Peter Donohoe
Introduction
Peter Donohoe is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest living British pianists. He first came to public attention when he won the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow in 1982 and he now performs regularly with many of the major orchestras throughout the world.
During the 2010/11 season Peter Donohoe’s engagements include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ulster Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony and Limburg Symphony Orchestras. He will also perform the Beethoven Sonata cycle in Birmingham.
He has an extensive discography including a series on Naxos focussing on British piano concertos.
Biography
Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. His early years were spent at Chetham's School of Music, before going on to Leeds University and the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied with Derek Wyndham. Later he spent a year in Paris studying with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. Since his unprecedented success as joint winner of the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has developed a distinguished career in Europe, the USA, the Far East and Australasia. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique. In 2010 received a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours.
During the 2010/11 season Peter Donohoe’s engagements include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ulster Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony and Limburg Symphony Orchestras. He will also perform the Beethoven Sonata cycle in Birmingham. Last season he performed with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, recitals in Moscow and St Petersburg and a chamber music tour with the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet in Ireland.
Peter Donohoe has recently played with all the major London Orchestras, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw, Dresden Staatskapelle, Czech Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Vienna Symphony Orchestras. He was an annual visitor to the BBC Proms for seventeen years and has appeared at many other festivals including six consecutive visits to the Edinburgh Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, and at the Ruhr and Schleswig Holstein Festivals in Germany. In North America, his appearances have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Vancouver and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. Peter Donohoe has worked with many of the worlds’ greatest conductors including Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Andrew Davis, Ludovic Morlot and Gustavo Dudamel.
Peter Donohoe is a keen chamber musician and performs frequently with the pianist Martin Roscoe. They have given performances in London and at the Edinburgh Festival and have recorded discs of Gershwin and Rachmaninov. Other musical partners have included the Maggini Quartet, with whom he has made recordings of several great British chamber works.
Peter Donohoe has made many fine recordings on EMI Records and has won awards for them including the Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt for Lizst’s Sonata in B minor and the Gramophone Concerto award for the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 2. His recordings of Messiaen with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble for Chandos Records and Litolff for Hyperion have also received widespread acclaim. In 2001 Naxos released a disc of music by Finzi, the first of a major series of recordings (currently 13 discs) which aims to raise the public's awareness of British piano repertoire through concert performance and recordings.
Press Reviews
"Donohoe’s performance again revealed his affinity for Liszt’s music. He brought these tone poems for piano vividly to life. From the opening sombre reminiscence of the hero William Tell to the quietly tolling bells of Geneva’s churches, the listener became a fellow traveller on Liszt’s journey."
Birmingham Post, 30 July 2010
"The Rite of Spring, two pianos clarifying what must be a physically impossible single-piano duet version of this complex score, was a triumph. These rich, lush textures distilling the lyrical with the angular were delivered with total empathy from the pianists, with some gut-wrenching crescendi, earth-shaking power and brooding tension."
Birmingham Post, 11 May 2009
Duo with Martin Roscoe
"Donohoe concentrated more on listening to the orchestra and was successful in bringing the hunted final movement ashore with his robust and reliable technique."
Svenska Dagbladet, 23 April 2009
Gävle Symphony Orchestra/Robin Ticciati
"Defining the outstanding quality of this recital was the characterful, completely unpretenious, and down-to-earth mastery of this great Mancunian pianist."
The Herald, 12 December 2008
Recital, Glasgow City Hall
"Peter Donohoe gave it panache and rthymic vitality....he has a sense for Gershwin's verve, and played every measure with conviction and assurance."
Seattle Post, 14 November 2008
Seattle Symphony Orchestra/Andreas Delfs
"Donohoe’s musical integrity and intelligence in even the most technically demanding works are his greatest strengths as a virtuoso performer. Time and again we were made aware of the sheer beauty of his playing – in the burnished tenor-like melodies of Liszt’s La Vallées d’Obermann, for example, and the subtlety of his weighted, layered accompaniments – while being constantly awed by the glitter and panache of his crystalline passage-work and double. The core of this remarkable evening was actually Messiaen’s La Fauvette des Jardins, a powerful exploration of piano sonorities, veiled atmospherics, thunder and lightning and, of course, the ever-present atonal chatter of birds. As a centenary tribute to a 20th century original it was ear-teasing, nerve-jangling, and positively stupendous in its cumulative impact."
Birmingham Post, 31 July 2008
Birmingham Conservatoire Recital
"A full-bodied, virtuoso performance from Peter Donohoe and the orchestra."
The Daily Telegraph, 8 April 2006
Ulster Orchestra/Takuo Yuasa
"Donohoe seemed to be literally inside the music (Tchaikovsky’s “Dumka”) as the slow elegiac sections alternated with quick dance tempi: his tone was pervasively sweet, and imbued with peasant warmth…Donohoe was a faithful advocate at every point."
The Independent, 28 March 2006
QEH Recital
Discography
Please click here.
Repertoire
Peter Donohoe has an extensive repertoire list. Please contact Alison Nethsingha for details.Contact
Worldwide Management:
Askonas Holt
Finland:
Fazer Artists
email Aino Turtiainen
Netherlands:
Interartists
email Leontien van der Vliet
South America:
Conciertos Grapa
email Elias Grapa
Schedule
Venue TBA, Kuopio
30 September 2010
Thursday, 30th September 2010
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No 2
CHOPIN Andante and Polonaise
With the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra / Jurjen Hempel
City Hall, Glasgow
3 October 2010 15.00
Sunday, 3rd October 2010, 15:00
BAX Moy Mell
HOLST The Planets
With Martin Roscoe, piano
Theater aan Vrijthof, MAASTRICHT
8 October 2010 20.15
Friday, 8th October 2010, 20:15
STRAVINSKY Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
With the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and Per Otto Johansson
Heerlen, Netherlands
9 October 2010 20.00
Saturday, 9th October 2010, 20:00
STRAVINSKY Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
With the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and Per Otto Johansson
Sittard, Netherlands
10 October 2010 14.30
Sunday, 10th October 2010, 14:30
STRAVINSKY Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
With the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and Per Otto Johansson
St David's Hall Cardiff
22 October 2010 19.00
Friday, 22nd October 2010, 19:00
WILLIAM MATHIAS Piano Concerto No 3
With the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jac Van Steen BBC
Bogota
7 November 2010
Sunday, 7th November 2010
Debussy Estampes
Liszt Annees de Pelerinage Volume 1 (La Suisse)
Rachmaninov 13 Preludes Op 23
Bogota
8 November 2010
Monday, 8th November 2010
Mendelssohn Andante and Rondo Capriccioso Op 14
Mozart Sonata K 331 (Turkish)
Brahms Vier Klavierstuck Op 119
Chopin Ballade 3
Chopin 2 Nocturnes Opus 62
Chopin Sonata 3
City Hall, Hull
27 November 2010
Saturday, 27th November 2010
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No 1
With the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra / Andrew Penny, conductor
