Mozart Virtuoso Bezuidenhout Returns To Perform with The Australian Chamber Orchestra

Kristian Bezuidenhout returns to Sydney to reprise his appearances with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO).

Bezuidenhout will play with an intimate ensemble of ACO musicians, including Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, Principal Violin Helena Rathbone, Guest Principal Viola Florian Peelman and Principal Cello Timo-Veikko ‘Tipi’ Valve. Together, they will perform some of the moving music written for strings and piano by Mozart and Schumann.

Born in South Africa, raised in Australia, and educated in the US, Bezuidenhout rose to fame at the age of 21, winning first prize at the prestigious Bruges Fortepiano Competition. He is known internationally as one of the world’s leading performers of Mozart.

Bezuidenhout grew up on the Gold Coast before moving to the US to study at the Eastman School of Music. He first heard the music of Mozart when he saw the film Amadeus as a child. It left a lasting impression with the pianist ‘madly obsessed’ with the composer to this day.

On the program is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 13, a work that Bezuidenhout describes as “astonishingly ground-breaking for its time”. Mozart wrote of the concerto that it could be “performed with full orchestra…or merely a quattro”, which is how it will be presented in the ACO’s concerts. Schumann’s String Quartet No.3 and Piano Quintet will bookend the program. Composed in 1842, Schumann’s ‘chamber music year’ and also not long after he married his beloved Clara, these two magnificent works have been described as “the most perfect of all the products of [Schumann’s] genius”.

The programme: SCHUMANN String Quartet No.3 in A major MOZART Piano Concerto No.13 in C major SCHUMANN Piano Quintet in E-flat major

The performers: Kristian Bezuidenhout, Piano/ Richard Tognetti ,Director & Violin /Helena Rathbone, Violin/ Florian Peelman, Viola/ Timo-Veikko Valve, Cello

Tickets, call 1800 444 444 or visit www.aco.com.au