Andrea Padova Pianist
Andrea Padova first attracted critical attention when he won first prize at the 1995 J.S. Bach International Piano Competition. Since then, he has performed all over the world, appearing in such important venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Washington Performing Arts Society, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Gasteig in Munich, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome.
Described by the eminent musicologist Harold C. Schonberg as one of the most innovative Bach interpreters (“strong personality, conviction, freedom, style”), Andrea Padova is equally at home interpreting the classical and romantic repertoire, and his repertoire includes sixty concertos for piano and orchestra, from Bach's complete concertos to the twentieth century. He has been described as “one of the most interesting figures on the contemporary piano scene” by Insound magazine, which named him the best Italian pianist in 2008.
He has also worked in the field of contemporary music, collaborating with composers such as Pierre Boulez and Leonard Bernstein, and is himself a prize-winning composer in many international competitions (Wiener Wettbewerb für neue Musik, “A. Casella” of the Accademia Chigiana di Siena, Wiener Masters, “Malipiero”, “G. Contilli”, “MusMA, Music Masters on Air”).
Andrea Padova has recorded for Stradivarius, BMG, Ewe classics Japan, Limen Music, Bam. His recording of Bach's Fantasias was chosen by the magazine “CD Classics” as one of the best piano CDs of 1997, together with Schiff and Perahia. In 2005 his cd dedicated to Ferruccio Busoni received acknowledgements, between the others, by the authoritative review “Gramophone” that wrote: “He creates some of the same dark, sustained, organ-like tone that marks Rubinstein’s hypnotic 1934 recording. An ideal advocate for Busoni”. For his cd dedicated to rare works and masterpieces by Robert Schumann, the critic recognized “unsurpassed mastery” (MF). His long-awaited CD of Bach's Goldberg Variations (Stradivarius, 2015), recorded during a tour of Japan, was enthusiastically received: “beautiful tonality and emotionally sensitive playing” (Fanfare). Of his live performance of this masterpiece, the Washington Post wrote that he “conveys the sense of successfully exceeding the limits of human possibility”. Following the release of a DVD dedicated to Mozart's piano quartets, recorded with the soloists of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he is currently recording Mozart's complete piano sonatas. These recordings are accompanied by a multi-year concert project, in which he performs Mozart’s sonatas alternating them with readings of excerpts from letters by the composer. In January 2016, he was commissioned by the Associazione Mozart Italia to write a composition for soprano and piano, which was later performed in the Wiener Saal of the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
He is Professor of Piano and Historical Piano at the Conservatory of Parma, Italy and is frequently invited to give master classes in piano and composition in U.S. and Japan.
From the Press
»The pianist Andrea Padova turns sound into poetry. His virtuosity, sensitively managed, resounds through every measure. The Goldberg Variations remains the wildest of musical fantasies. Padova […] gave the music its needed momentum, conveying the sense of successfully exceeding the limits of human possibility.«
Cecelia Porter (The Washington Post)
»Padova’s inventive voice is decidedly his own. Pleasanty intriguing.«
Stephen Smoliar (San Francisco Examiner)
»A strong personality, conviction, freedom, and style.«
Harold C. Schonberg
»Andrea Padova made his name as the winner of the J.S. Bach International Piano Competition in 1995 and with a highly regarded recording of Bach-Busoni transcriptions. But Mr. Padova is also a composer. He writes in an accessible, freewheeling style.«
Allan Kozinn (New York Times)
»The young Italian performed magic on the concert grand piano and presented a Bach with southern leggerezza. Andrea Padova then demonstrated just as much competence when it came to Beethoven and Schumann and this versatility characterizes him as a musician of stature. «
U.H.R. (Saarbrücker Zeitung)
»But the highlight of this evening was the discovery of a very attractive pianist, Andréa Padova. To give its full potential to the final opus of Mozart's keyboard concertos, you need more than talent, you need a soul. Expression of Mozart's purest genius, this concerto was played with great elegance and a beautiful depth of feeling by the Italian pianist.«
Gérard Abrial (Easyclassic)
»Andrea Padova, warm, inspired, who bore the expression of his lyricism on his very face, performed works by Chopin, Ravel and Liszt, with, in particular, a luminous comparison between Ravel's “Jeux d'eau” and Liszt’s “Jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este”«
André Pereigne (Nice-Matin)
» One of the most interesting figures in the contemporary piano panorama.«
Claudio Chianura (Insound)
