Pianist Finehouse to Perform Recital
Pianist Constantine Finehouse, a scholar-in-residence at Westmont, performs music by Alexander Scriabin, Chopin, Mozart and Beethoven on Friday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m. in Deane Chapel. The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Westmont Music Department at (805) 565-6400.
“‘Sonata Pathetique’ by Beethoven is probably the first classical sonata with such overtly dramatic/tragic overtones,” Finehouse says. “The Mozart piece is nothing but a series of variations on ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ (ingeniously crafted, of course). Chopin’s ‘Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat Major’ is one of his last and most complex and experimental pieces. It was, for almost 100 years, considered an obscure and convoluted work and only reappeared in concert programs in the middle of 20th century.”
Finehouse, who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, attended New England Conservatory, Juilliard and Yale. He studied with Fredrik Wanger, Natalia Harlap, Herbert Stessin, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Berman and Bruce Brubaker.
He has performed extensively in the U.S. and abroad, including Lausanne, London, Odessa, St. Petersburg and Trieste. His newest album, which includes cellist Sebastian Bäverstam, features the universally-admired Brahms Sonata, Opus 38 for piano and cello as well as several new works in the high romantic style by Boston composer Tony Schemmer. In 2009, he released a solo recording, “Backwards Glance,” which interweaves music of Brahms and Richard Beaudoin.
Finehouse is a member of the American Double, which in 2007 released the Bolcom Project, the first recording of Pulitzer-Prize winning composer William Bolcom’s complete works for violin and piano.
He is currently recording Bolcom’s complete piano solo works with fellow pianists Ursula Oppens and Christopher Taylor for Naxos Records.
His awards include the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship from Juilliard, a 2004 St. Botolph Club Foundation Grant and a 2006 Classics Abroad Project Award. He serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory and Extension Divisions in Boston.
The Bolcom Project, made in collaboration with his American Double partner violinist Philip Ficsor, included a double-CD and a national tour. The 2015-16 season brings recitals celebrating Bolcom’s 75th birthday, in which Finehouse will be featured as a soloist as well as in chamber music performances across the United States.
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