Buechner Plays Brahms and Schumann

IMPORTANT : Due to circumstances beyond our control, cellist Stéphane Tétreault will not be performing on Friday, July 29. Cellist Andrea Stewart will replace him. Thank you for your understanding.

A rare opportunity to hear this lively and diverse group of exceptionally talented musicians. Cellist Andrea Stewart, pianist Sara Davis Buechner, violinist Marie Bérard and violist Frédéric Lambert bring to life a repertoire flavoured with German romanticism.

PROGRAM

REPERTOIRE

BRAHMS, Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99
SCHUMANN, Piano Trio, Op. 17
SCHUMANN, Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47

ARTISTS

Marie Bérard
Best known as the concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Marie Bérard is also a sought-after chamber musician, soloist, recording artist and teacher.

Ms. Bérard received her training at the Trois-Rivières Conservatory and further studies took her to the University of Toronto where she studied with David Zafer. Other teachers include Lorand Fenyves, Sydney Harth and Nathan Milstein.

Ms. Bérard is a member of Trio Arkel, alongside colleagues Rémi Pelletier and Winona Zelenka. They perform a series of concerts at the Holy Trinity United Church in Toronto, inviting guests such as Jonathan Crow, Stuart Goodyear, Russell Braun and Amanda Forsyth.

Highly regarded as an interpreter of contemporary music, Ms. Bérard’s recording of A Paganini by A. Schnittke was voted “best performance of the year” by the CBC Radio audience and in 2002, she released a recording of a concerto by Henry Kucharzyk for violin and brass ensemble on the Opening Day label.

Ms. Bérard is a regular performer at numerous chamber music festivals, notably the Mainly Mozart festival orchestra in San Diego, California, Strings Festival in Steamboat, Colorado and is on faculty at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

Ms. Bérard is a frequent guest soloist with the Esprit Orchestra, having performed “Time Chant” by Wolfgang Rihm, “Dedication” by Valentin Silvestrov as well as “Offertorium” by Sofia Gubaidulina and Schnittke Concerto Grosso.

In the fall of 2000, Ms. Bérard joined the faculty of the Glenn Gould School and the Taylor Academy in Toronto and is an active member of their chamber ensemble “ARC” with whom she has toured Europe and China. The ensemble has also recorded nine discs of chamber works, two of which have been nominated for a Grammy Award. Ms. Bérard is also on the faculty of the University of Toronto.

Marie plays a 1767 Pietro Landolfi violin.

Frédéric Lambert
Frédéric Lambert holds a Ph.D. in performance from McGill University. Often invited to join renowned ensembles such as Les Violons du Roy, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Mr. Lambert has been a member of the Molinari Quartet since 2007. Released in September 2021 under the ATMA label, their album featuring the complete quartets of Penderecki received unanimous praise from international critics The Strad and Gramophone. Mr. Lambert teaches viola at the Cégep de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke University, McGill University, and UQAM. For the past 10 years, he has been a cultural columnist for Ici Radio-Canada Première, alongside Catherine Perrin and Stéphan Bureau. Mr. Lambert also serves as principal viola of the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval.

Andrea Stewart
Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canadian cellist Andrea Stewart is a versatile and multifaceted performer and pedagogue. Interested in the new sounds and techniques found in new music but still intrigued by the beauty of classical and baroque repertoire, Andrea is equally at home performing with electronics as she is playing basso continuo.

In 2006, Andrea made her solo debut with the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra in her native London, Ontario. Since then, various solo recitals and ensemble collaborations have brought Andrea to venues across North America, Europe, and Asia, most recently as part of the Festival de Música de Morelia Miguel Bernal Jiménez (Morelia, Mexico), Sound Unbound (The Barbican Centre, London, UK), and La Folle Journée de Nantes (France).

From concerts at the SXSW Music Festival (Texas), to those at the Ottawa Chamberfest (Ontario) and at Carnegie Hall (New York), she appears regularly with Infusion Baroque, Arion Baroque Orchestra, the Grammy-nominated group Uccello, and Ensemble Caprice, and is a founding member of the string ensemble collectif9. Andrea was one of three finalists in the prestigious Golden Violin Competition at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, and was a finalist of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition and the Prix d’Europe Competition.

Andrea holds the degrees of Doctor of Music (2015) and Master of Music (2009) from McGill University. Inspired by contemporary music, her research is devoted to the expansion of cello technique in relation to works in the contemporary repertoire. In the domain of early music, she has explored 18th century music for cello and viola da gamba from a multi-instrumentalist point of view. Support for Andrea’s research has been granted from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada (Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship) as well as from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, for which she is very grateful.

Sara Davis Buechner
Sara Davis Buechner is one of the leading concert pianists of our time, praised worldwide as a musician of “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess” (New York Times). Japan’s InTune magazine says: “When it comes to clarity, flawless tempo selection, phrasing and precise control of timbre, Buechner has no superior.” 

In her twenties, Ms. Buechner was the winner of a bouquet of prizes at the world’s première piano competitions – Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Leeds, Salzburg, Sydney and Vienna. She won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and was a Bronze Medalist of the 1986 Tchaïkovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. 

With an active repertoire of more than 100 piano concertos ranging from A (Albeníz) to Z (Zimbalist) – one of the largest of any concert pianist today – she has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s première orchestras. Audiences throughout North America have applauded Ms. Buechner’s recitals in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl; and she enjoys wide success throughout Asia where she tours annually. 

Sara Davis Buechner’s numerous recordings have received prominent critical appraisal. Her extensive discography includes music by Bach, Brahms, Busoni, Dvořák, Mozart, Stravinsky and Turina; Hollywood piano concertos by Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman; rare American music of George Gershwin, Dana Suesse, Pauline Alpert and Joseph Lamb; and the complete piano music of Miklós Rózsa. Her piano artistry may also be heard on the recent DVD of Carl Dreiser’s 1925 silent film Master of the House, available through the Criterion Collection. 

Sara Davis Buechner is Professor of Piano at the Boyer College of Music and Dance of the Temple University in Philadelphia and formerly served on the piano faculties of New York University, the University of British Columbia, and the Manhattan School of Music. She regularly presents lectures and master classes worldwide, and adjudicates international piano competition. She is a contributing editor for Dover Publications and a Yamaha artist of more than 30 years’ standing.