Palace Music Concert: viola sonatas
Xandi Van Dijk – viola
Kärt Ruubel – piano
Program:
Ernst Krenek – Sonata for viola and piano Op. 117
Eduard Tubin – Sonata for viola and piano ETW 63
Dmitri Šostakovitš – Sonata for viola and piano Op. 147
Xandi van Dijk is one of the most versatile violists and leading chamber musicians of his generation. Since the end of 2007, Xandi has been a member of the internationally renowned Signum Quartet. With them he has been a laureate of international competitions, and from 2011-2013 they were BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists. Their recordings have received universal acclaim, and in 2014 the quartet was awarded an International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for their album “No.3”.
Concert appearances have led the Signum Quartet from the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall and the Berliner Philharmonie to the the Aldeburgh Festival, the Festival Aix-en-Provence and the BBC Proms. The Signum Quartet has recorded for Capriccio, harmonia mundi and Sony Classical, and currently records for Pentatone.
As a soloist, he has performed at the 8 Brücken Festival in Cologne, with the Münchener Kammerorchester, Kölner Kammerorchester and Folkwang Kammerorchester, as well as the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Xandi ‘s chamber music partners include Leon Fleisher, Jörg Widmann, Igor Levit, Nils Mönkemeyer, Nicolas Altstaedt and Elisabeth Leonskaja.
Xandi is principal viola of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, and a regular guest principal with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris and the Estonian Festival Orchestra.
To further his artistic development as both chamber musician and soloist, van Dijk has had classes with Wolfram Christ, Lawrence Dutton and Yo-Yo Ma, and has worked together closely with the Alban Berg Quartet, the Artemis Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. His passion for Early Music also led him to a period of study of the baroque viola with Prof. Mayumi Hirasaki. He has had conducting masterclasses with Leonid Grin, Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi.
In April 2018 the Estonian born pianist Kärt Ruubel made her Debut with her twin sister Triin in the Berliner Philharmonie. They performed at the prestigious concert series “Debüt im Deutschlandfunk Kultur”. Same year her first solo CD with works by Händel, Bach, Fux and Froberger was released by GENUIN Classics.
Kärt appeared as soloist with various orchestras such as the North German Philharmonic, Pärnu City Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra Vorpommern and Neophon Ensemble. As a chamber musician she has played at several music festivals including Gezeiten Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Pärnu Music Festival and recorded for BBC 3, the North German Radio (NDR) and the Bavarian Radio (BR Klassik). Together with her twin sister Triin Ruubel she has performed around Germany, Estonia, Sweden, Italy and Switzerland.
Kärt is a founding member of the German-based Neophon Ensemble (neophon.eu) for Contemporary music. As a member of the ensemble she has performed around Germany, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. Through Neophon Ensemble Kärt has had the opportunity to work with composers such as Jörg Widmann, Peter Ruzicka and Wolfgang Rihm. Kärt Ruubel performed the European debut performance of the piano concerto “Lying in the grass, river and clouds” by Marc Sabat. In 2015 she performed the piano concerto “Ataraxia” by Walter Zimmermann.
Kärt is a Founding Member of Ludensemble, a recently established ensemble of esteemed Estonian musicians characterized by perpetual curiosity and unwavering dedication. She performs regularly on piano and celesta with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.
