Watson will play a replica of the fortepiano that Beethoven was intimately familiar with in the early 1800s. Ogata performs on a German violin from 1772 and Freiberg’s cello was made in London in 1784. Ms. Freiberg replaces Guy Fishman, who withdrew from the evening’s concert due to an unexpected family commitment. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear exceptional artists create a memorable musical experience.
Violinist Susanna Ogata enjoys an active performance schedule in greater New England and beyond. She has been praised for “totally convincing, spontaneous and free-flowing playing” (The Berkshire Review) and her musical “sensitivity and fire” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Dedicated to exploring music on historical instruments, Ms. Ogata has participated in concerts presented by the Bach Ensemble led by Joshua Rifkin, Arcadia Players, Ensemble Florilège, Newton Baroque, L’Académie, Boston Baroque, Sarasa, Foundling, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Blue Hill Bach, Genesee Early Music Society, SoHIP concert series, and Boston Early Music Festival. She is a founding member of several period instrument chamber ensembles: Boston Classical Trio, Copley String Quartet, and Coriolan String Quartet.
Ms. Ogata has appeared as soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society, Bach Ensemble, Arcadia Players, Blue Hill Bach, Foundling, Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble, Boston Virtuosi, and the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra. She has recorded for Nonesuch and Telarc and has been featured on WGBH radio broadcasts. Her first of four CDs traversing the complete sonatas for piano and violin of Ludwig van Beethoven, with fortepianist Ian Watson, appeared in June 2015. She is a tenured member of the Handel and Haydn Society. In 2014, she was appointed Assistant Concertmaster of the orchestra.
Sarah Freiberg is a tenured member of the Handel and Haydn Society. She has performed with Boston Baroque, Music at Eden’s Edge, the New York Collegium, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), Portland Baroque (Oregon), Seattle Baroque, the Boston Early Music Festival, Blue Hill Bach, and Arion (Montreal). As a corresponding editor for Strings magazine, she has contributed dozens of articles and reviews on a wide range of subjects. Ms. Freiberg edited the long forgotten Guerini cello sonatas for both PRB Productions and Broude Brothers, and recorded both Guerini and Laurenti cello sonatas for Centaur. As well as teaching in the Historical Performance department at Boston University, she is Chair of Strings at the Powers Music School in Belmont and teaches at the Amherst Early Music Festival.
Ian Watson has been described by The Times in London as a keyboard performer with “virtuosic panache and brilliantly articulated playing” and “a world-class soloist.” He has appeared as soloist or conductor with the London Symphony, London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, Scottish Chamber, English Chamber, Polish Chamber, Irish Chamber and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, Bremen Philharmonic, Rhein-Main Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, English Baroque Soloists, The Sixteen, Arcadia Players, where he is Music Director, and the Handel and Haydn Society, where he was appointed Resident Conductor in September 2014.
In 2012-13, Ian directed the North American premiere of the new edition of Bach’s St. Mark Passion with the Bach Society Houston, and took part in a recording of Bach’s four Lutheran Masses in London for Coro Records with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen. He made a critically acclaimed debut directing the Baroque Band in Chicago. June 2015 saw the start of a major project with violinist Susanna Ogata to record the complete Beethoven’s sonatas for fortepiano and violin.
Born in England, Ian won a scholarship at age 14 to the Junior School of the Royal Academy of Music in London, later winning all the prizes for organ performance including the coveted Recital Diploma. He completed his studies with Flor Peeters in Belgium. Ian’s first major appointment, at the age of 19, was as Organist at St. Margaret’s, Westminster Abbey, a position he held for ten years.