Acclaimed Israeli Pianist
Daniel Gortler
in Concert at the Jewish Museum December 18

New York, NY – The Jewish Museum will present acclaimed Israeli pianist Daniel Gortler in concert on Thursday, December 18 at 7:30pm. Mr. Gortler, who has delighted audiences and critics with his performances around the world and received praise for his technical mastery and musical ingenuity, will perform works by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-1896), and Robert Schumann (1810-1856). The program selections by Clara Schumann include seldom-performed compositions highlighting her relationships with the two other composers. A highly regarded Schumann interpreter, Daniel Gortler’s latest recording of Robert Schumann piano solo works was released as a double CD album on Romeo Records and has received enthusiastic critical reviews. Fanfare Magazine called the recording “imaginative and interesting” and said “he gets to the heart of the music by combining an alert, musically precise reading with a remarkable feeling for rubato, and …he definitely has something to say about them.”

Tickets for the December 18 concert are $18 general; $15 students and seniors; and $12 Jewish Museum members.  Further program and ticket information is available online at TheJewishMuseum.org/calendar or by calling 212.423.3337.  The Jewish Museum is located at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, Manhattan.

The recital program will include:

Intermission

Davidsbüdlertänze, Op. 6 is widely regarded as one of Robert Schumann’s greatest achievements and as one of the greatest piano works of the Romantic era. This and other early piano works by Schumann were substantially influenced by his relationship with Clara. The opening theme is based on Clara Schumann’s (then Wieck) Mazurka, Op.6, No. 5. 

Johannes Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by G.F. Handel, Op. 24 is one of the summits of his entire keyboard output, showing him at the height of his powers.

Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann have earned a distinct place in the annals of Western music. As a couple with a two-career marriage – he as a pioneering critic and a great composer, and she as one of the leading concert pianists of Europe and also a fine composer – they were renowned in their time. Clara was one of the few pianists of her generation to perform music from memory. In addition, not only did she promote her own compositions, but she also introduced the works of other major composers, including Bach, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann. She was the first to publicly perform any work by Brahms.

Johannes Brahms was an influential and popular composer and pianist who spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. Brahms greatly impressed and was befriended by both Robert and Clara Schumann when he was only 20 years old. Brahms and Clara had a very close and lifelong relationship. Clara wrote in her diary, “that good Brahms always shows himself a most sympathetic friend.”

Robert Schumann’s Davidsbüdlertänze, Op. 6 is the music used in Israeli artist Dani Gal’s short film, Wie Aus Der Ferne (As from Afar), on view at the Jewish Museum through February 1, 2015. Gal's new video work examines the relationship between Simon Wiesenthal, an architect and Holocaust survivor who devoted his life to hunting Nazi criminals, and Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect and close confidant. Speer initiated a correspondence with Wiesenthal in 1975 in an effort to accept responsibility for his war crimes. Based on letters the two men exchanged in the late 1970s, Wie Aus Der Ferne illustrates Gal's use of documentary materials to create historical narratives through cinematic imagery, and reflects his interest in the relationship between memory and history as well as perceptions and interpretations of the past. Concert ticket holders will be able to view the Dani Gal video installation prior to the performance.

Daniel Gortler has performed as soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, NDR Symphony, North-West German Philharmonic, Bochum Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, as well as the Houston, San Francisco, New World, Atlanta and San Jose Symphony Orchestras. In addition, he has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as well as all other orchestras in his home country of Israel. Recent highlights include his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a debut-recital at Wigmore Hall in London and tours in South Korea, Japan, and Turkey.  In the United States, Gortler has performed recitals at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Symphony Space in New York, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 92nd Street Y, the Morgan Library, New York University, and Rockefeller University. Mr. Gortler replaced Murray Perahia on very short notice, performing the Schumann Piano Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony under conductor Valery Gergiev. Daniel Gortler has also collaborated with such esteemed conductors as Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, and Michael Tilson Thomas, among many others. He participated in a video recording of Mark Neikrug’s Through Roses, collaborating with Pinchas Zukerman.

Public programs are made possible by endowment support from the William Petschek Family, the Trustees of the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation, William Halo, Benjamin Zucker, the Marshall M. Weinberg Fund, with additional support from Marshall M. Weinberg, the Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Foundation, the Saul and Harriet M. Rothkopf Family Foundation and Ellen Liman.  Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.