Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 14

FRANCESCA DEGO, violin Celebrated for her sonorous tone, compelling interpretations, and flawless technique, Frances- ca Dego is one of the most sought-after young violinists on the international scene. Signed in 2012 by Deutsche Grammophon, she released her highly anticipated first concerto disc featur- ing works by Paganini and Wolf-Ferrari along- side the City of Birmingham Symphony Orches- tra in 2017, garnering widespread praise. Last fall saw the release of her recital disc Suite Italienne , paying homage to the aesthetic and influence of 20th-century Italian musical style. Born in Lecco, Italy, to Italian and American parents, Dego regularly appears with major orchestras worldwide, with recent and future highlights including the Philharmonia, Hallé, Seville, and Royal Scottish National Orchestras, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Tokyo Symphony Orches- tra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Auck- land Philharmonia, and Het Gelders Orkest. In her home country, she regularly collaborates with such ensembles as the Orchestra della Toscana, Milan’s “La Verdi” Orchestra, Parma’s Filarmonica Toscanini, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, and the Genova, Bari, Bologna, Tri- este, Verona, and La Fenice Theater Orchestras. Dego thrives as collaborative artist in chamber settings, counting Salvatore Accardo, Mahan Es- fahani, Piers Lane, Jan Lisiecki, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses, Martin Owen, and Kathryn Stott among her performance partners, as well as her regular recital partner, pianist Frances- ca Leonardi. This past year, chamber collabo- rations and recitals have taken her to Athens, Beirut, Edesche, Pisa, Rome, Turin, and Venice, among other musical centers. Dego is the win- ner of numerous international competitions, in 2008 attracting widespread attention as the first Italian female prizewinner of Genoa’s Paganini Competition in since 1961. In addition, she was awarded the “Enrico Costa” prize for having been the youngest finalist. She is a frequent con- tributor to specialist music magazines and has written articles and opinion pieces for the BBC and Classical Music Magazines, The Strad , Mu- sical Opinion , and Strings Magazine. Francesca Dego is making her Ravinia debut. FRANCESCA LEONARDI, piano Performing in public from a young age, pianist Francesca Leonardi regularly appears in presti- gious venues and festivals around the world. In 2015 she was a part of the Remembrance Day performance in the Santa Cecilia Hall in Rome, broadcast worldwide by RAI, and she has also been heard at such venues as Sala Verdi and Teatro dal Verme in Milan, Royal Albert Hall in London, Les Flâneries Musicales in Reims, and the Politeama Theatre in Palermo. Solo and chamber music recitals have taken her across Italy, the UK, Turkey, Germany, China, Japan, and the United States. Born in Milan in 1984, Leonardi began studying the piano at the age of 3 under the guidance of Graziella Bianchi and Paolo Bordoni. She graduated from the Milan Conservatory in 2004 and continued studies at the Musical Academy in Pescara, the Chigiana Academy in Siena, and the Royal College of Music in London, where she earned both a mas- ter’s degree in performance and Artist Diploma in accompaniment in 2012, mentored by Nigel Clayton and Roger Vignoles. Leonardi made her debut as a soloist at 16 performing Mozart’s Pia- no Concerto No. 13 with the RosetumOrchestra, and has since been a guest of many Italian and international orchestras. She has toured Japan; China; the US, where she performed a Beetho- ven piano concerto cycle; and South America, including a performance at the Theatro Munic- ipal in Rio de Janeiro for the opening ceremony of the World Cup in 2014. An active chamber musician, Leonardi has performed in a piano duo with Clayton since 2011 and has collabo- rated with violinist Francesca Dego for 14 years, recently completing a cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas for Deutsche Grammophon. Her first solo recording, featuring works by Debussy and Chopin, was released by “Classica Viva” Musical Editions in May 2007. In addition to many live TV and radio broadcasts, she has been heard on the soundtrack of the 2008 film The Beautiful Truth by Steven Kroschel. Francesca Leonardi is making her Ravinia debut. aspirations—simply to get things off my chest.” The war had clouded his musical imagination and severely restricted his ability to earn money, so the pianist-composer returned to the concert stage as a soloist and accompanist. The Three Paganini Caprices originated as recital works for one of his occasional collaborators, Polish vio- linist Victor Goldberg. These two artists intro- duced the caprices in 1918. Paganini’s magnificent and challenging capric- es underwent numerous transformations in the hands of Szymanowski. Originally unaccompa- nied, these pieces acquired newly devised piano support in the Polish composer’s chromatically enriched harmonic language. Szymanowski felt no compunctions about tampering with the Ital- ian violin virtuoso’s scores. He freely reordered the variations and altered pitches in the well- known (and frequently adapted) Caprice No. 24 in A minor. –Program notes © 2019 Todd E. Sullivan Karol Szymanowski SEPTEMBER 3 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 101