Date/Time
Date(s) - 14/Sep/2019
Genre - Piano 4 hands
In a programme of Schubert: Fantasia in F minor D 940; Mendelssohn: Fantasia MWV T1 in D minor (first performance in India), From incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ravel: Ma mère l’oye Suite (author’s transcription for piano four hands)
Supported by Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, Mumbai Section
Alessandra Ammara has drawn the attention of the musical world from a young age, succeeding in major international piano competitions such as the “J. Iturbi” in Valencia, the “Casagrande” in Terni, “G. B. Viotti” in Vercelli, and the “Van Cliburn” in Fort Worth. In 2000 she was awarded “Laureate” by the “Esther Honens” international piano competition in Calgary, Canada.
Ms. Ammara’s concert highlights include performances at Grosses Philharmonie in Berlin, Salzburg Grosse Festspielhaus, Musikverein in Vienna, Salle Cortot in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Gasteig in Munich, Jack Singer Hall in Calgary, Bass Hall in Fort Worth and Meridian Center in Washington. She has thrilled audiences as soloist with orchestras such as Wiener Symphoniker, Berliner Symphoniker, Orchestra Sinfonicadella Rai, Calgary Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic with conductors like Fabio Luisi, Georg Pehlivanian, Roberto Minczuk, Bernard Labadie, En Shao, Lior Shambadal.
An enthusiastic chamber music performer, Ms. Ammara gave concerts with Ingrid Attrot, Rocco Filippini, Alban Gerhardt, Anton Kuerti, Shauna Rolston, the Takacs Quartet and the Sine Nomine Quartet. Since 1999 she has formed a piano duo with her husband Roberto Prosseda. The duo’s recording of Mendelssohn’s complete woks for piano duet was released by Decca in 2015, winning the “Disco del mese” Award of Classic Voice magazine.
Ms. Ammara’s discography for the German label Arts includes Chopin’s 4 Ballades, GiacintoScelsi’s Preludes, Schumann’s Carnaval, Davidsbündlertänze and Album for the Young, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Miroirs.
Together with some of the greatest pianists in the world, she recorded the new complete Chopin edition produced by Brilliant Classics. For the same label, Ms. Ammara recorded a CD dedicated to the Italian composer Roffredo Caetani (1871 – 1961) in 2014. In spring 2016, Piano Classics will release the first volume of Debussy’s Complete Piano Works.
Alessandra Ammara graduated from the “L. Cherubini” Conservatory of Florence and the Accademia Pianistica of Imola. She honed her talents as a student of great musicians like Maria Tipo, Paul Badura-Skoda, Dmitri Bashkirov, Franco Scala, Boris Petrushansky, Leon Fleischer, William Naboré and FouTs’ong at the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como and the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.
Ms. Ammara is piano professor at Istituto di Alta Formazione Musicale in Ravenna and is often invited to sit in international piano competitions and to give master classes for American and European Universities and Conservatories.
Roberto Prosseda was born in Latina, Italy, in 1975. His Decca albums dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn, including the Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly, have won much acclaim in the press, including the CHOC from Le Monde de la MusiqueClassique, the Diapason d’Or and Chamber Music CD of the Month in the UK’s Classic FM magazine.
In 2010, Deutsche Grammophon selected twelve recordings by Prosseda to add to the box set, “Classic Gold”. In 2014 Prosseda completed his 10-years project of recording all Mendelssohn’s piano works for Decca in 9 CDs.
Roberto Prosseda has performed regularly with some of the world’s most important orchestras, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Moscow State Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia, Filarmonicadella Scala, Bruxelles Philharmonic, ResidentieOrkest, Netherlands Symphony, Berliner Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Weimar, Calgary Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus. He performed under the baton of David Afkham, Marc Albrecht, Christian Arming, Harry Bickett, Riccardo Chailly, Pietari Inkinen, Yannik Nezeit-Seguin, George Pehlivanian, Dennis Russel-Davies, Tugan Sokhiev, Jan Willem de Vriend, Jurai Valcuha.
Other than Mendelssohn, whose piano music he is considered to be a leading interpreter of today, Prosseda’s interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Chopin have been particularly praised, and these composers have in fact featured in Prosseda’s recent Decca recordings. In 2015, Prosseda started the complete recording of Mozart’ Piano Sonatas with a modern piano tuned with unequal temperament. An active proponent of Italian music, Prosseda also recorded the complete piano works of Petrassi and Dallapiccola.
In September 2011 Prosseda gave his debut on the pedal piano, performing the Concerto for Pedal Piano by Gounod in the world premiere version for modern instrument. Concerts are planned in the next seasons on this instrument, rediscovering the original compositions by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Charles Valentin Alkan. Several composers, including Ennio Morricone, have already written new pieces for pedal piano for Roberto Prosseda, and a recording of the four Gounod’s pieces for pedal piano and orchestra with Orchestra della SvizzeraItaliana conducted by Howard Shelley, released on the Hyperion label in fall 2013.
