Lars Vogt

2005-2006

The 2005-2006 seasons finds pianist Lars Vogt embarking on a dazzling array of high-profile engagements in Europe, the U.S., and Japan, performing over 80 concerts and releasing two recordings on EMI Classics. Combining recitals, concerto appearances, and a steady diet of chamber music with a variety of major artists, Lars Vogt daily reminds fans and critics alike why his playing has been called “smouldering...compelling...transcendental” ( The Independent).

Lars Vogt’s collaborations with the great orchestras and conductors of the world continues in the 2005-2006 season, as he appears with the Berlin Philharmonic / Thielemann; London Symphony / Haitink; Royal Stockholm Philharmonic / Gilbert; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester / Slatkin; Orchestra Sinfonica di Santa Cecilia / Tate;  NHK Symphony Orchestra / Blomstedt; Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Harding; RSB Berlin / Janowski;  Munich Philharmonic / Thielemann, and many others. Increasingly sought after in recital, Mr.Vogt will appear in London twice in that capacity, first at the Proms and later in a return to Wigmore Hall; also in other cities including Zürich, Paris, Nuremburg, and Zaragoza. Prized as a chamber musician, Mr.Vogt will perform with various ensembles in Salzburg, Lucerne, Frankfurt, San Francisco, and Berlin. Mr.Vogt’s now legendary duo recitals with violinist Christian Tetzlaff in the 2005-06 season will be heard in Edinburgh, Lucerne, Musashino, Tokyo, and in four U.S. cities. In many ways the piPce de  resistance of Lars Vogt’s season is always his chamber music festival at Heimbach, nestled in the hills near Köln.  The Festival, called Spannungen (www.spannungen.de), is renowned for creating each year the epitome of the chamber music experience. Among the artists  who have  performed at Spannungen are Christian Tetzlaff, Truls Mrrk, Tanya Tetzlaff, Heinrich Schiff, Sabine Meyer, Julia Fischer, Daniel Hope, Kim Kashkashian, Daniel Harding, and many others. EMI’s recording of the complete Brahms Duos, recorded live at Spannungen, received two  prestigious awards: the coveted Echo-Klassik Award in 2004, and the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, both for best chamber music recording. This season, the Festival will be held  from 11 - 18 June 2006. Other festival appearances for Mr.Vogt this season include La Roque d’Anthéron, Salzburg, the Proms, Lucerne, and Edinburgh.

Demand for Lars Vogt among North American audiences increases exponentially  with every season. In 2005-2006, Mr.Vogt will be heard in solo recitals in Kansas City and New York’s Zankel Hall; in duo recital with Christian Tetzlaff in Philadelphia, Princeton and New York’s Alice Tully Hall; and in concerto appearances in five major U.S. cities.  He  will perform Mozart’s concerto K.466 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski; the Grieg piano concerto with Daniel Harding and the Chicago Symphony; Mozart’s K.488 with the Atlanta Symphony, Stéphane DenPve conducting; the Grieg concerto with the San Francisco Symphony and Herbert Blomstedt; Mozart’s K.488 with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Robert Spano; and Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto with the Stockholm Philharmonic and conductor Alan Gilbert at Carnegie Hall.

Among the highlights of Mr.Vogt’s 2004-05 season were his Boston Symphony debut at the Tanglewood Festival, appearances with the Tokyo Philharmonic under the direction of Myung-Whun Chung, chamber music concerts in London with cellist Stephen Isserlis and others, a tour of five German cities with the Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields and Sir Neville Marriner, a spring tour Christian Tetzlaff, recitals in seven European cities, an appearance at Carnegie Hall with the Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Järvi, and, in the last concert of the season, a performance of Stravinsky’s Les Noces with composer/pianist Thomas AdPs, pianists Katia and MariPlle LabPque, and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. During 2004-05 Mr.Vogt also played chamber music with Christian Tetzlaff  at the Ludwigsburg, Rheingau, Kempen, and Tanglewood Festivals, in addition to continuing their collaboration at the Spannungen Festival in Heimbach.

In 2003-04 Mr.Vogt had the singular distinction to have been chosen the very first Pianist-in-Residence with the Berlin Philharmonic, a new position created by conductor Sir Simon Rattle. In this capacity, Mr.Vogt appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic and chamber groups drawn from the orchestra  five  times throughout the season. In four of these concerts Mr.Vogt played  chamber music (by Shostakovich, Brahms, Ligeti,

Bartók, Janáček, Kurtág, et al.), and with the full orchestra, he played Beethoven’s first piano concerto, which he has recorded with Maestro Rattle for EMI. Other appearances of the season included an eleven-city tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Harding, performances with the Orchestra della RAI with Jeffrey Tate, the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester with Herbert Blomstedt, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, also under Daniel Harding, and the London Philharmonic under Kurt Masur. Mr. Vogt’s appearances in North America included his New York Philharmonic debut under conductor Lorin Maazel, as well as performances with the St.Louis, Indianapolis, and Toronto Symphonies, and a chamber music tour with Christian Tetzlaff and Swedish clarinet virtuoso Martin Fröst

Lars Vogt is signed exclusively to EMI Classics, which will release a 2-CD set of Mozart sonatas by Mr.Vogt in January 2006.  Mr.Vogt has also  made three concerto recordings, in collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra  under Sir Simon Rattle, and with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado; seven solo recital recordings, in repertoire  ranging from Haydn to Moussorgsky to Lachenmann to Schubert to Brahms; and seventeen chamber music recordings, fifteen of which were recorded live at the Spannungen Festival. His very first recording, on Virgin Classics, was a collaboration with cellist Truls Mrrk in music of Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Last year EMI released an album of French repertoire Mr.Vogt made with violinist Sarah Chang. This year, EMI has  released two CDs made at the 2004 Spannungen Festival, featuring the music of Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Berg and Schoenberg.

Lars Vogt has performed with such artists as James Conlon, Christian Thielemann, Sabine Meyer, Heinrich Schiff, Hugh Wolff, Leonard Slatkin, Donald Runnicles, and, in a unique program based on Doctor Faustus, actor Klaus-Maria Brandauer. In  North America, he has made concerto appearances with the St.Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St.Luke’s, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Montreal, and San Francisco symphonies. He has also appeared with the Dresden Staatskapelle, LSO, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Tonhalle Orchester, Oslo  Philharmonic, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra  and the Orchestre National de France.

Lars Vogt was born in 1970 in Düren, a small town in Germany. He studied with Ruth Weiss (Aachen) and Prof Karl-Heinz Kämmerling (Hannover). He first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition, which catapulted  him to a life of touring Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America.

For more information about Lars Vogt, visit www.kathrynkingmedia.com, www.larsvogt.com, and call 212-219-2270.http://www.larsvogt.com

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