A concert by young Dutch pianist Nikola Meeuwsen will take place on Sunday, January 26 at Quintinha da Música, Covas da Prata, Tavira at 4pm.
The 17-year-old Nikola profiles himself as one of the most notable young pianists in the Netherlands. The Concertgebouw has awarded him The Concertgebouw Young Talent Award 2019, and NRC Handelsblad recommended that we keep an eye on this young talent. Nikola won the 2012 Steinway Competition and the 2014 Royal Concertgebouw Competition.
As a very young boy hearing Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, played by Vladimir Horowitz, Nikola knew he wanted to become a pianist. The pianists he likes to hear nowadays on recordings include not only Horowitz but also Schnabel, Sofronitsky, Cziffra, Rubinstein, Lipatti, Sokolov, Pogorelich, Volodos and Gould.
Nikola gives concerts at home and abroad, and the visit this January will be the fourth he has made to our concert series in the Algarve.
Nikola recently performed with the Residentie Orkest in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and his festival performances include the Storioni Festival, the Chamber Music Festival Schiermonnikoog, the International Chamber Music Festival Ede, the Festival Classique and the new festival Classical NOW!
In the Netherlands, Nikola studies with Marlies van Gent, and he travels to Italy to work with Enrico Pace at the prestigious Accademia Pianistica di Imola. He has also taken masterclasses with a number of pianists, including Jacques Rouvier, Pavel Gililov, Matti Raekallio, Ruth Nye, Edith Fischer, Jerome Rose and Dominique Merlet.
Nikola will be playing Bach-Busoni, Now Come to the Heathen Saviour; Bach-Hess, Jesus Remains My Joy; and W.A. Mozart, Piano Sonata No.8 in A Minor KV 310. After the interval, he will play Schumann’s Carnaval op. 9.
Tickets cost €25 (including interval drinks and tapas).
To book and get directions, email [email protected]
A very special talk
Dutch composer and musician Kolja Meeuwsen, who also happens to be Nikola’s father, will give a talk on “The Tristan Chord” on Friday, January 24 in the Tavira Library at 11am.
“The Algarve History Association (AHA) breaks new ground with this talk. For the first time, we have a current composer to address us,” says Lynne Booker, co-founder of AHA, organiser of the event.
Kolja Meeuwsen will give a talk based on the Leonard Bernstein’s Harvard Lecture “The Tristan Chord”. In this lecture, Kolja will explain how Wagner found this chord, which paved the way for the development of the twelve-tone school. He will show that Wagner’s music was crucial in the development of the music of the 20th century.
Kolja will be in the Algarve with his son Nikola, who will give a piano concert on Sunday, January 26 (read above).
At a young age, Kolja Meeuwsen became interested in music and collections of old records, especially those of historically famous violinists. His passion resulted in a house full of gramophone records, but we do not know how his parents reacted.
He went on to study Music History and Musicology at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, where he took his degree in The Early Music of the Violin and Viola. He now also teaches at the Conservatory, and his courses on music include, for example, An Overview of Western Music History.
He plays regularly as a violinist with various orchestras and ensembles, and, at the same time, he is writing a study on the influence of Leopold Auer, Mischa Elman and Jascha Heifetz on violin playing in the 20th century. In a conscious acknowledgement of Marcel Proust, his dissertation on violinists and their styles has the title “À la recherche du style perdu”.
AHA welcomes voluntary monetary contributions at its talks.
For more information, email [email protected]
By LYNNE BOOKER
