Martin Roscoe

Wednesday, 12th November, 2014

8.00 p.m.

Municipal Hall

MARTIN ROSCOE

piano

With an extraordinary career spanning over 4 decades, Martin Roscoe is unarguably one of the UK’s best loved pianists. Renowned for his versatility at the keyboard, Martin is equally at home in concerto, recital and chamber performances. In an ever more distinguished career, his enduring popularity and the respect in which he is universally held are built on a deeply thoughtful musicianship allied to an easy rapport with audiences and fellow musicians alike.

With a repertoire of over 100 concertos performed or recorded, Martin works regularly with many of the UK’s leading orchestras, having especially close links with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Hallé, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra and with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has had over ninety performances. Martin has worked with many eminent conductors, including performances with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder and Christoph von Dohnányi.

An equally prolific recitalist, Martin has also performed regularly across Europe, the Far East, Australasia and South Africa. His chamber music partnerships include long-standing associations with Peter Donohoe, Tasmin Little and the Endellion and Maggini Quartets as well as more recent collaborations with such artists as Jennifer Pike, Ashley Wass, Matthew Trusler and the Brodsky and Vertavo Quartets. One of his most important chamber music collaborations has developed in recent years: the Cropper Welsh Roscoe Trio. Together the trio have performed many times across the UK.

Recent and future engagements include appearances with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore SO, BBC NOW, BBC SO and the Munich Symphony Orchestra, as well as recital performances at the Bridgewater Hall (where Martin is an Associate Artist), Kings Place, Musée d’Orsay, Wigmore Hall. Martin is also Artistic Director of Ribble Valley International Piano Week, and Beverley Chamber Music Festival, and will succeed Kathy Stott as Artistic Director of the Manchester Chamber Music Society at the start of the 2014/15 season.

With over 500 broadcasts, including seven BBC Prom appearances, Martin is one of the most regularly played pianists on BBC Radio 3. He has also made many recordings, including the complete piano music of Nielsen and Szymanowski, as well as four discs in the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series. The first three discs of the complete Beethoven Piano sonatas on the Deux-Elles label have been released to unanimous critical acclaim. The Independent described the sonatas as being “all delivered with Roscoe’s typically scrupulous attention to detail and emotional truth”. The second disc includes the Waldstein Sonata, and was proclaimed on BBC Radio 3 as “one of the truly great recordings of the Waldstein Sonata” … “perfect musical judgement and a formidable technique from Martin Roscoe”.

Teaching has always been an important part of Martin’s life and the development of young talent helps him to constantly re-examine and re-evaluate his own playing. He is currently a Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music in London and has just been awarded his Fellowship there.

PROGRAMME

HAYDN

Sonata in D, Hob XV1 / 37

BEETHOVEN

Sonata No. 5 in C minor for Piano, Op. 10/1

DOHNÁNYI

3 Pieces from Ruralia Hungarica, Op. 32a

Pastorale on a Hungarian Christmas Carol

Rhapsody in C, Op. 11/3

SCHUBERT

Sonata in B flat, D. 960

Martin Roscoe's website