{"id":117829,"date":"2025-09-25T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=117829"},"modified":"2025-09-25T06:59:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:59:43","slug":"preview-pianist-stephen-kovacevich-in-recital-at-koerner-hall-october-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/09\/25\/preview-pianist-stephen-kovacevich-in-recital-at-koerner-hall-october-5\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Pianist Stephen Kovacevich In Recital At Koerner Hall October 5"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pianist
Pianist Stephen Kovacevich (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

American pianist Stephen Kovacevich will be performing a recital at Toronto\u2019s Koerner Hall on October 5. The program includes Four Intermezzos and one Capriccio by Johannes Brahms, and sonatas by Beethoven and Schubert.<\/p>\n

The concert is part of Koerner Hall\u2019s piano recital series, and notably, Kovacevich will be making his debut in the venue.<\/p>\n

Stephen Kovacevich<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s difficult to fathom the depth of experience that Kovacevich brings to his performances at this stage of his career. A decade ago, back in 2015, Philips released a set of his complete recordings with the label, and it was a boxed set of no less than 25 CDs.<\/p>\n

Stephen\u2019s father was Croatian, and he was born with the name Kovacevich. When he was 12, his mother remarried, and he took the new family name of Bishop, and that\u2019s the name he first performed under. He\u2019d later take on both names, and eventually dropped Bishop.<\/p>\n

Stephen had his public orchestral debut in San Francisco at the age of 11 performing the Piano Concertino by Jean Fran\u00e7aix, and his first solo recital later the same year. By his early teens, he was performing with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. At 18, he moved to London to study under a scholarship, and has lived in the UK ever since.<\/p>\n

During a six decade career, he has performed on virtually all of the world\u2019s prominent concert stages with conductors such as Georg Solti, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle and Colin Davis. As a chamber musician, he\u2019s performed with cellists Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9 and Lynn Harrell, violinist Kyung-Wha Chung and clarinettist Michael Collins.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s recorded and performed music from Mozart to Stravinsky, it\u2019s clear he has an affinity for Brahms, Beethoven, and Schubert, composers who have taken up a large part of his professional life. He\u2019s recorded all of Beethoven\u2019s sonatas.<\/p>\n

And, while his repertoire has also included other composers, he\u2019s unequivocal about who he won\u2019t play.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I\u2019m not indifferent to Haydn, I loathe him,\u201d he\u2019s said<\/a>.<\/p>\n