Anika Vavic :: Blog

From the crisis to the last musical thought - Beethoven, Shih, Chopin waltzing at the WDR3 on July 6th

Fri, 3 Jul 2020 14:03:21 +0200

Tune into Beethoven’s bright, tender, heroic, epic, witty, phenomenal pieces composed in his most desperate year, lifting our spirits in a year like this 2020- what a lesson! www1.wdr.de

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Exponential joy!

Thu, 2 Jul 2020 14:52:43 +0200

Why not let dance illustrate a fairy tale we all know and see it through children’s eyes? Musical Fairy Tale for Children in the art-transformed garden with Boris Eder, narrator, Vienna Volksoper soloists Mila Schmidt, Tainá Brugner-Luiz, dance, and László Benedek, choreography, was one of the happiest, brightest moments of 2020 so far.

Having all this smiling people of all ages around was a bliss!

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Schubert and Stradivari Shared the Garden

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 15:22:20 +0200

What a beautiful week, last week! Such a joy playing together again with an amazing violinist and musician Rainer Honeck, the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic / Wiener Philharmoniker ! Dietmar Grieser reading about Schiele, and us performing Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Shih, with Shih himself joining us on the stage! I am so grateful for those moments and the audience, too!
Vienna Philharmonic Concertmaster Rainer Honeck, Author Dietmar Grieser, Composer Shih

Composer Shih

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Das Ö1 Konzert

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 12:31:23 +0200

In the meanwhile some deeply missed music making with the orchestra - a dear reminiscence of the concert with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and terrific Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at the Vienna Konzerthaus with my beloved Scriabin Concerto... https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20200619/601629

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Piano Festival Ruhr

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 17:00:31 +0200

My first post-pandemic trip took me back to the Piano Festival Ruhr, Germany. It was a intense experience, a premiere in many ways. Enjoy the reviews:

Ja, sieht seltsam aus, aber das ist die neue Klassik

Beethoven aber war ganz nah

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Mozart through the flower zoom

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:44:04 +0200

The art ,festival‘ in our garden continues - it was such joy performing with friends! Mozart‘s Piano Concerto KV 414 together with the Artis Quartett and Boris Eder reading Mozart’s Baesle-letters, ,Dissonanzen Quartett‘ and encore with Adrian Eröd singing his father‘s last opus made our audience more than happy! Looking forward to perforiming Schubert and Shih with Rainer Honeck next weekend!

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Word, Music and Audience - together again

Wed, 27 May 2020 18:06:56 +0200

The silence to which art was forced is not easy to accept. The audience as a counterpart in that we do is very much missed.

Our old vineyard on Vienna's Nussberg will be the place for art gatherings in the coming weeks and hopefully my spontaneous idea will be an initiative that will please many.

On May 30th the program starts with Beethoven, who lived in the immediate vicinity, going through and overcoming his great crisis here.

Michael Dangl reads, and I play works that have arisen around the Heiligenstädter Testament.

The other dates will be announced on an going along basis, in addition to Michael Dangl, the "godfather" of this project, among others. The actors Markus Hering and Markus Meyer, the writer Dietmar Grieser, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Rainer Honeck and Tibor Kovac will all be part of the project. Boris Eder will offer a children's program around "Peter and the Wolf" for the true heroes of the past few weeks.

These are the next dates:

06.06. due to the great demand the Beethoven program with Michael Dangl will be repeated

13.06. Joseph Lorenz reads from Mozart's trip to Prague, the Artis Quartet plerforms Mozart's "Dissonanzen" quartet and Mozart's piano concerto KV 414

I would like to thank all of my colleagues who immediately agreed to participate, and in particular Steinway & Sons, for a phenomenal instrument that was made available to me!

[ DOWNLOAD ]

So schön, das Leben

L. van Beethoven

Die Stille, zu der die Kunst gezwungen wurde, ist nicht einfach anzunehmen. Das Publikum als ein Gegenüber in ihrer Ausübung fehlt sehr.

Unser alter Weingarten am Wiener Nussberg wird in den kommenden Wochen ein Kunsttreff und aus meiner spontanen Idee hoffentlich eine Initiative, die viele beglückt.

Am 30.05. startet das Programm mit Beethoven, der in unmittelbaren Nähe gelebt, seine große Krise durchgegangen und überwunden hat.

Michael Dangl liest, und ich spiele Werke, die um das Heiligestädter Testament entstanden sind.

Die weiteren Termine werden laufend angekündigt, es machen neben Michael Dangl, dem „Paten" dieses Projektes, u.a. die Burgschauspieler Markus Hering und Markus Meyer, der Schriftsteller Dietmar Grieser, Wiener Philharmoniker Rainer Honeck und Tibor Kovac mit. Mit Boris Eder bieten wir ein Kinderprogramm mit "Peter und der Wolf" für die wahren Helden der letzten Wochen an.

Hier die nächsten Termine:

06.06. wg. großem Andrang die Wiederholung vom Beethoven-Programm mit Michael Dangl

13.06. Joseph Lorenz liest aus Mozarts Reise nach Prag, Artis Quartett spielt Mozarts „Dissonanzen" Quartett und Mozarts Klavierkonzert KV 414

Mein großer Dank gilt allen Kollegen, die sich sofort bereit erklärt haben mitzumachen, und insbesondere Steinway & Sons in Wien für ein phänomenales Instrument das mir zur Verfügung gestellt worden ist!

[ DOWNLOAD ]

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You may be wondering

Wed, 6 Nov 2019 12:22:45 +0100

No concerts listed? What‘s up with that? No worries: I have not retired or moved to the other end of the world.

I am taking a sabbatical to finally finish the novel I have been writing for a long time now. N.W. (my main character) rightly keeps reminding me that her story needs to be told and I am the one responsible for getting it out there. I think she's got a point. I have given in... and will keep you up to date, so watch this space!

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Prokofiev

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 14:00:47 +0200

Prokofiev´s 3rd Piano Concerto is one of my favourite pieces of music that I love and feel very close to, and it is a piece of music I was lucky to work on together with Slava Rostropovich on several occasions. Slava kept quoting his friend Prokofiev thus opening up a box full of surprises, secrets and images for me. Always a joy, I played this piece with great friends and orchestras in the past, performed it pregnant at London's PROMS and at the Enescu festival. Even after I became a mother, I continued evolving with this music and making new friends through it. Last week in Wuerzburg I had a pleasure performing it with brilliant Wuerzburger Philharmonic Orchestra and a dear friend, Enrico Calesso - thank you for that, and many thanks to the German press for this marvelous reviews!

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GULBENKIAN FOUNDATION - GMJO EASTER TOUR 2019

Fri, 1 Mar 2019 15:58:34 +0100

Thank you Tobias Wögerer and GMJO for the wonderful concert - such a joy playing Rachmaninoff's Paganini with you!!! I will miss you and can‘t wait to see you at Vienna Musikverein in two weeks! Thank you Gulbenkian Foundation, always a pleasure being here!

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Den Haag

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 23:08:22 +0100

Meeting old friends and getting to know new ones - the wonderful Residentie Orkest and Maestro Jun Maerkl !Looking forward to our tomorrow’s performance of Prokofjev‘s 3rd Piano Concerto. Another old sparkling pearly friend, by the way...

Berlin concert reviews

Thu, 8 Feb 2018 15:59:19 +0100

that‘s what the paper‘s thought of the concert: Matthias Nöther wrote in the Berlin Morgepost of February 5th: "[...] pearly virtuoso music, and for this, the Konzerthaus had engaged the perfect soloist: Paganini's familiar A-minor theme [...] was played artfully by Anika Vavic at the piano, not one note dropped under the Steinway keyboard amidst the whirling action."

Frederik Hanssen, Tagesspiegel: "The delicacy with which the slow theme in the central section of the work unfolds under Anika Vavic's fingers is enchanting. In the brilliant passages, however, the pianist so selflessly subordinates herself to the overall sound that her playing threatens to founder amidst the symphonic tempest roiling around her."

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"Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin"

Thu, 8 Feb 2018 11:19:42 +0100

This is the title of an old Berlin song …. „ I still have a suitcase in Berlin“ … well, it is more that I took a lot with me ... The Berliner Konzerthaus Orchester invited me to join them in celebrating Bernstein's 100th birthday and to perform Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations in a concert otherwise full of Lenny's works. (A great inspiration as I am working on his 2nd Symphony). It was a first and very happy encounter with the Orchestra as well as with the wonderful Maestro Yutaka Sado. I am hugely looking forward to making music with them again soon!

A day before the concert the TV station Berlin AV came round for a chat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqdjq8ZyFT8&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop

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Italian premiere of Kancheli's 'Sio' and Shoctakovich's 2nd PC in Milan

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 14:29:08 +0100

Here is Ambrogio, the first bishop of Milan and protector of this beautiful city. And here I am, just few steps away from Ambrogio holding keys of the city, back for the concert with my friends Alessandro Crudele and the wonderful UniMi Orchestra performing the Italian premiere of Kancheli's ,Sio' and my beloved 2nd Piano Concerto by Shostakovich tomorrow evening.

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Fülle von Klangfarben

Thu, 2 Nov 2017 00:22:09 +0100

Hier eine sehr feine Kritik aus Weimar anlässlich der Deutschen Erstaufführung von Rodion Shchedrins 4.Klavierkonzert. Danke nochmals an Kirill Karabits und die wunderbare Staatskapelle Weimar!

[ read more ]

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German premiere of Rodion Shchedrin 's 4th piano concerto

Fri, 27 Oct 2017 11:57:52 +0200

I am very happy and proud to perform Rodion Shchedrin´s 4th Piano Concerto again - this time it is going to be the German premiere of this phenomenal piece - and I can´t wait to work together on it with wonderful Kirill Karabits and the Staatskapelle Weimar!

68th Viotti Piano Competition Vercelli

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 15:13:41 +0200

It was not only an honor, but also a pleasure to listen to so much great music by the contestants of the 68th Viotti Competition and being a part of a jury that was so well balanced and making decisions in harmony and in mutual sense of responsibility. Thank you all for that - also for sharing the same visions considering the right direction in music making.

www.concorsoviotti.it

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Warsaw

Wed, 5 Apr 2017 16:47:22 +0200

Arrived. Dmitri Dmitrijewitsch and his big cinema music - 1st Piano Concerto - greeting Ludwig van Beethoven in Warsaw.

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Slava

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 18:48:32 +0200

One of the last suppers together at my parent´s home. Do I believe that he is gone? No. Even so many years after his death I still in my mind ask him for an advice and sometimes it seems that I get one.

I am so grateful to have been so lucky and had a chance to know Slava, to had a chance to explore the Russian repertoire with him, learn about music, about being a musician and about life. I hope he had some glasses of good Vodka with Dmitrij, Sergej and even Johann Sebastian yesterday night....

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Gulbenkian Orchestra and Maestro Hannu Lintu

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 17:21:55 +0100

So happy to have worked togehter with the extraordinary musicicans of the Gulbenkian Orchestra and cool-tivated Maestro Hannu Lintu! Thank you for everything!

Special thanks also go to Risto Nieminen for being such a photographer extraordinaire!

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