March 5: World renown pianist performs at Playhouse
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An authority on Franz Liszt, Walters has performed on six continents and in most of the 50 United States.
“We are fortunate to be part of her World Tour 2004,” said Buster Irvin, concert series administrator at the Playhouse. Her performance officially opens the 2004 Playhouse Concert Season. “The phenomenal performing career of Teresa Walters continues to earn the wealth of rave reviews that inspired the American Record Guide to announce ‘Her competition is virtually nil.'”
“Consider what Japan’s leading music magazine said about her,” said Irvin: “The audience left with a feeling of ecstasy, so spiritually powerful was her performance.”
Her recent recital at Lincoln Center in New York earned a standing ovation from a packed hall.
Fanfare Magazine noted in a recent issue, “Teresa Walters takes audiences where words can never reach.”
“Whether playing for European royalty in the opulence of Esterhazy Palace or for children’s charities in New Delhi,” said Irvin, “Miss Walters spirituality is the motivation in her life and her work.”
She is the first American pianist invited by Hungary to present the Anniversary Concert in honor of Liszt’s birthday. Prestigious invitations to perform at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest as well as at Liszt’s Birthplace in Raiding, attest to her growing reputation as one of the finest interpreters of Franz Liszt performing and recording today. She has recently performed as recitalist and orchestral soloist at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Salle Cortot in Paris, Moscow’s Great Hall, Jerusalem’s Concert Hall, Vienna’s Beethoven Festival, and at Spanish Festivals in Barcelona and Madrid.
Miss Walters program for her evening in Crossville will feature three of the top 10 Romantic piano pieces: The Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op.18 by Rachmaninoff; Hungarian Fantasy by Liszt; and the Concerto No 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 by Tchaikovsky.
“She is wonderful at explaining the roots of the music she plays and making her audiences feel at home with her selections,” said Janet Kluender, CCP business manager.
“I think our audience will be particularly impressed by the big pieces, the big sounds, the stacked and double stacked chords Miss Walters offers up with ease,” said Kluender. Walters is a tall, statuesque performer with an expansive reach of the keys which enables her to make the most of the minor chords and nationalistic themes that characterize the Romantic movement in music.
“This is the music that tugs at your heart immediately, sweeps you up in thunderous crashing chords and then touches you with tender melodic lines. The point is to make you feel at one with the music,” said Irvin. “This will be one of the most magical nights you will ever spend Mainstage with a concert pianist,” he said.
For ticket information contact Cumberland County Playhouse Box Office at 931-484-5000.