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Tobias Picker's Piano Quintet "Live Oaks" at Le Poisson Rouge

Jan. 09, 2014

Tobias Picker's <em>Piano Quintet "Live Oaks"</em> at Le Poisson Rouge

On January 19, Tobias Picker’s Piano Quintet “Live Oaks” will be heard at New York City’s Le Poisson Rouge in a performance by pianist Aaron Likness and the Fidelio String Quartet. Commissioned by Da Camera Houston, “Live Oaks” was premiered in 2011 by pianist Sarah Rothenberg and the Brentano String Quartet. Of the work, Picker writes:

We all grew up on the monumental piano quintets of the past – such thrilling music. But as I began to write a piano quintet myself, ‘the way in’ eluded me. I kept thinking, a piano and a string quartet need each other like a hole in the head. Why combine them anyway? I looked to the masters for inspiration and along the way became convinced that even they had grappled with this question. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Franck, Elgar, Shostakovich and Carter had each written only one. Finding my own answer was difficult and took a long time. When the answer finally came – it gave me great joy. My Piano Quintet reflects that joy as no other piece I’ve ever written has done.

Rothenberg adds that Live Oaks is “an impressively ambitious work which clearly takes into consideration the great 19th century tradition of piano quintets. It is passionate, virtuosic, dramatic and hauntingly moving.” Rothenberg and the Brentano Quartet’s recent recording of Live Oaks is featured on Tobias Picker’s upcoming album, “Invisible Lilacs: Chamber Music 1976-2011”, which will be released on the Tzadik label in February.

The program at Le Poisson Rouge also features chamber music by composer Mikael Karlsson, with performances by soprano Patricia Schuman, pianist Yegor Shevtsov and flutist Lance Suzuki.

For more information on Tobias Picker, please visit www.schott-music.com.

Detail on the performance can be found atwww.lepoissonrouge.com. 

Tobias Picker
Piano Quintet “Live Oaks” (2011)
for piano and string quartet
25’

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