Syracuse

Maria João Pires est née à Lisbonne le 23 juillet 1944. Elle est la plus célèbre pianiste classique portugaise. Elle fut une enfant prodige. Elle donne son premier concert à quatre ans, mais débute réellement sa carrière en 1949, dans un récital Mozart. Elle reçoit une première haute distinction à neuf ans. Elle a d'abord étudié le piano avec Campos Coelho à Lisbonne, sa ville natale, puis avec Karl Engel à Hanovre. En 1970, elle emporte un premier prix à Bruxelles, lors du concours du bicentenaire de la naissance de Beethoven, qui la révèle au public. Ses premiers enregistrements datent de 1974, chez Nippon Columbia sous marque Denon, réalisés à Tokyo dans une première intégrale des sonates pour piano de Mozart. Au cours de cette même année, elle enregistre chez Erato les concertos pour clavier BWV 1052, 1055 et 1056 de Jean-Sébastien Bach, sous la direction de Michel Corboz. En 1978, chez Erato, deux concertos pour piano de Chopin. Puis, toujours chez Erato : Schumann (1985), Schubert (1986 et 1988). En 1989, premier enregistrement pour Deutsche Grammophon dans un programme Schubert. En 1990, elle reçoit le Grand Prix International du Disque. En 2004, elle enregistre un DVD à Lisbonne en la chapelle du Mosterio dos Jerónimos, par le Europa-Konzert avec Pierre Boulez, où elle interprète le Concerto pour Piano No.20 K.466 de Mozart. 2006 : lauréate du premier Prix International de Musique Don Juan de Borbón. Pendant toutes ces années, elle donne des récitals partout dans le monde et joue avec les plus grands orchestres, sous la direction des plus prestigieux chefs. Maria João Pires est l'épouse du violoniste français Augustin Dumay, avec qui elle réalise des enregistrements des oeuvres de Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, etc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maria Joao Pires, piano, Maria João Pires' first public performance took place when she was just four years old and at the age of nine, she received the highest distinction with which Portugal honors its young maturing artists. Her music education at Lisbon's Conservatory was followed by further studies at the Music Academies of Munich and Hannover. By winning first prize at the Brussels Competition in 1970, held in commemoration of Beethoven's 200th birthday, Maria João Pires achieved the acclaim that triggered her international career. Since then, she has regularly toured throughout Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA, and repeatedly appears as guest artist with the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. She also performs at many important festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schubertiade Feldkirch, the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals in American or the Salzburg Easter Festival, where she had her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Claudio Abbado in 1990. Maria João Pires is also a major recording artist (since 1989 with Deutsche Grammophon). Many of her recordings have been devoted to the music of Mozart, the most important being her complete recording of the Mozart piano sonatas. The first release within this cycle, which appeared in 1990, was awarded the Grand Prix International du Disque and the CD Compact Prize. Pires's recording of Bach's Partita No.1 was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque 1996 by the Académie Charles Cros. She has also dedicated herself to Chopin with a recording of the Préludes and the Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under André Previn (Grand Prix du Disque Frederic Chopin, Warsaw, 1995) and the complete Nocturnes which was awarded the Record Academy Prize 1996, the CD Compact Award 1997 and the Grand Prix du Disc 1997. More recent recordings include Schubert Impromptus, Beethoven Piano Sonatas (“Moonlight”) as well as the Beethoven Violin Sonatas with the French violinist Augustin Dumay. For Maria João Pires, art is not something elitist, it is a part of life. “The artist has to integrate”, she was quoted as saying in an interview with one of Switzerland's leading daily newspapers (Zurich's Tages-Anzeiger). In order to strengthen creative young artists for this challenge in an increasingly difficult context, she founded the Belgais Centre for Study of the Arts on her farmhouse in Portugal to offer an environment which facilitates personal research for artistic creativity. The Centre also runs a school and choir for local children. In acknowledgement of her contribution to the arts, Maria João Pires was awarded the 2002 IMC - UNESCO Music Prize. Source : Lauenen Chamber Concerts Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.