Mitsuko Uchida - W.A. Mozart Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat Major K. 271 "Jeunehomme"
W.A. Mozart
Piano Concerto No.9 in
E flat Major K. 271
"Jeunehomme"
Mitsuko Uchida -
Piano
Jeffrey Tate -
Conductor
Dame Mitsuko Uchida
DBE (内田光子), born
December 20, 1948, is a
Japanese naturalized-British classical pianist generally regarded as one of the finest of her era. She has appeared with most of the world's foremost orchestras, recorded a wide repertory with major labels, won numerous awards and honors (including
Dame Commander of the
Order of the British Empire in 2009), and serves as co-director of the
Marlboro Music School and Festival. In recent years, she has also conducted major orchestras.
Born in
Atami, a seaside town close to
Tokyo, Japan,
Uchida moved to
Vienna, Austria, with her diplomat parents when she was 12 years old, after her father was named the Japanese ambassador to
Austria. She enrolled at the
Vienna Academy of Music to study with
Richard Hauser, and later
Wilhelm Kempff and
Stefan Askenase, and remained in
Vienna to study when her father was transferred back to
Japan after five years. She gave her first Viennese recital at the age of 14 at the
Vienna Musikverein. She also studied with
Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of
Artur Schnabel.
In
1969 she won the first prize in the
Beethoven Competition in Vienna and in
1970 the second prize in the
International Chopin Piano Competition. In
1975, she won second prize in the
Leeds Piano Competition.
In
1998 Uchida was the
Music Director of the
Ojai Music Festival in conjunction with conductor and violinist,
David Zinman.
She is an acclaimed interpreter of the works of
Mozart, Beethoven,
Schubert,
Chopin,
Debussy and
Schoenberg. She has recorded all of Mozart's piano sonatas (a project that won the
Gramophone Award), and concerti, the latter with the
English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Tate. Her recording of the Schoenberg
Piano Concerto with
Pierre Boulez won another Gramophone Award. She is further noted for her recordings of
Beethoven's complete piano concerti with
Kurt Sanderling conducting, Beethoven's late piano sonatas, and a Schubert piano cycle. She is distinguished as an interpreter of the works of the
Second Viennese School. Her 2009 recording of the
Mozart Piano Concertos nos. 23 and 24, in which she conducted the
Cleveland Orchestra as well as playing the solo part, won the
Grammy Award.
From
2002 to
2007 she served as artist-in-residence for the Cleveland Orchestra, where she led performances of all of Mozart's solo piano concertos. She has also conducted the English Chamber Orchestra, among others, from the keyboard. In
2010, she was artist-in-residence for the
Berlin Philharmonic. She is one two Artistic Directors of the Marlboro Music School and Festival, along with fellow pianist
Richard Goode. She is also a trustee of the
Borletti-Buitoni Trust, an organization established to help young artists develop and sustain international careers.[5] In May
2012, the
Royal Philharmonic Society announced that she would be honored with their
Gold Medal (she received the society's annual
Music Award in
2003); previous recipients have included
Johannes Brahms (1877),
Frederick Delius and
Sir Edward Elgar (1925),
Richard Strauss (1936),
Igor Stravinsky (1954),
Benjamin Britten and
Leonard Bernstein (
1987).
Uchida currently resides in
London. Her long-standing partner, Sir
Robert Cooper, currently works for the
European Union in
Brussels.