“A highly virtuosic and engaging performance that drew audience raves.”
Audio
BIOGRAPHIES
Antonio Meneses, Cello and Paul Galbraith, Guitar
A collaboration between two world-renowned, GRAMMY-nominated soloists
ANTONIO MENESES was the cellist of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio from 1998 until their final concert in 2008. He won the First Prize and Gold Medal at the 1982 MTchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the First Prize at the 1977 International ARD Competition in Munich.
Meneses is a frequent guest at the world’s major music festivals including the Festival Pablo Casals (Puerto Rico), Mostly Mozart Festival (New York), Salzburg, Lucerne, the Vienna Festwochen and Berlin Festwochen, and the Prague Spring Festival. He has collaborated with the Emerson Quartet, Anne Sophie Mutter and Maria João Pires.
He has performed with most of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Concertgebouw, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, the Moscow and St. Petersburg Philharmonics, the Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.).
Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, Claudio Abbado, André Previn, Semyon Bychkov, Herbert Blomstedt, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Järvi, Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, and Riccardo Chailly.
Antonio Meneses plays a Matteo Goffriller cello made in Venice ca. 1710.
A native of Recife, Brazil, Meneses now lives in Basel, Switzerland.
“A spellbinding concert. Brazilian Antonio Meneses is a one-off . . . radiant, mesmerising.” —BBC Music Magazine
PAUL GALBRAITH’s recording of the Complete Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas was nominated for a GRAMMY AWARD for Best Solo Instrumental Album. When he won the Silver Medal at the Segovia International Guitar Competition at the age of only 17, Andrés Segovia, who was present, called his playing “magnificent.” This award helped launch an international career including engagements with some of the leading orchestras of Britain and Europe, including the Royal Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Orchestra, and was featured at the Bach Festivals of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Denver and Carmel.
Galbraith’s 2016-17 seaon included his third performances on Lincoln Center’s “Great Performances” series and his third at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, as well as festivals in Vienna, Paris, Spain, Italy, China and South Korea. Past tours have brought him to Boston, Washington DC, Baltimore, Buffalo, Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland,San Diego, Portland and Seattle, and, internationally, to the UK, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Russia, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Israel and Turkey. He toured the U.S. as soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, performed in Prague’s Dvorák Hall with the National Chamber Orchestra of Chile, and collaborated with the Shanghai and St. Petersburg Quartets.
Galbraith’s playing position (first revealed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1989) and his guitar’s design are considered groundbreaking development in the history of the instrument. The guitar is supported by an endpin, similar to that of a cello, which rests on a wooden resonance box. Its two extra strings, one high and one low, increase the instrument’s range to an unprecedented extent.
A native of Scotland and a long-time resident of Brazil, Paul Galbraith now resides in Basel, Switzerland.
"Exceptional artistry." – The New Yorker
“Penetrating understanding . . . sweep[s] me so deeply into the music that after a while I tend to forget which instrument I’m hearing.” –Buffalo News
“[A] riveting performance . . . continuously inspired.” – CBC Radio Review (Montreal)