New Zealand born, award winning pianist, Jun Bouterey-Ishido performs as part of the 2023 lunchtime concert series.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Aria with diverse Variations for clavicembalo with 2 manuals, BWV988.
Bach’s Aria with diverse Variations (also known as the ‘Goldberg’ Variations, after an anecdote) is his masterpiece for keyboard – or rather, two keyboards, as called for in the title – published in 1741 and forming the fourth and last part of his books of Clavierübung (piano exercises). Prepared, in Bach’s words, “for connoisseurs (or music-lovers), for the refreshment of their spirits”, the Aria and its 30 variations are composed of a great diversity of temperament and character, ranging from the deeply contemplative to the highly dramatic; embracing a whole gamut of human thoughts and feelings that no doubt reflect Bach’s own breadth of experience of joy and of grief. The vast scale of the variations reveal Bach’s absolute mastery of a range of musical genres and forms, including but not limited to the dance forms of the time, as well as his unsurpassed knowledge of the music of the past, the Italian and French contrapuntal traditions of the Rennaisance, as well as of the more recent German tradition.
Jun studied with Veronica Van der Knaap, Diedre Irons and then Péter Nagy, completing his Bachelor of Music (Hons) at Canterbury University before pursuing postgraduate studies overseas at the Liszt Academy (Budapest) and the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, where he graduated with a Master and Konzertexamen with Distinction. As well as receiving invaluable mentoring from Rita Wagner, Jun has participated in masterclasses with renowned pianists including Alfred Brendel, Edith Fischer, Ferenc Rados and András Schiff.
In addition to performing frequently in NZ, Jun has been invited to give recitals in France, Portugal, Finland, Switzerland, Chile and Japan. He has been awarded numerous prizes including, most recently, 2nd Prize at the 2017 Maj Lind International Piano Competition, Finland. Currently he is researching the influence of (mainly) Eastern European folk music on the music of Kurtág and Ligeti, towards a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Canterbury University, where his supervisors are Justin DeHart, Glenda Keam and Mark Menzies. In 2019, Jun became a Bösendorfer artist.
NCMA’s Lunchtime Concert Series is proudly sponsored by Nelson Pine Industries
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