Francesco Piemontesi

Francesco Piemontesi appears with major ensembles worldwide: Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, NHK Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Vienna Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Montréal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra Nazionale della RAI di Torino, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

He has performed with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Thomas Dausgaard, Charles Dutoit, Sir Mark Elder, Ivan Fischer, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Manfred Honeck, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Ton Koopman, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo, Sir Antonio Pappano and Yuri Temirkanov.

Piemontesi also performs chamber music with a variety of partners including Leif Ove Andsnes, Yuri Bashmet, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Stephen Kovacevich, Heinrich Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann and the Emerson Quartet.

In solo recital, he has appeared in many prestigious venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Zürich Tonhalle, Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York and Suntory Hall Tokyo. In January 2016, Piemontesi launched his complete Mozart Odyssey at the Wigmore Hall, performing the sonatas in a series of recitals over the course of three seasons.

Piemontesi has performed at the Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Verbier and Aix-en-Provence Festivals, La Roque d’Anthéron, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals and at New York Mostly Mozart.

At the Schubertiade festival in August 2018 Piemontesi launched a major Schubert cycle. He returns to the festival to continue the cycle throughout the 2019/20 season and will be launching a separate Schubert cycle at the Wigmore Hall London beginning October 2019.

In the 2018/19 season Piemontesi released Liszt 'Deuxième Année: Italie' from Années de Pelerinage and St François d'Assise: La prédication aux oiseaux, as well as 'Première année: Suisse' and St. François de Paule: marchant sur les flots, combined with a documentary by French filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon, a double CD and DVD for Orfeo. This season, he will release Schubert Last Piano Sonatas with Pentatone, which will include Piano Sonata Nos. 19 and 20. Prior recordings include Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 25 and 26 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Andrew Manze on Linn, and for Naïve he has recorded Debussy Préludes, Mozart solo piano works and Schumann and Dvořák Piano Concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek.

Born in Locarno, Francesco Piemontesi studied with Arie Vardi before working with Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Cécile Ousset and Alexis Weissenberg. He rose to international prominence with prizes at several major competitions, including the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and between 2009-11 he was chosen as a BBC New Generation Artist.

Since 2012, Piemontesi has been the Artistic Director of the Settimane Musicali di Ascona.

2019/2020 season / 562 words. Not to be altered without permission.