AMERICAN PIANIST
INVITED to PERFORM at ESTERHAZY PALACE: Internationally acclaimed concert pianist TERESA WALTERS is the first American pianist invited to perform three prestigious European recitals in October honoring the Anniversary of composer Franz Liszt's Birthday. These anniversary performances coincide with the release of her second CD in The Abbé Liszt Series, devoted to Liszt's rare, little-known sacred piano works. Her first volume was nominated for the Grand Prix du Disque of the Hungarian Liszt Society. It is a great honor for an American pianist to be chosen by Liszt scholars, musicians and patrons in the composer's native land to perform these important anniversary concerts. Walters will perform three all-Liszt recitals in a two day time period. On October 22 the anniversary of the composer's birthday, she has received a prestigious invitation to perform at Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt under the patronage of the present governing Prince Anton Esterhazy. Her recital at Esterhazy Palace will be held in the magnificent Empire Saal, recognized internationally for its opulent grandeur and splendid acoustics. On the eve of Liszt's birthday, she will perform at Liszt's Birthplace in Raiding. Earlier that day, she will play the annual Liszt Birthday Concert in Budapest at the Liszt Academy and Memorial Museum. The invitation to perform at Esterhazy Palace came just weeks before her all-Liszt recital at Lincoln Center earlier this year, which won a standing ovation from a capacity crowd. "I consider it a genuine privilege to commemorate Liszt's birthday in his homeland and to perform at Esterhazy Palace," she comments. "The Esterhazy royal family has long been esteemed for producing some of the greatest music patrons in the history of the world." She adds that the great composer Josef Haydn worked in their employ for almost thirty years. Teresa Walters is requested to present an all-Liszt recital featuring some of his rare sacred works -- a repertoire for which she has become internationally celebrated in recent years. Her program will include selections from Liszt's Harmonies Poétiques et Réligieuses, Three Hymns, Romance, Sonnets of Petrarch, and St. Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun. During 2001, she will travel to Italy to perform at Assisi in honor of the 775th Anniversary of the death of St. Francis. Teresa Walters enjoys an international reputation as one of the finest interpreters of Liszt's music performing and recording today. In fact, the American Record Guide has announced "her competition is virtually nil". In addition to some of the music she will perform for the birthday concerts, her new CD includes the composer's Ave Maria, Alleluia, and Sonata in B Minor. Describing the virtuosity of her Liszt Sonata, The New York Times wrote: "There was much to admire: The crashing octave runs were all right on the mark. Not a note was smudged in the pages of intricate passagework and her conception had all the requisite sweep, power, and warm sonority." New York Concert Review reported: "This highly gifted Lisztian took the music farther technically and spiritually. Her transcendental performance magically transformed the keyboard. She has a huge, rolling sound and makes music like an eagle surveying the landscape." Teresa Walters' recent all-Liszt concert tours of Australia, Switzerland, Japan and Hungary earned this headline in the Budapest Sun: "TERESA WALTERS: A Liszt of Very Fine Performances". Earlier this season, Japan's leading music magazine Ongaku No Tomo reported: "Teresa Walters' all-Liszt performances conveyed powerful feeling and intensity. Her affinity for the composer's innermost ideas was conveyed to the audience so passionately that she became a direct messenger of Liszt's thoughts. The audience left with a feeling of ecstasy, so spiritually powerful was her interpretation of the very essence of Liszt's music." Her Zurich debut earlier this year earned high praise from the Swiss press: "Teresa Walters greatly impressed the public, not only by her astonishing playing, but also by her fascinating and visionary stage presence by which she captivated the audience in the manner of the late, great master Liszt himself. She played with the power, temperment, stupendous consummate mastery and immense mental prowess of a true virtuoso." (Schaffhauser Nachrichten) Teresa Walters is a veteran of the world's greatest concert states, having performed at venues including New York's Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Salle Cortot in Paris, and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory. She has appeared as soloist and with orchestras in Vienna's Beethoven Festival, Music Festivals in Barcelona and Madrid, and in Jerusalem's Concert Hall where her artistry has been described as "Marvelous! As close to perfect as I hope to hear" by the Jerusalem Post. "A splendid musician whose marvelous technical prowess and rich expressive resources create music of intimate introspection, orchestral grandeur, and the most minute inflections of color" (The Washington Post), Teresa Walters holds a Doctorate from Peabody Conservatory. Awarded an International Graduate Fellowship for a year of study in Paris, she interviewed Nadia Boulanger, the subject of her dissertation. Boulanger described Walters as "blessed with abundant rare gifts." In addition to maintaining an extensive international touring schedule, Walters is Artist-in-Residence at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ. In recent seasons, she has performed for benefit recital residencies in Appalachia. All of Teresa Walters' concert gowns are created for her by her mother. For her Liszt Birthday tour, Teresa will wear three of her mother's masterpieces: a purple silk gown at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and Memorial Museum, a white and silver sequined sheath for her recital at Liszt's Birthplace, and a red velvet ball gown for her concert at Esterhazy Place.
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