[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”25px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]<\/h3>\n![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/adv\/alumni-news-media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/32_bezuidenhout-horizontal-copy.jpg\")
METHOD TO MOZART: \u201cEvery time I heard someone play [Mozart\u2019s] music, I was baffled by how terrified they sounded of doing the wrong thing,\u201d Bezuidenhout says. \u201cI was determined to find a way to bring out more passion, relaxation, and romance. And I could do that on these old pianos in a way that I just never could on a Steinway.\u201d<\/p><\/div>Kristian Bezuidenhout \u201901E, \u201904E (MM)<\/strong> watched Amadeus<\/em>, the 1984 semibiographical movie about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, when he was 10.<\/p>\nThe \u201csuper lonely\u201d child, as Bezuidenhout describes himself at that age, was \u201ccompletely bamboozled by how beautiful the music was\u201d and became obsessed both with the film and Mozart\u2019s compositions, which he felt gave him a way to escape his solitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose feelings you have as a kid with music like that just never go away,\u201d he says from his home in London.<\/p>\n
Today, Bezuidenhout is a leading period-instrument keyboard player, best known for his fortepiano interpretations of the complete keyboard music of Mozart (Harmonia Mundi record label). Earlier this year, he released his 25th album\u2014the last volume of the complete Beethoven Concertos (Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3<\/em>) recorded with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.<\/p>\nA regular guest with the world\u2019s leading ensembles\u2014and with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Giovanni Antonini, and Daniel Harding\u2014Bezuidenhout was named Most Exciting Young Musician for the 2005\u201306 season by the Dutch Federation of Music and Drama and earned a nomination in 2013 as Gramophone<\/em> magazine\u2019s Artist of the Year.<\/p>\nDuring the 2017\u201318 season he became an artistic director of the Freiburger Barockorchester and principal guest conductor with the English Concert.<\/p>\n
Future projects include Bach Christmas Cantatas and Handel Dixit Dominus\u2014both with the Freiburger Barockorchester\u2014 and the English Concert, featuring Purcell Odes and Handel Chandos.<\/p>\n
In one music review, the New York Times<\/em> wrote that Bezuidenhout\u2019s performance of keyboard works by Mozart demonstrated the \u201cdazzling variety of colors he can draw from his instrument.\u201d<\/p>\nBezuidenhout\u2019s repertoire extends beyond Mozart to works by Baroque and Romantic composers, including Purcell, Handel, and Bach, to the music of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. But Mozart has remained a main focus for the Australian\/South African pianist\u2014in part to interpret the prolific composer\u2019s works in new ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I heard someone play his music, I was baffled by how terrified they sounded of doing the wrong thing,\u201d he says. \u201cI was determined to find a way to bring out more passion, relaxation, and romance. And I could do that on these old pianos in a way that I just never could on a Steinway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is a great deal to be learned from historical sources, an equally important aspect of my approach is based on \u2018gut\u2019 feelings; on the realization of sounds in my imagination,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt is a highly postmodern exercise in a sense\u2014deeply subjective and based on background and personal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bezuidenhout says the Eastman School of Music was instrumental in allowing him to develop that trial-and-error approach as an advanced keyboard student.<\/p>\n
He remembers \u201ca constellation of important people\u201d at Eastman who valued that process much more than a heavily structured curriculum.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was this free, open environment where there was so much experimentation,\u201d he says. \u201cThey allowed me to be myself at a time when\u2014at least hypothetically\u2014other faculty might have tried to suppress these slightly fantastical tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those tendencies included bouncing between the fortepiano, harpsichord, flute, and chamber music.<\/p>\n
For example, Rebecca Penneys, a professor emerita of piano and Bezuidenhout\u2019s principal piano instructor, was \u201cunbelievably open-minded.\u201d Meantime, Paul O\u2019Dette, a professor of lute, inspired him to use historical information to enliven and enrich music making. (Bezuidenhout became O\u2019Dette\u2019s assistant for several years). He also counts his work with Malcolm Bilson (fortepiano) and Arthur Hass (harpsichord) as deeply stimulating: \u201cBoth teachers instilled in me a newly found appreciation of the myriad possibilities offered by these instruments; they are both scrupulous stylists, too\u2014remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were renegades in a way,\u201d he says of himself and his peers, \u201cwith the consent of our teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
That preference for unconventionality paid off. The year Bezuidenhout received his bachelor\u2019s degree, he recorded his first disc of Mozart, titled Sturm und Drang<\/em>, and captured first prize at the prestigious Bruges Fortepiano Competition.<\/p>\nÄ¢¹½´«Ã½ 60 percent of Bezuidenhout\u2019s typical music season is solo work, which he finds the most demanding. When recently preparing to perform the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 for the first time, he spent between five and six hours a day for several weeks before he felt ready.<\/p>\n
He also performs chamber music\u2014the accompaniment of vocal repertoire is a particular source of joy\u2014and collaborates with musicians such as tenor Mark Padmore, Carolyn Sampson, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Isabelle Faust.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic mix,\u201d he says. \u201cI could never get bored because there\u2019s such constant variety in this field. I always wanted a career that would challenge me in many different directions.\u201d<\/p>\n
For another challenge, Bezuidenhout is thinking about buying a harpsichord so that he can delve into the instrument more deeply. He\u2019s looking forward to several years of intense training and possible future recordings including the Bach Harpsichord Concertos (with single strings).<\/p>\n
But it needs to be the right kind of training\u2014the kind he received generously at Eastman at a time when he was trying to build a child\u2019s dream into what would become a professional career.<\/p>\n
METHOD TO MOZART: \u201cEvery time I heard someone play [Mozart\u2019s] music, I was baffled by how terrified they sounded of doing the wrong thing,\u201d Bezuidenhout says. \u201cI was determined to find a way to bring out more passion, relaxation, and romance. And I could do that on these old pianos in a way that I just never could on a Steinway.\u201d<\/p><\/div>Kristian Bezuidenhout \u201901E, \u201904E (MM)<\/strong> watched Amadeus<\/em>, the 1984 semibiographical movie about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, when he was 10.<\/p>\n The \u201csuper lonely\u201d child, as Bezuidenhout describes himself at that age, was \u201ccompletely bamboozled by how beautiful the music was\u201d and became obsessed both with the film and Mozart\u2019s compositions, which he felt gave him a way to escape his solitude.<\/p>\n \u201cThose feelings you have as a kid with music like that just never go away,\u201d he says from his home in London.<\/p>\n Today, Bezuidenhout is a leading period-instrument keyboard player, best known for his fortepiano interpretations of the complete keyboard music of Mozart (Harmonia Mundi record label). Earlier this year, he released his 25th album\u2014the last volume of the complete Beethoven Concertos (Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3<\/em>) recorded with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.<\/p>\n A regular guest with the world\u2019s leading ensembles\u2014and with conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Giovanni Antonini, and Daniel Harding\u2014Bezuidenhout was named Most Exciting Young Musician for the 2005\u201306 season by the Dutch Federation of Music and Drama and earned a nomination in 2013 as Gramophone<\/em> magazine\u2019s Artist of the Year.<\/p>\n During the 2017\u201318 season he became an artistic director of the Freiburger Barockorchester and principal guest conductor with the English Concert.<\/p>\n Future projects include Bach Christmas Cantatas and Handel Dixit Dominus\u2014both with the Freiburger Barockorchester\u2014 and the English Concert, featuring Purcell Odes and Handel Chandos.<\/p>\n In one music review, the New York Times<\/em> wrote that Bezuidenhout\u2019s performance of keyboard works by Mozart demonstrated the \u201cdazzling variety of colors he can draw from his instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezuidenhout\u2019s repertoire extends beyond Mozart to works by Baroque and Romantic composers, including Purcell, Handel, and Bach, to the music of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. But Mozart has remained a main focus for the Australian\/South African pianist\u2014in part to interpret the prolific composer\u2019s works in new ways.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I heard someone play his music, I was baffled by how terrified they sounded of doing the wrong thing,\u201d he says. \u201cI was determined to find a way to bring out more passion, relaxation, and romance. And I could do that on these old pianos in a way that I just never could on a Steinway.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile there is a great deal to be learned from historical sources, an equally important aspect of my approach is based on \u2018gut\u2019 feelings; on the realization of sounds in my imagination,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt is a highly postmodern exercise in a sense\u2014deeply subjective and based on background and personal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezuidenhout says the Eastman School of Music was instrumental in allowing him to develop that trial-and-error approach as an advanced keyboard student.<\/p>\n He remembers \u201ca constellation of important people\u201d at Eastman who valued that process much more than a heavily structured curriculum.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was this free, open environment where there was so much experimentation,\u201d he says. \u201cThey allowed me to be myself at a time when\u2014at least hypothetically\u2014other faculty might have tried to suppress these slightly fantastical tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n Those tendencies included bouncing between the fortepiano, harpsichord, flute, and chamber music.<\/p>\n For example, Rebecca Penneys, a professor emerita of piano and Bezuidenhout\u2019s principal piano instructor, was \u201cunbelievably open-minded.\u201d Meantime, Paul O\u2019Dette, a professor of lute, inspired him to use historical information to enliven and enrich music making. (Bezuidenhout became O\u2019Dette\u2019s assistant for several years). He also counts his work with Malcolm Bilson (fortepiano) and Arthur Hass (harpsichord) as deeply stimulating: \u201cBoth teachers instilled in me a newly found appreciation of the myriad possibilities offered by these instruments; they are both scrupulous stylists, too\u2014remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were renegades in a way,\u201d he says of himself and his peers, \u201cwith the consent of our teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n That preference for unconventionality paid off. The year Bezuidenhout received his bachelor\u2019s degree, he recorded his first disc of Mozart, titled Sturm und Drang<\/em>, and captured first prize at the prestigious Bruges Fortepiano Competition.<\/p>\n Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ 60 percent of Bezuidenhout\u2019s typical music season is solo work, which he finds the most demanding. When recently preparing to perform the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 for the first time, he spent between five and six hours a day for several weeks before he felt ready.<\/p>\n He also performs chamber music\u2014the accompaniment of vocal repertoire is a particular source of joy\u2014and collaborates with musicians such as tenor Mark Padmore, Carolyn Sampson, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Isabelle Faust.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic mix,\u201d he says. \u201cI could never get bored because there\u2019s such constant variety in this field. I always wanted a career that would challenge me in many different directions.\u201d<\/p>\n For another challenge, Bezuidenhout is thinking about buying a harpsichord so that he can delve into the instrument more deeply. He\u2019s looking forward to several years of intense training and possible future recordings including the Bach Harpsichord Concertos (with single strings).<\/p>\n But it needs to be the right kind of training\u2014the kind he received generously at Eastman at a time when he was trying to build a child\u2019s dream into what would become a professional career.<\/p>\n