(HUDSON, N.Y.) – NPR radio host and pianist Christopher O’Riley and cellist Matt Haimovitz perform a duo program of sonatas by Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich at Hudson Hall on Friday, June 2, at 7pm. The performance is the final concert in the Classics on Hudson season of artists redefining classical music.

Christopher O’Riley and Matt Haimovitz are both independently known for their masterful playing and adventurous traversing of the classical and pop music genres. O’Riley, who listeners will know as the host of NPR’s From the Top, performs transcendent interpretations of the classics and groundbreaking transcriptions of Radiohead, Elliott Smith, and Nick Drake. His first album of Radiohead arrangements, True Love Waits, garnered a four-star review from Rolling Stone.

Matt Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at age 13, as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic and recorded his debut album with the Chicago Symphony at only 17 years old. In 2000, he made waves with his Bach “Listening-Room” Tour, for which he took Bach’s beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and into bars and clubs across North America and the UK.

In 2011, his Meeting of the Spirits earned a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album and won the award for Best Producer of the Year (Classical).

For the performance at Hudson Hall, Haimovitz will play on a Giovanni Grancino of Milan cello (c. 1695-1700), graciously provided to him by the company CANIMEX INC. from Drummondville, Quebec, Canada.

“If any artists were destined to collaborate, it was surely this pair” – The New York Times.

In 2011, O’Riley and Haimovitz collaborated to release their genre-blurring double-album Shuffle.Play.Listen. to wide acclaim. Deemed “a landmark record” (Portland Press Herald) and “a stimulating step forward” (AllMusic), Shuffle.Play.Listen. juxtaposes works by Stravinsky, Martinu, Janá?ek, and Piazzolla with O’Riley’s arrangements of Bernard Hermann, Radiohead, Cocteau Twins, Blonde Redhead, Arcade Fire and John McLaughlin.

Haimovitz and O’Riley’s debut release on the PENTATONE Oxingale label was BEETHOVEN, Period., the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Variations, in January 2015. Gramophone said, “Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley play the living daylights out of these works” and included it among its list of Top Ten Beethoven Recordings.

“O’Riley’s integration of oceanic momentum and melodic and harmonic beauty is not only virtually peerless in piano music but rivals that of the greatest alt-rock bands, Radiohead included.”—The Absolute Sound

“Matt Haimovitz is a ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” – The New York Times

Tickets start at $25 and are available online at Hudson Hall or by calling (518) 822-1438.

 

ABOUT CLASSICS ON HUDSON

Celebrating its third season, and led by Artistic Director Eugenia Zukerman, Classics on Hudson seeks to enrich the cultural life of the greater Hudson community by presenting concerts that span the classics to the contemporary, performed by internationally celebrated artists. Classics on Hudson serves to promote understanding and enjoyment of music through educational and concert experiences for audiences of all ages.

 

ABOUT HUDSON HALL

Hudson Hall offers a dynamic year-round schedule of music, theater, dance, literature, workshops for youth and adults, as well as family programs and large-scale community events such as Winter Walk. Located in an historic landmark that houses New York State’s oldest surviving theater, Hudson Hall reopens following a yearlong historic restoration with an inaugural season beginning in spring 2017. The newly restored Hudson Hall – formerly the Hudson Opera House – reflects Hudson’s rich history in a modern facility that welcomes residents and visitors from throughout our local community, across the nation, and around the globe.