(Photo | Courtesy of Chamber Music Northwest)
February 10 at The Old Church + Online Starting February 24
Chamber Music Northwest brings expert pianist Jeremy Denk to Portland February 10 for Bach’s Journey of Wonder, the fourth concert of the 2021/22 season. The concert program is Book 1 of Bach’s legendary The Well-Tempered Clavier. The live concert will be held at The Old Church Concert Hall on Thursday, February 10 at 7:30pm. This concert will be recorded to premiere online two weeks later, February 24 at 7:30pm, and stream online until March 3.
MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant fellow Jeremy Denk is “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs, in whatever combination” (The New York Times). One of America’s foremost pianists, who possesses a “profound affinity with Bach” (The New York Times), Denk takes on Bach’s mesmerizing The Well-Tempered Clavier — one of his most beautiful and difficult works. This revered masterpiece, deemed the crowning jewel of the Baroque era, strolls and stretches its preludes and fugues across every key signature possible. A feat of passion, prowess, and joy of expression, you will be swept away on a sonic journey of mood, interpretation, and imagination.
Denk has spent the past several years preparing to perform and tour the first book of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier worldwide. The pandemic put this major musical project on pause, but Denk is now on a tour that includes Portland. Read detailed notes from Jeremy Denk, pianist and The Well-Tempered Clavier scholar. Remarking on the iconic work, which has its 300th anniversary this year, Denk writes: “What you find here is completely new, rejuvenating, alive; it doesn’t bother tugging at your heartstrings, it just enters your bloodstream.”
Denk’s fluid playing uses the modern piano’s dynamics and flexibility in touch to shape a style that one could imagine even Bach appreciating.”
~ Seen and Heard International
Full Review
“At the beginning of our professional lives, Jeremy and I performed countless concerts and recorded two CDs together,” said CMNW Artistic Director Soovin Kim. “In addition to being a fiercely brilliant pianist, Jeremy has sharp insight into the music he plays. His inspiring performances are full of discoveries and revelations. This special Bach recital will be unforgettable for the whole audience!”
Concert Program
- S. BACH The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846-869
About the Musician
Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists. Winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the Avery Fisher Prize, Denk was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Denk returns frequently to Carnegie Hall and in recent seasons has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra, as well as on tour with Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.
In 2019-20, until the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of all performances, Denk toured Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier, Book 1 extensively, and was to have performances culminate with Lincoln Center in New York and the Barbican in London. He returned to Carnegie Hall to perform Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and made his solo debut at the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. He also made his solo recital debut at the Boulez Saal in Berlin performing works by Bach, Ligeti, Berg, and Schumann, and returned to the Piano aux Jacobins Festival in France, as well as London’s Wigmore Hall. Further performances abroad included his debut with the Bournemouth Symphony, his returns to the City of Birmingham Symphony and the Piano Espoo Festival in Finland, and recitals of the complete Ives Violin Sonatas with Stefan Jackiw.
Highlights of the previous season included a three-week recital tour, culminating in Denk’s return to Carnegie Hall; playing and directing Mozart Concerti on an extensive tour with Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; and a nationwide trio tour with Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis. He also performed and curated a series of Mozart Violin Sonatas (‘Denk & Friends’) at Carnegie Hall.
Denk is also known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” He wrote the libretto for a comic opera presented by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Guardian, and on the front page of The New York Times Book Review. One of his New Yorker contributions, “Every Good Boy Does Fine,” formed the basis of a book published by Random House in the US, and Macmillan in the UK.
Denk’s recording of the Goldberg Variations for Nonesuch Records reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts. His recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111 paired with Ligeti’s Études was named one of the best discs of the year by The New Yorker, NPR, and The Washington Post, and his account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano. Denk has a long-standing attachment to the music of American visionary Charles Ives, and his recording of Ives’s two piano sonatas also featured in many “best of the year” lists. His recording c.1300-c.2000 was released in 2018 with music ranging from Guillaume de Machaut, Gilles Binchois and Carlo Gesualdo, to Stockhausen, Ligeti and Glass.
Jeremy Denk graduated from Oberlin College, Indiana University, and the Juilliard School. He lives in New York City.
“An unerring sense of the music’s dramatic structure and a great actor’s intuition for timing, Denk was the provocateur who urged his colleagues to dare all, to unleash every calorie of emotional heat.”
~The Boston Globe
Chamber Music Northwest
SOLO PIANO
Jeremy Denk: Bach’s Journey of Wonder
DATE: Thursday, February 10, 2022
VENUE: The Old Church Concert Hall — 1422 SW 11th Ave., Portland, OR 97201
KEY LINKS
CMNW concert listing
Jeremy Denk’s website
PROGRAM NOTES
FULL PROGRAM NOTES HERE
UPDATED COVID POLICY
Full vaccination (including booster) required
LIVE SINGLE TICKETS
General: $20-$62.50
Under 30: $20
Senior Rush: $30 (at the door)
Arts 4 All: $5 (at the door/by phone)
Single Tickets
LIVE CONCERT SERIES SUBSCRIPTIONS
> Four-concert subscription package range: $117-$225 | Under 30: $72
> Three-concert subscription package range: $88-169 | Under 30: $54
Subscription Packages
AT-HOME CONCERT SERIES
3-concert pass: $48
Jeremy Denk: Bach’s Journey of Wonder
Christoph Prégardien & Gloria Chien: Poetry in Performance
David Shifrin & Miró Quartet: Rendezvous with Benny
AT-HOME Subscription Series
AT-HOME CONCERT SERIES
For the 2021/22 Year-Round Season, Chamber Music Northwest offers five concerts as a part of their AT-HOME Concert Series. These concerts include: Radovan Vlatković: Transcendent Horn Trios (available through 11/9), Brentano String Quartet: A Tribute to Stravinsky, Jeremy Denk: Bach’s Journey of Wonder, Christoph Prégardien & Gloria Chien: Poetry in Performance, and David Shifrin & Miró Quartet: Rendezvous with Benny. Like the 2021 Summer Festival AT-HOME series, concerts will be professionally recorded by Portland video producer Invisible Harness, and streamed online beginning two weeks after their live concert date, with access on cmnw.org for seven days.
HEALTH & SAFETY
With carefully planned health and safety protocols, CMNW offers live, limited seating, concerts for the 2021/22 Season. Until circumstances change, CMNW will require proof of FULL COVID-19 vaccination, including boosters, for concert entry. Face masks are required. Seating is socially distanced. Children under age 5 are not allowed. CMNW’s COVID-19 Policy Details.
CMNW is a member of the Portland Performing Arts Vaccine Coalition.
UP NEXT @ CHAMBER MUSIC NORTHWEST
With its 2021/22 Season, Chamber Music Northwest presents a strikingly diverse line-up of eight live concerts at four venues throughout the Portland metro area, with five concerts recorded and available online. The year-round season includes West Coast and North American engagements exclusive to CMNW, world premieres, and a wide range of chamber music favorites, undiscovered masterpieces, bold new works, and a dance collaboration with Portland’s BodyVox. The concerts will feature far-ranging musical repertoire, 25 internationally acclaimed musicians from around the world, and showcase a breadth of chamber music instrumentation from strings and piano to horn, voice, reeds, and winds.
VOICE + PIANO
Christoph Prégardien & Gloria Chien: Poetry in Performance
Thursday, February 24 @ 7:30pm
The Old Church
Christoph Prégardien, one of the world’s greatest lyric tenors, treats Portland to a rare United States performance! Prégardien’s “plaintive beauty and piercing insight” (The New York Times) make him a preeminent interpreter of German Lieder, art songs for voice and piano inspired by poetry. Internationally renowned as a superb musical storyteller, Prégardien will evoke the love and loss that is at the heart of some of the greatest romantic songs by Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann. Joined by Artistic Director Gloria Chien on piano, Prégardien will unfurl a magnificent aural poetry experience.
Part of the 2021/22 AT-HOME Concert Series
MORE HERE
REEDS + DANCE
Akropolis Reed Quintet & BodyVox: NINETEEN • TWENTY
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, March 17, 18, 19 @ 7:30 pm; Saturday, March 19 @ 2pm
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
Chamber Music Northwest and BodyVox, with the Akropolis Reed Quintet, collaborate to premiere NINETEEN*TWENTY, an exploration deep into the heart and soul of the 1920s at the newly opened Patricia Reser Center for the Arts. Delving into the explosion of creativity in music, art, and dance of this amazing era, we will translate these converging cultural forces into a performance of vivid, vibrant dance and imaginative, emotive music that’s deeply theatrical, extremely physical, and undeniably entertaining. Delighting in the grit and the glitz with a sweeping, dazzling, high-energy show, NINETEEN*TWENTY will bring the rise and fall of this iconic golden era to life!
This is the sixth collaboration between Chamber Music Northwest and BodyVox that combines Chamber Music Northwest’s world-class music and BodyVox’s unique athleticism, humor, and rich imagery. Experience this long-awaited premiere — a hold-over from March 2020 — at one of the very first performances in Beaverton’s stunning new Patricia Reser Center for the Arts!
Co-presented with BodyVox
MORE HERE
CLARINET + STRINGS
David Shifrin & Miró Quartet: Rendezvous with Benny
Sunday, April 3 @ 4pm
The Old Church
Join CMNW Artistic Director Emeritus and clarinetist-supreme David Shifrin with the dynamic Miró Quartet for a celebration of classical and jazz clarinet that pays tribute to the chamber music contributions of the “King of Swing,” Benny Goodman. Featuring the world premiere of David Schiff’s new arrangement Homage to Benny, Alan Shulman’s Rendezvous, Peter Schickle’s captivating Spring Forward (commissioned and premiered by CMNW in 2015), Mozart’s sublime masterpiece, the clarinet magic of David Shifrin, and the delightful Miró Quartet, expect gorgeous grooves and irresistible interplay as this fivesome makes joyful noise at The Old Church.
Part of the 2021/22 AT-HOME Concert Series
MORE HERE
WINDS
Imani Winds: We Cannot Walk Alone
Thursday, April 28 @ 7:30pm
Alberta Rose Theatre
This unforgettable evening will include the world premieres of three works that offer new perspectives into our region’s history and new hope for our region’s future. Hailed as “dazzling” and “exhilarating” by The Washington Post, the CMNW favorites and Grammy-nominated Imani Winds return to Chamber Music Northwest after their 2017/18 residency. Known for their dynamic playing, adventurous programming, and imaginative collaborations, the Imani Winds will premiere We Cannot Walk Alone — a groundbreaking collaboration between Chamber Music Northwest, Ashland’s Anima Mundi Productions, and Eugene’s Oregon Bach Festival exploring the lived experiences of diverse composers of the Pacific Northwest. Concert program includes world premieres by Yuan-Chen Li, Damien Geter, and Miguel Del Aguila.
Co-Commissioned and premiered in collaboration with Ashland’s Anima Mundi Productions and the Oregon Bach Festival
MORE HERE
About Chamber Music Northwest
Now in its 51st season, Chamber Music Northwest shares the richness and diversity of chamber music with more than 50,000 people through 80 events annually, including our Summer Festival of outstanding concerts, illuminating outreach activities, educational programs and support of young musicians, and innovative collaborations across the Portland Metro region.
Chamber Music Northwest’s mission is to inspire our community through concerts and events celebrating the richness and diversity of chamber music, performed by artists of the highest caliber, presenting our community with exceptional opportunities for enjoyment, education, and reflection. Chamber Music Northwest is led by Artistic Directors Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim, and Executive Director Peter Bilotta.
As one of the nation’s leading chamber music presenters, Chamber Music Northwest brings to our community the world’s greatest musicians and composers, from rising-star members of our Protégé Project and exceptional local musicians to world-renowned artists that include Grammy Award winners, Avery Fisher Prize honorees, and MacArthur ‘Genius Award’ recipients. Together they collaborate to perform the expansive 500-year chamber music repertoire, ranging from beloved classics and hidden masterpieces to less conventional projects and contemporary works.
Chamber Music Northwest is an international leader in celebrating chamber music’s enduring relevance and diversity, with more than 100 commissions and premieres of new works as well as its Protégé Project, which cultivates the next generation of dynamic chamber music performers by supporting exceptional, early-career chamber musicians and composers in their professional development.