Imogen Cooper

Introduction

Imogen Cooper was born in London and then studied in Paris and Vienna. She is now established as an international pianist, recent performances including the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Dresden Staatskapelle and Philharmonia Orchestras.

In the 2010/11 season Imogen Cooper’s performances include the Philadelphia and Royal Scottish National Orchestras.  At the Wigmore Hall she has been invited to perform a series of concerts focussing on Schumann, including a solo piano recital and concerts with Christianne Stotijn and Wolfgang Holzmair.
   
During 2008 and 2009 she performed the last 6 years of Schubert’s solo works as part of the International Piano Series in London.  These were recorded and released to great critical acclaim under the title ‘Schubert Live’ (Avie).

Biography

"She is an outstanding artist, one of the finest pianists now playing. Go, listen, and wonder how many better pianists there are alive in this country, or anywhere." Daily Telegraph

Recognized worldwide as a pianist of virtuosity and poetic poise, Imogen Cooper has established a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the classical repertoire.  She has dazzled audiences and orchestras throughout her distinguished career, bringing to the concert platform her unique musical understanding and lyrical quality. 

In the 2010/11 season Imogen Cooper’s performances include the Philadelphia and Royal Scottish National Orchestras.  At the Wigmore Hall she has been invited to perform a series of concerts focussing on Schumann, including a solo piano recital and concerts with Christianne Stotijn and Wolfgang Holzmair.  Later in the season, she will join the Takacs Quartet for performances of Schubert’s Trout Quintet in London, Spain and Germany.  During 2011, Imogen Cooper will perform  in three concerts as part of the Mozart Unwrapped series at Kings Place in London.

Last season Imogen Cooper’s performances included the Toronto and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras and she also continued her long term relationships play/directing with the Northern Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia.  During 2008 and 2009 she performed the last 6 years of Schubert’s solo works as part of the International Piano Series in London.  These were recorded and released to great critical acclaim under the title ‘Schubert Live’ (Avie).

Imogen Cooper has a widespread international career and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony and NHK Symphony Orchestras.  She has also undertaken tours with the Camerata Salzburg, Australian and Orpheus Chamber Orchestras.   Imogen Cooper has played with all the major British orchestras including the Philharmonia with Christoph Eschenbach and the London Phiharmonic Orchestra with Mark Elder at the BBC Proms. Her recital appearances include New York, Chicago, Paris, Vienna, Rotterdam, Prague and at London’s Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls.

As a supporter of new music, Imogen Cooper has premiered two works at the Cheltenham International Festival; Traced Overhead by Thomas Adès (1996) and Decorated Skin by Deirdre Gribbin (2003). In 1996, she also collaborated with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker in the premiere of the quintet, Voices for Angels, written by the ensemble’s viola player, Brett Dean.

Imogen Cooper is a committed chamber music player and performs regularly with the Belcea Quartet.  As a Lieder recitalist, she has had a long collaboration with Wolfgang Holzmair. They have performed recitals in many major venues including Vienna, Paris and London, and have made several recordings for Philips, the most recent release being a disc of Lieder setting the poems of Eichendorff.  She also performs frequently with the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, their recordings include a CD set of Brahms Sonatas and Bach (RCA).  Wolfgang Holzmair and Sonia Wieder-Atherton both feature in the box set ‘Imogen Cooper and Friends’ encompassing solo, chamber and lieder works (Philips). She has also recorded four Mozart Concertos with the Northern Sinfonia (Avie) and a solo recital at the Wigmore Hall (Wigmore Live).

Imogen Cooper received a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours in 2007 and was the recipient of an award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2008.

Press Reviews

"Imogen Cooper's energetic and intense playing in Beethoven’s great 5th Piano Concerto combined with the qualities of the orchestra to produce a wonderful whole, so that at the end cheers quite rightly errupted."
Neue, 22 May 2010
Britten Sinfonia, Bregenz Festival

"She gave Beethoven's Third a weighty performance. Hallmarks of her playing included clarity through great fistfuls of runs and arpeggios, with occasional glimmers of color and atmosphere as she propelled the tempos along. The Largo had an interior quality, and her inspired communication with the orchestra's wind soloists reminded the listener that she is a chamber music performer of the highest caliber."
cincinnati.com 29 January 2010
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra


"British pianist Imogen Cooper delivered a fleet, strong-willed rendition of the meaty piano concerto, pulling back dramatically when needed to give the music extra emotional resonance.
The Toronto Star, 20 January 2010
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
  
  
"Her Schubert recitals demonstrated a rare ability to negotiate the composer’s change of moods between flippancy and tragedy, managing such delicacy in differentiating shades and tones with individual phrases. It was playing of the greatest intelligence and musical integrity."
QEH Schubert recital, The Guardian, 11 December 2009

"Imogen Cooper's live Schubert takes its deserved place alongside the greats. Free from the confines of the studio, Cooper rises to the occasion with performances that show a courageous advance on her already distinguished work. This is true, most strikingly, in the great penultimate A major Sonata, D959. The catalogue may be filled to the brim with outstanding discs of this epic work yet few more deeply charged or felt performances now exist on record."
Gramophone Magazine, September 2009
Schubert Live Volume 1


"Imogen Cooper brought a suave athleticism to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major (K. 503). It helped that Rattle continually adjusted the volume of the strings, making them duck under the sound of the piano at key moments. Revealed was a pianist with a fairly romantic view of the piece, using rubato liberally but smartly. Articulation and color were agile servants, so that not a single phrase passed from Cooper's hands without being imbued with some form of emotional meaning. It might be hard to substantiate this feeling, but it's an important one to recognize: Cooper achieves that rare affect in her playing that she is creating something personal."
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 7 May 2009
Philadelphia Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle


"On the first half of the program, Imogen Cooper gave a rewarding account of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25. It is also, appropriately enough, one of the more grandly scaled of Mozart's piano concertos, and Cooper's eloquent, musically intelligent playing was true to the bold profile of this work without sacrificing suppleness or grace."
The Boston Globe, 1 May 2009
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Colin Davis


"From the sprung vitality of the Menuetto of the G major Sonata (D 894) and the sublime harmonic switchbacks and Lieder-like voicing of the Moments Musicaux (D780) to the heroic narrative of the C minor Sonata (D 958), this was playing of unfaltering refinement and complete engagement with the score."
The Telegraph, 25 April 2009
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London


"Ms. Cooper opened with the Piano Sonata in A (D. 959) from 1828, Schubert's final year. Odd as it may seem to say about a nearly 40-minute piece, a sense of disruption is paramount. A jaunty initial air is scuttled by sidelong perorations. The tranquil Andantino is violently sundered by an agonizing disruption at its center; the frisky Scherzo breaks down into indecisive stuttering. The finale attempts Beethovenian grandeur, but seizes up as if faced with some existential void. Ms. Cooper was equal to the work's technical demands, but it was her cleareyed, warmhearted assessment of its philosophical implications that made her account remarkable."
The New York Times, 26 February 2009
Alice Tully Hall, New York


"The raison d'être of Imogen Cooper directs Beethoven was the Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor. There were no frilly hand gestures; no lungeing of the body towards the orchestra; no coy nods and winks. What transfixed the audience was the palpable energy that coursed from player to player: from keyboard to leader's bow, from violins to woodwind and brass, and back again. The organic power and economy of Beethoven's writing felt more dynamic than ever. Cooper's own rhythmic regeneration of theme and counter- theme, her sense of direction, and her ability to let the music yield and breathe, led to a fearless cadenza with a movingly hushed exit. A veiled inwardness hung over the slow movement. And the finale was measured, tense with concentrated energy, and with wonderfully tapered phrases of harp-like passagework."
The Times, 11 February 2009
Britten Sinfonia

Discography

SCHUBERT LIVE

Volume One
Piano Sonata in A major D959
11 Ecossaises D781
3 Klavierstücke D946
Piano Sonata in A minor D845
Piano Sonata in D major D850
Avie AV2156

Volume Two
Piano Sonata in C minor D958
6 Moments Musicaux D780
16 Deutsche Tänze D783
Piano Sonata in G major D894
4 Impromptus D935
Avie AV2157

Volume Three
12 Deutsche Tänze D790
Piano Sonata in A minor D784
Ungarische Melodie in B minor D817
Piano Sonata in C major D840
4 Impromptus D899
Piano Sonata in B flat major D960
Allegretto in C minor D915
Avie AV2158

   
CONCERTO

MOZART
Piano Concerto No 23, K488
Piano Concerto No 9, K271
Northern Sinfonia
Avie/The Sage Gateshead AV 2100

MOZART
Piano Concerto No 24, K491
Piano Concerto No 25, K503
Fantasia in D minor K397
Northern Sinfonia
Avie/The Sage Gateshead AV 2175

MOZART
Concerto for 2 Pianos, K242
Concerto for 3 Pianos, K365
Academy of St Martin in the Fields,
Sir Neville Marriner & Alfred Brendel
Philips PHIL 416 364-2

    
SOLO

BEETHOVEN
Sonata No 28 in A major Op 101
MOZART
Piano Sonata in A minor K310
RAVEL Miroirs
DEBUSSY La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune
Wigmore Hall Live WHLive0018

SCHUMANN Abegg Variations Op 1
SCHUMANN Davidsbündlertänze Op 6
BRAHMS Fantasie Op 116
Ottavo OTR C39027

   
CHAMBER

BACH and BRAHMS
with Sonia Wieder-Atherton
RCA 88697 201872

MOZART
Piano works for four hands
with Anne Queffélec
Ottavo OTR C129242

SCHUBERT
Piano works for four hands
with Anne Queffélec
Warner Classics B001LH34LI

RACHMANINOV, FRANCK & FAURE
après un rêve
with Sonia Wieder-Atherton
BMG France RCA 74321 911552

SCHUBERT Piano Trios
with Raphael Oleg & Sonia Wieder-Atherton
BMG France RCA 74321 630982

    
LIEDER with Wolfgang Holzmair

HUGO WOLF Mörike Lieder
Wigmore Hall Live WHLive0029

Eichendorff Lieder
SCHUMANN, MENDELSSOHN etc
Philips PHIL 464 991-2

HAYDN, MOZART, BEETHOVEN
An die ferne Geliebte
(selected Lieder and songs)
Philips PHIL 454 475-2

SCHUBERT song cycles
Philips SBS (Australia) 476 200-2 PM3

SCHUBERT
Die Schöne Müllerin
Philips PHIL 456 581-2

SCHUBERT
Schwanengesang
Philips PHIL 442 460-2

SCHUBERT
Winterreise
Philips PHIL 446 407-2

SCHUMANN
Lieder auf Gedichte von Heinrich Heine,
Liederkreis Op 24
Dichterliebe Op 48
Philips PHIL 446 086-2
SCHUMANN (Robert & Clara)
Kerner Lieder
Philips PHIL 4626102

Imogen Cooper & Friends
MOZART, SCHUBERT, RACHMANINOV, BRAHMS, SCHUMANN, WOLF
Philips SBS (Australia) 476 209-5 PM3

Repertoire

BARTOK Concerto No 3

BEETHOVEN
Concerto No 1 in C major Op 15
Concerto No 2 in B flat major Op 19
Concerto No 3 in C minor Op 37
Concerto No 4 in G major Op 58
Concerto No 5 in E flat major Op 73

CHOPIN
Concerto No 1 in E minor
Concerto No 2 in F minor

HAYDN Concerto in D major

MOZART
Concerto No 5 in D major K 175
Concerto No 9 in E flat major K271
Concerto No 12 in A major K414
Concerto No 13 in C major K415
Concerto No 14 in E flat major K449
Concerto No 15 in B flat major K450
Concerto No 16 in D major K451
Concerto No 17 in G major K453
Concerto No 18 in B flat major K456
Concerto No 19 in F major K459
Concerto No 20 in D minor K466
Concerto No 21 in C major K467
Concerto No 22 in E flat major K482
Concerto No 23 in A major K488
Concerto No 24 in C minor K491
Concerto No 25 in C major K503
Concerto No 26 in D major K537
Concerto No 27 in B flat major K595
Concerto No 10 in E flat major for 2 pianos K365
Concerto No 7 in F major (2 piano version) K242
Rondo in A major K386

POULENC Concerto

RAVEL Concerto in G major

SCHUMANN
Concerto in A minor Op 54
Introduction and Allegro appassionato Op 92

Links

Wigmore Hall Live

Avie Records

Albion Media

Contact

Alison Nethsingha

Susie Murray

Worldwide Management:
Askonas Holt

             
Australasia:                         
Arts Management    
email Judith Alexander 

Schubert Live

During 2008 and 2009 Imogen Cooper performed the last 6 years of Schubert's solo works as part of the International Piano Series in London.  These recitals were recorded live for release on commercial CD on the Avie label.
You can purchase these discs here: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3

Reviews for Volume 3:
 
"Cooper's articulation is precise, her tempi poised, the architecture clean, the colours cool to chilly. C minor brings out the best in her. The bittersweet Allegretto and blazing first Impromptu the most arresting works in a performance of clarity and integrity."
The Independent on Sunday, 1 August 2010
 
"Imogen Cooper, it seems to me, offers a near-perfect balance of head and heart in Schubert, her expressive technique and musical personality wholly in the service of the composer."
Gramophone Magazine, July 2010

"Cooper has a sure grasp of the music’s ebb and flow, of the sonata (D960) as a whole’s structural integrity, and her beautiful, singing line. Cooper is not about the extensions of perceived time in the manner of Kissin or Richter. Flow remains intact. Bass trills hold an inner energy that seems to outlive their sonic durations. The desolation of the Andante sostenuto is palpable."
Fanfare Magazine, July 2010

"The poise of Cooper’s playing holds one breathless…Cooper’s sense of rightness of colour and her exquisite balancing of textures fully justify her reputation as one of the great Schubertians of our time."

Sunday Times, 16 May 2010
 
"Cooper’s sensitivity to the new light shed by remote keys is unfailing, and above all she tells the strange adventure of Schubert’s most tormented A minor sonata with unerring judgment."
David Nice, BBC Music Magazine June 2010
 
Reviews for Volume 2:
 
"The sound she so carefully makes is a glorious companion throughout, casting radiance on the first two Moments Musicaux, the spellbinding last of the four impromptus, and even a rare moment of transcendence in the otherwise straightforward if well sprung German Dances…she rallies in an even more thoughtful and, when needed, withdrawn Andante, a heavenly dream of a scherzo, and a perfect touch to conclude a slightly well behaved finale."
David Nice, BBC Music Magazine ‘Instrumental Choice’, February 2010.
 
"One thing Cooper can do is make the piano sing, whether it be the lovely third subject of the G major’s second movement floated over rippling 32nd notes, the molto expressivo dolente in the final Allegretto or the lullaby opening of the second (A flat) Moment musical. Colours are gracefully shaded, dynamics are artfully controlled and contained; there are no intrusive idiosyncrasies to detract from the enchantment…above all, there is throughout a serenity and poise to the playing which is pure balm for the soul."
Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone Editor’s Choice, January 2010.
 
"Imogen Cooper's live Schubert takes its deserved place alongside the greats."
Gramophone Magazine,
September 2009
 
"Cooper is wholly authoritative, with a clear sense of thematic structure and of tonal architecture, and these are combined with melodic playing of the utmost refinement and breathtaking variety of tone…this is Schubert playing of the highest calibre, all the more so for being captured live, the excitement of the event being entirely palpable." (Volume 2)
Nicholas Salwey, International Record Review, December 2009.
 
Reviews for Volume 1:
 
“Imogen Cooper's live Schubert takes its deserved place alongside the greats.  Free from the confines of the studio, Cooper rises to the occasion with performances that show a courageous advance on her already distinguished work.  This is true, most strikingly, in the great penultimate A major Sonata, D959.  The catalogue may be filled to the brim with outstanding discs of this epic work yet few more deeply charged or felt performances now exist on record.”
Gramophone Magazine,
September 2009
 
“This ability to balance opposites perfectly, to project a knowing innocence (the second piece) and to set a gentle Ländler against elemental energy (the final piece) is what makes Cooper’s version special.”
International Piano, July 2009
 
“Over the years, Imogen Cooper has shown herself to be one of the interpretative élite and on this new issue she reinforces her standing as one of the finest Schubertians in the world. The fanciful Écossaises are shaped with the utmost artistry and the Drei Klavierstücke are given with an almost Chopinesque sense of individual oneness. This is superb pianism by a very fine artist…her profound understanding of the nature of Schubert¹s solo piano music is wonderfully conveyed to us here in performances of the highest order”
International Record Review, July 2009
             
"These discs are played by Imogen cooper with the combination of poetic insight and magisterial grasp of structure that makes her such a great artist. The subtleties in her phrasing seem to be natural emanations of a total rapport with this composer’s music.
The Sunday Telegraph, 17 May 2009
 
“The intervening years have seen a deepening understanding of this wonderful repertoire. The range of colour, the subtle details, the singing line, the freedom of tempo within the driving momentum, the haunting and haunted beauty, are greater than ever.”
The Sunday Times, 10 May 2009
                     
"Her feeling for Schubert's lyrical lines is deeply rooted throughout the disc...The Klavierstucke combine freshness and spontaneity with an assured sense of ordered structure, the various sections seamlessly knitted together and the moods sensitively contrasted. The Ecossaises are done with infectious spirit, a rhythmic verve allied to a magical range of touch and timbre. It is that very spectrum of colour and the discretion with which it is applied that contribute to the absorbing impact of this two-CD set."
The Telegraph, April 25 2009

Interview for Fanfare Magazine

Schedule

Corn Exchange Brighton
24 September 2010 19.30

Breukelen, Netherlands
13 October 2010 20.00

Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon
15 October 2010 19.30

Wigmore Hall, London
18 October 2010 19.30

Forum Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent
21 October 2010 20.00

Wigmore Hall, London
4 November 2010 19.30

Frankfurter Hof, Mainz
12 November 2010 20.00

Usher Hall, Edinburgh
19 November 2010 19.30

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
20 November 2010 19.30

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
20 November 2010 19.30

Publicity Downloads

2010/11 Biography

Photo 1 credit Sussie Ahlburg

Photo 2 credit Sussie Ahlburg

Photo 3 credit Benjamin Ealovega

Photo 4 credit Benjamin Ealovega