Dear friends,

I hope this finds you well and enjoying the spring.

My 2023 is turning out to be a year of revisitations. As part of a tour of Canada in February I returned to Ottawa to give a recital at the very last venue I performed in before the pandemic hit. In addition, during this tour I gave the premiere of Kati Agócs’s piano concerto, Transluminescence—a project conceived several years ago and paused by the circumstances since. My recent return to New York is accompanied by upcoming recitals and orchestral performances, and my programs next month focus on repertoire that I revisit after a long hiatus, in particular the Ligeti etudes.

Tour

The past few months have been full of hectic touring and exciting experiences, with stark contrasts between a coast-to-coast gallop through freezing Canada and a series of concerts in sunny Florida. One can hardly imagine packing so many different experiences in such little time! Particularly special moments include the aforementioned premiere of Transluminescence with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, an exciting collaboration with Jon Kimura Parker on two-piano programs, and a set of performances for the Miami International Piano Festival. To get a taste of my projects during this period, check out the glowing reflections in the South Florida Classical Review on one of my Miami recitals last month, including the “deep romanticism” of the Rachmaninoff, “transparency… and grand fugal lines” in the Bach and the “astute… fleetly articulated and lilting” Schubert.

Album

Enthusiastic critical responses for “Arabesque,” my latest disc on the Steinway label, have also kept coming in, including a 5-star review in Fanfare:

What proves beguiling here lies in Namoradze’s sense of touch, easily suggestive of the magical dynamics achieved by former greats, like Benno Moiseiwitsch, in Schumann’s music… Namoradze juxtaposes lightness of heart with the presence of emotional, even polyphonic, frenzy, as in the fourth section, marked Einfach und zart, whose agitations arise from a simple, child-like parlando. For sheer velocity, the Sehr lebhaft section has few rivals.

— Fanfare on Schumann’s Humoreske

Upcoming

Next up is a NYC performance of Scriabin’s rarely heard Piano Concerto with Pegasus: The Orchestra and Karen Hakobyan on May 5 at Merkin Hall in a program that also includes my solo piano arrangement of the Adagio from Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony. Check out this interview in GetClassical that explores the unusual performance history of the Scriabin concerto, my creative process in arranging Rachmaninoff’s symphonic music for the piano, and the perspectives presented by this very special concert.

I’m then off to Europe for a touring period that will include concerts in Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Georgia and Italy before I return to the US in the summer for performances at festivals including the International Keyboard Institute and Festival and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Keep an eye on my website for updates on further concerts this year!

Kind regards,

Nicolas