and was editor of its monthly magazine for almost 20 years. Yet he has never lost sight of his role as an artist with social and cultural responsibility. Whenever I am asked, he once said, how a composer differs from other contemporaries in other countries, then I say that socially, culturally and politically most composers in Israel are necessarily more involved in the society they live in. A glance at his multifarious work reveals his basic roots in the European musical tradition, whose styles and forms of expression he has combined not only with the traditional Middle East/Mediterranean style but also with modern Western musical innovation. Many of his musical themes also show his deep attachment to biblical history, Jewish tradition and the destiny of the people of Israel.

Heidrun Holtmann, piano
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern
Jamie Phillips, conductor

Heidrun Holtmann
was born in Münster, Germany, where she began her musical education at the age of four. Five years later she was accepted by the Music Academy of Detmold, where she worked with Renate Kretschmar-Fischer and completed her studies with highest honours.

She was awarded several prizes at national and international competitions. In 1979, she won the second prize ex aequo and in 1982 the first prize at the Concours Géza Anda in Zurich and within a few years had achieved recognition from audiences and critics alike. Appearances with conductors such as Antal Doráti, Iván Fischer and David Zinman followed, and she performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich as well as with many other symphony and chamber orchestras in Germany and abroad.

Heidrun Holtmann is a regular guest at international festivals, including Salzburg Festival, Festival d‘Automne à Paris, Festival d‘Estiú de Barcelona, Berliner Festwochen, Lucerne Festival, Settimane Musicali di Stresa, Festival Pianistico Intemazionale di Brescia e Bergamo, Ruhr Piano Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, Bonn Piano Summer, MDR-Musiksommer, Lockenhaus, Kuhmo, Prussia Cove and has toured in Europe, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, the USA, Canada, South America, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

She has frequently been featured on radio and television programs, with an artist‘s portrait and a televised concert of Chopin‘s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Klauspeter Seibel as well as a documentary of two early Mozart Piano Concertos with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by Marc Andreae undertaken by Swiss Television in Lugano, which was later released on DVD by Euroarts.

Her discography includes the complete works for piano and orchestra by Robert Schumann (Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin under the direction of Stefan Soltesz), Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third and Fourth Piano Concertos in chamber music versions dating from the nineteenth century (Concertino München) and several solo CDs spanning a wide repertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy and Szymanowski and works from the contemporary repertoire. Following her double album containing night pieces, her next CD Piano Music from Israel has been issued with works by Josef Tal, Tzvi Avni and Gil Shohat.

Her strong commitment to the music of our time, as for example demonstrated within the framework of her programme concept Music as the Expression of Freedom, has resulted in projects such as the world première of Tzvi Avni’s Piano Concerto with the Duisburger Philharmoniker conducted by Benjamin Shwartz.

Jamie Phillips
Praised for having the “ability to pick up a familiar piece by the scruff of its neck and shake invigorating new life into it" (Bachtrack), Jamie Phillips demonstrates a natural authority on the rostrum, which he combines with a clear, assured and expressive technique and an innate musicality.

Jamie Phillips has developed a strong guest conducting profile across Europe, and in the 2018/19 season returns to orchestras including the Orchestra of the Opéra de Rouen, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonie Zuidnederland. Phillips will also return to the Hallé, where he has been described as handling “his vast forces with tight control and penetrating insight” (Nottingham Post) and has previously held the title of Assistant Conductor and the specially created title of Associate Conductor. Phillips will also make his debut with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philhamonic, Orchestre National d’Ile de France and Philharmonia Orchestra as well as at Vienna’s Musikverein and the Philharmonie de Paris.

In recent seasons, Phillips has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Nash Ensemble, Camerata Salzburg, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre d’Auvergne, Essen Philharmonic, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also made return visits to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, RTE Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic. ​

Jamie Phillips is committed to new and 20th century music and has recorded two CDs featuring the music of Tarik O’Regan and Helen Grime, both with the Hallé for the NMC label: “Performances are spot-on, not least from the orchestra’s assistant conductor, Jamie Phillips, making an auspicious debut on disc.” Classical Music Magazine

Booklet für Tzvi Avni: Piano Works