Jeffrey Zeigler presents Matt Haimovitz + Christopher O'Riley: TROIKA

instruments to genre-bending arrangements of Radiohead and Arcade Fire – the endlessly inventive duo of cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley returns with TROIKA, a new album on the PENTATONE Oxingale series, to explore music of the Slavic soul. Anchored by the cello sonatas of the iconic triumvirate of Russian composers – Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich – and inspired by the subversive irony of Shostakovich’s Sonata, TROIKA also delves into more recently-written, unexpected, and popular works. Whether subtle or blatantly rebellious, each work potently reveals the strength of the artistic voice in the face of political repression in mother Russia.

Matt Haimovitz
Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz is praised by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” and as a “remarkable virtuoso” (The New Yorker). Haimovitz made his debut at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, then his first recording, at age 17, with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. Haimovitz made his Carnegie Hall debut when he substituted for his teacher, the legendary Leonard Rose, alongside Isaac Stern, Shlomo Mintz, Pinchas Zukerman and Mstislav Rostropovich. In 2000, Matt Haimovitz made waves with his Bach “Listening-Room” Tour, for which he took Bach’s beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and into bars and clubs across North America and the UK. Haimovitz and composer/producer Luna Pearl Woolf’s trailblazing independent label Oxingale Records is now in collaboration with PENTATONE. For the new PENTATONE Oxingale series, Haimovitz revisited the Bach cello suites in 2015 with the release of The Cello Suites According to Anna Magdalena, followed by 2016’s Overtures to Bach, featuring six new commissions that reflect each of the cello suites. Both albums were among the credits for David Frost, for his 2016 GRAMMY® win for Best Classical Producer. These were followed by an album of solo cello music by Philip Glass on his Orange Mountain Music label, including the world premiere of Glass’s Partita No.2. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller.

Christopher O’Riley
Acclaimed for his engaging and deeply committed performances, pianist Christopher O’Riley is known to millions as the host of NPR’s From the Top. Now in his fifteenth year on air, O’Riley introduces the next generation of classical-music stars to almost a million listeners each week. He performs around the world and has garnered widespread praise for his untiring efforts to reach new audiences. O’Riley has performed as a soloist with virtually all of the major American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony. In addition, he has performed recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. Living by the Duke Ellington adage “There are only two kinds of music, good music and bad,” O’Riley – a proponent of the former in all of its guises O’Riley performs piano arrangements of music by Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana alongside traditional classical repertoire. His 1st album of Radiohead arrangements, True Love Waits garnered a four-star review from Rolling Stone. O’Riley has recorded the music of Beethoven, Stravinsky, Scriabin, Liszt, Ravel, Gershwin, Debussy, and John Adams for Sony Classical, Oxingale Records, RCA Red Seal, Decca, and Harmonia Mundi. Visit Christopher O’Riley online at www.christopheroriley.com, and From the Top at www.fromthetop.org.

National Sawdust