Duo de Salzburg - the combined musicianship of cellist
Yvonne Timoianu and pianist Alexander Preda - is touring South Africa in April,
proudly represents the City of Mozart. They will perform for Friends of Music
in Durban on April 9.
Formed in 1985, the Duo de Salzburg has enjoyed a lively
artistic career of music festival participation and over 1,500 recitals and
concerts. They have been called the ‘ideal duo’ and lauded for their musical
excellence which has been described as ‘passionate and almost incandescent’.
Several TV and CD recordings, radio interviews and two documentary films
(recently A Cello Sings in Salzburg)
reflect their intense concert activities.
Though focusing mainly on the extended classical repertoire,
they are also active in contemporary music. The duo's 2013 South African visit
is supported by the Austrian Embassy in South Africa.
Yvonne Timoianu was introduced to the violin at a very young
age. She began lessons on the cello in her teens and, soon after that, launched
her professional career. She earned top honours for her diploma from Salzburg’s
famous Mozarteum and the Prize of Distinction from the Federal Ministry of Arts
and Research, Vienna. More international awards followed, including the Gold
Medal at the UNISA International String Competition, 1988. Her most influential
teachers have been Stefan Popov, Serafim Antropov and Mstislav Rostropovitch.
She appears regularly in renowned European Festivals as
soloist, or in chamber music concerts. She has also performed in South America
and South East Asia. In 2008 she was invited to play the Winterreise of Franz Schubert before Arvo Pärt at Tallinn and
before Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo. Yvonne Timoianu has led masterclasses
and workshops in Austria, Belgium, India, Korea, Luxemburg, Spain and South
Africa. She plays on a 1721 cello made by Giovanni Grancino.
Alexander Preda, concert pianist, has enjoyed both a
successful solo career and acclaim as a chamber musician. He started piano
studies while young and received his Diploma cum laude from the National Music
University, Bucharest. His most influential teachers have been Ana Pitis, Carlo
Zecchi and Arthur Rubinstein. He has won prizes in Bucharest, Leipzig,
including the International J S Bach
Competition (Leipzig, 1976) and the International Piano Master Competition
‘Arthur Rubinstein’ in Tel Aviv, 1977. Concerts worldwide and master-classes or
workshops in Europe, Asia and the Americas reflect an intense and devoted
artistic activity.
The duo’s programme includes Franz Joseph Haydn’s Divertimento (a work beloved in the
cello repertoire); contemporary Austrian composer and conductor Klaus Ager’s Karamahe for Cello Solo, and Franz
Schubert’s Suite"Winter Journey (Y
Timoianu arranged this great song cycle for cello and piano and also performed
it for Pope Benedict XVI.
Also performed will be Katharina Schirk’s Cello Up!,a world premiere of a fun jazz
piece dedicated to Yvonne for the 2013 South Africa Tour; Erwin Schulhoff’s Sonata
in C major Op.17, a work for cello and piano by an Austrian composer who died
in a Nazi concentration camp and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s suite Enchanted...Papageno! for cello and
piano, arranged by Timoianu and Preda, based on the arias of The Magic Flute.
Duo de Salzburg will perform for Friends of Music on April 9
at 19h45 at the Durban Jewish Centre. Booking it at Computicket. There is safe
parking. Tickets R70 (R60 FOM members/R20
Orchestral & Students). Membership of Friends of Music is only R25 per year. More information at http://www.friendsofmusic
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