A French-German Friendship Concert
The French and German Embassies in Malta, in collaboration with Barocco Foundation, are organizing an exceptional concert to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, which paved the way to 50 years of French-German cooperation and friendship, still at the very heart of the European Union building process. This concert will be held in the fabulous gardens of Villa Bologna, Attard on the 8th of May 2013 at 8pm.
The concert will be dedicated to four illustrious German and French composers: Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Gabriel Faure and Maurice Ravel. The repertoire of the concert will feature a number of compositions are not performed frequently in the mainstream musical scenes and will, therefore, promise to create a more intriguing and thrilling performance. The programme will feature Robert Schumann’s Sonata 1 Opus 105 For Piano And Violin, Johannes Brahms’ Fae Movement Scherzo, Maurice Ravel’s Posthumous Sonata For Violin And Piano and Gabriel Fauré’s Sonata N°1 In A Major For Violin And Piano.
The performers for this remarkable concert are going to be Agnes Pyka (violin) and Bruno Robilliard (piano), member of Des Equilibres, a Chamber music ensemble. Des Equilibres is a French chamber music ensemble that varies in size. It includes orchestral musicians, conservatoire teachers, and nationally renowned soloists and chamber musicians.
Founded in 2006 by its artistic director, the violinist Agnes Pyka, it offers a variety of programmes in various formations, performing a large repertoire of rare music dating from the eighteenth century to the present day in France and elsewhere in Europe. This desire to explore less familiar musical avenues led them to devote their first recording to the two string quartets by Hungarian-born Swiss composer Sandor Veress. Recorded on the Hungarian label in 2011, the CD (on which the second quartet was a world premiere) won high acclaim from the international music press. They have just recorded Bartok’s 44 duos for two violins, performed with Jan Talich, on the Indesens label.
Agnes Pyka studied violin at the Scuola di alto Perfezionamento Musicale in Saluzzo, Italy where she won first prize for violin and chamber music. She also graduated from the ‘Ferenc Liszt’ Conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, winning first prize in violin, having studied with Ferenc Halasz and vilmos Szabadi. Once again, Agnès had also won first prize for chamber music, this time in Ferenc Rados’ class. During her musical career, Pyka obtained a Master’s degree in performance at Toronto University in Canada, as part of Lorand Feniyves’ class. Pyka also placed first at the National Young Soloists Competition in Hart House, Toronto, Canada; as well as the National ‘Schubert’ Award and the European Moncalieri Competition, both in Italy.
Agnès has performed widely in France and abroad as a soloist and first violin. She currently teaches at the regional conservatory in Toulon as well as founding the association Accords en Scène in 2005 and has been its artistic director. Furthermore, Agnès is the director of L’Ensemble des Équilibres as well as playing first violin within the ensemble. Des Équilibres recorded its first disc in 2011 playing string quartets by Sandor Veress. The performance of the second of these pieces was a world first, and was awarded 4 stars by Classica magazine. The ensemble has just recorded Bartok’s 44 duos for two violins for Indésens Records, performed with Jan Talich. Agnès is also a member of the prominent ensembles Musicatreize (1st violin), the Ensemble Instrumental de Nice and the Baroque ensemble Da Camera (soloist and 1st violin). She has also played concerts throughout the world, with notable recitals in the USA, Canada, Hungary and Italy.
Born to a family of musicians, pianist Bruno Robilliard began his studies at the National Conservatory of Lyon showing unusual ability in improvisation and composition at a young age. At fourteen, he was admitted to the National Conservatory of Music in Paris where he studied piano with Germaine Mounier and chamber music with Geneviève Joy-Dutilleuy. In 1984 he was appointed accompanist at the National Conservatory of Lyon for the violin classes of J. Gesthem, V. Rénald, P. Csaba, E. Balmat and for the flute classes of Maxence Larrieu at the Conservatory of Génève. In 1994 he taught music at the National Conservatory of Music in Lyon and that same year obtained his Certificat d’Aptitude as Professor of Piano.
Robilliard leads a brilliant career as a solo pianist and as chamber musician in France as well as abroad. As an eclectic musician one may find him playing with the National Orchestra of Tokyo, the Opera of Lyon (under the direction of conductors such as Kent Nagano), or with the National Orchestra of Lyon (under the baton of David Robertson). For many years, Robilliard collaborated with Grame Studios in Lyon and has a participated in a large number of festivals, such as Pollenco, l’Orne, la Dombes, Vieux Lyon, Radio France Montpellier as well as the “Voyage Musical d’Hiver”. Robilliard has also performed with the Debussy Quartet, the Ravel Quartet, Marie-Annick Nicolas, Philippe Pierlot, Bruno Grossi, Jean-Baptiste Dumora, Rodrigue Milosi, the ONL Members of Lyon, as well as with leading conductors including Mark Foster, Pascal Verrot, Claude Bardon, Yves Cayrol, Philippe Fournier and Stephen Asbury, amongst others.
The performance will be held in the sumptuous gardens of Villa Bologna and will be followed by a reception. Tickets for the concert are on sale from Barocco Foundation at 20 euro. Barocco Foundation can be contacted on 7968 0952 or email at bookings@baroccomalta.com or from Ceramica Shop at Villa Bologna. Tickets to this exclusive event are very limited; interested persons are kindly requested to book early to avoid disappointment.