2012 winner Eugenio Catone at Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, November 2012. Background painting by Gillian Ayres. Photo © Alexander Brattell.

An evening in with…Eugenio Catone

This Friday evening, 17 July, Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition winner Eugenio Catone will join us for a live performance of beautiful music, writes Chris Cormack.

The eighteenth in this series of short online concerts presented by Hastings International Piano is given by Eugenio Catone who won his first important international recognition with first prize at the 8th Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition in 2012.

Programme:
D. Shostakovich – 24 Preludes Op.34 – premiered by the composer in 1933, a cycle in each of the twelve major and minor keys of the chromatic scale, performed consecutively as intended.

Internationally acclaimed Neapolitan pianist Eugenio Catone is renowned for his highly-defined artistic personality and the expressive power of his interpretations. Gifted with ‘a surprising ability to identify integrally with the composer’s soul’ (Il Tempo) and with ‘an exuberant technique which supports his musical intelligence, as polished as an ancient Toledo sword’ (Corriere del Mezzogiorno), he is the very essence of the inquisitive, eclectic musician adept in a variety of musical forms: chamber music, composition, conducting an orchestra and teaching.

In 2018 his latest album was issued by Diapason Records in which he plays music by Schubert and Ravel. Eugenio Catone believes strongly in dissemination and education for the general public and since 2017 he has been the artistic director of the “Incontri Musicali al Castello dei Conti” festival in Ceccano, which he also founded.

Among the teaching projects he promotes in order to draw the very young to contemporary music, His Adrian, a work for a young orchestra and reciting voice, sparked significant interest and was, in fact, awarded a prize at the international competition Music for Young Musicians in Pescara; it is scheduled to be published shortly by Nuova Gutemberg.

Eugenio now attends the “Konzertexamen” honours course at Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen and an orchestral conducting course at the Civica Scuola di Musica Abbado in Milan and is currently engaged in a challenging project – to record the complete piano works of Dmítri Shostakóvich, presented in monothematic recitals and concerto lessons.

In these times when the livelihood of our musicians is at risk,  this series supports the careers of HIPCC prizewinners and, of course, they receive a performance fee.

The concerts are free to view, but viewers will be able to make a voluntary donation to Hastings International Piano Engagement Fund here, or choose to join as a Friend here.

Watch live here (the video will appear just before 7pm on Friday 10 July) or by visiting HIP’s Facebook page.

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