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Mitsuko Uchida in Oxford
The world-renowned pianist Mitsuko Uchida, recently created DBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, received the Oxford degree of Doctor of Music honoris causa last week during the annual Encaenia ceremony in Oxford. You can read here the speech given by the Public Orator.
Mitsuko Uchida is famous the world over for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert, both in the concert hall and on CD, but she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez for a new generation of listeners. Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including The Gramophone Award for Best Concerto. During recent seasons she has been giving performances of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, and Opp. 101 and 106 (Hammerklavier). Her Royal Festival Hall performance of Opp. 109, 110 and 111 was described by John Allison, The Times critic, as ‘one of the most transporting concerts London has heard all year’. Her recording of Beethoven’s Op. 101 and Op. 106 was described by Michael Church in BBC Music Magazine as ‘Beethoven in all his grandeur and with all his capacity to express spiritual agony (the slow movement) and heroic struggle and triumph (the first and last movement) revealed with shattering directness ….This disc is of a calibre that I count myself lucky to encounter once in a decade.’ Uchida recently won BBC Music Magazine’s award for ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ and ‘Disc of the Year’ for this recording.
The day before Encaenia, the Faculty of Music was honoured to welcome Dame Mitsuko, who gave a masterclass with some of our graduate pianists in t
he Hoywell Music Room:
- Nathan Williamson (Worcester, DPhil candidate) played Schubert Impromptus in E flat and G flat
- Barbara Richardson-Bryson (St Anne's, MSt candidate) played Schumann Kreisleriana Op. 16
- Ceri Owen (Magdalen, DPhil candidate) played Bach French Suite No. 5 in G major
- Anyssa Neumann (St Hilda's, MSt candidate) played Beethoven Sonata in A flat major Op. 110