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Nikita
Fitenko
Katerina
Zaitseva
Pianists
Friday, May 1, 2009
at 7:30 p.m.
At Lakeland Baptist Church, Lewisville
(Directions)
Adults $25, Seniors (60+) $20, Students $10
Families $60 no matter how large the family.
The City of Lewisville,
Season Sponsor
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3 in C
minor
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor
More on
Nikita
Fitenko | Katerina
Zaitseva
Beethoven Piano concerto |
Schumann Piano concerto
Nikita Fitenko
 Internationally
acclaimed pianist and Yamaha Artist Nikita Fitenko has performed
recitals and with orchestras in the former Soviet Union, Europe,
Asia, and South and North America. He has appeared as a soloist
with such orchestras as St. Petersburg Capella Symphony,
Russian Chamber Philharmonic, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
of Moscow, St. Petersburg State Conservatory Orchestra, State
Hermitage Orchestra, Slovak National Philharmonic,
Lewisville Symphony,
Rapides Symphony, Northeast Texas Symphony, and Northwestern
Symphony Orchestra. His future engagements this year besides the
concerts in the US will bring him to France, Belgium, Germany,
China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia.
 While
performing a wide and diverse repertoire, Nikita Fitenko is an
acknowledged master of Russian piano music. He recorded three
CDs for Altarus Records of works by leading contemporary Russian
composers. His initial recording of solo piano works by Georgy
Sviridov(1997) and his two-CD set of music by Sergei Slonimsky
(2000) have garnered rave reviews from the international music
press.
 Fanfare
Music Review wrote, "Fitenko plays magnificently!" Slonimsky
himself described Fitenko's interpretation of his piano music as
"outstanding." He also added, "It is very vivid, imaginative,
virtuosic, fascinating, and pianistically brilliant." Mr.
Fitenko's latest recording - Scriabin's Piano Concerto with the
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra of Moscow was released on
Classical Records label in December 2007.
 In
addition to solo recitals, Nikita Fitenko performs extensively
in piano duo with Katerina Zaitseva. Hailed by critics for their
"superlative sound, superlative interpretation, and superlative
pianism…" (European Piano Teachers Association Journal: July
2006), the duo has performed worldwide with most recent
appearances at Nancyphonies Music Festival (Nancy, France),
Berkeley University (California, USA), Schmallenberg Chamber
Music Festival
(Germany), Ettlebruck Conservatory
(Luxemburg), as well as at Seocho District Hall and Yonsei
University (South Korea). In 2005 the Fitenko-Zaitseva duo
recorded their first CD on the Classical Records label featuring
works for piano four hands by Robert Schumann and Johannes
Brahms.
Native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Nikita Fitenko
graduated from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory with a citation for
excellence given to only five other graduates in the last fifty years.
After receiving the Anton Rubinstein Memorial Award he came to study to
the US pursuing his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of
North Texas. His principal teachers included Roman Lebedev, Igor Lebedev,
and Joseph Banowetz.
Nikita
Fitenko is a prizewinner of several competitions including Belarusian
International Piano Competition (Minsk, Belarus), Beethoven Piano
Competition (Memphis, TN), and Houston Symphony National Young Artist
Competition (Houston, TX) among others
Dr. Fitenko has been invited to serve on many
international piano competition juries including 2003 World
International Piano Competition in Cincinnati, OH; 2008
Rachmaninov International Piano Competition in Moscow, Russia;
2008 Nordic International Piano Competition in Malmo, Sweden;
and 2008 Andorra International Piano Competition.
Currently, Dr. Fitenko holds a position of
Associate Professor of Piano at the Catholic University of
America in Washington, D.C. Prior to that he was Associate
Professor and Coordinator of Keyboard Area at Northwestern State
University of Louisiana. Since 2002 Nikita Fitenko has been the
artistic director of the Louisiana Piano Series International.
He is also the founder and artistic director of the Louisiana
International Piano Competition as well as one of the organizers
of the Florida International Piano Competition (formerly Orlando
International Piano Competition).
Katerina
Zaitseva
 Native of Moscow,
Russia, Katerina Zaitseva has performed as a solo recitalist,
chamber musician, and collaborative artist throughout the United States
and Russia including appearances in Moscow State Conservatory Hall
(Moscow, Russia), John F. Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), and Steinway
Hall (Dallas, Texas). Her orchestral appearances include performances with
the Moscow State Conservatory Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Rapides
Symphony, Meadows Symphony Orchestra, and the Northeast Arkansas Symphony.
In March 2001, she was privileged to play for the King of Spain, Juan
Carlos, at the opening of the new Meadows Museum of Arts in Dallas.
Ms. Zaitseva
received her Master of Music in piano performance from Southern Methodist
University, where she studied with Professor Joaquin Achucarro. She also
holds the Bachelor of Music degree magna cum laude from the
University of North Texas, where she studied with Dr. Pamela Paul, and
Diploma from the Music School affiliated with the Moscow State
Conservatory in Russia.
Katerina Zaitseva
is a winner of numerous competitions and awards including Music Teachers
National Association Competition, SMU Concerto Competition, Von Mickwitz
Prize in Piano, as well as the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award.
Currently on the
faculty of Louisiana College, Katerina Zaitseva has previously taught at
the Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Allegro con brio
Largo
Rondo: Allegro
Because the piano was the instrument of the
nineteenth century, it is fitting that Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3
dates from the threshold, 1800. The music, more dramatic than anything
he had yet written, marked a milestone in his career. Beethoven now
wrote music that was impassioned and heroic.
Beethoven played the premiere from a manuscript
consisting mostly of patches of notes, ink blots and empty pages. As a
result his nervous page turner depended totally upon a secret nod from
Beethoven to turn the pages.
Allegro con brio. An abrupt, authoritative
theme commands the opening of the concerto. The piano enters with a
flourish of rising scales, both in bare octaves and chords. The
contrasting second theme serves as a reminder that – with Schubert –
Beethoven was one of the great melodists of the century. Scales launch
the development, and another scale figure sparks the reprise.
Largo. The solemn melody stated by the piano
passes on to muted strings. Unlike its predecessor, the second theme
thrives in a lavish setting. The flute and bassoon engage in a dialogue
in the middle of the movement accompanied by rippling figures in the
piano.
Rondo: Allegro. In the last movement three
themes stand out. There is the principal subject which opens in 2/4
time. A second subject enters in a syncopated descending scale with a
soft turn that leads to a tranquil episode. The recapitulation
approaches a short cadenza. There is a sudden change to presto,
amd the coda concludes in a joyous dance.
Concerto in A minor,
Op. 54
Robert Schumann
Allegro affettuoso
Intermezzo: Andante grazioso
 In
1841 Robert Schumann composed a “Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra” which
was written for his wife, Clara, an internationally known pianist. He
failed to find a publisher for it, so four years later Schumann chose to
compose two other movements and incorporate the three into a concerto.
His wife premiered the work in Dresden in 1845, and thereafter it became
a vehicle in which she specialized for the rest of her long career.
Allegro affettuoso. The concerto opens with a
fanfare-like flourish, there being no introductory tutti. The
principal, plaintive main theme announced by the oboe is taken up by the
piano and then recurs in dialogue between the piano and orchestra. It
forms the basis of the entire movement, returning in various melodic
transformations, and appearing as a brilliant march-like version at the
close. The cadenza which Schumann wrote out in full bridges to the coda
although the feeling of improvisation remains. There is a brief and
fast coda.
Intermezzo: Andante grazioso. This slow
movement is a thoughtful intermezzo which unfolds as a musical
conversation between solo and orchestra. A tender melody emerges in the
cellos and subsides again. Instead of a gradual fade out of the
Andante grazioso the brief coda leads without pause into the finale.
Allegro vivace. The Finale is in sonata form,
perhaps to make up for the rhapsodic nature of the first movement,
which, as noted previously, was originally conceived as a Fantasy. The
piano solo is heard in the first theme. The second subject is an
ingenious cross-rhythm that sounds like a slow 3/2 but is really the
swift ¾ that has dominated the whole movement to this point. There is a
brief middle section, a normal recapitulation, and a long and elaborate
coda. |
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