Program:

Chopin-Études

Liszt-Petrach Sonetto, Consolation, Mephisto Waltz

Beethoven- Sonata quasi una fantasia ('Moonlight')
Ravel-Gaspard de la Nuit

Described by Gramophone magazine as “a colourist in love with the infinite variety a piano can produce”, Sergio Tiempo has developed a reputation as one of the most individual and thought-provoking pianists of his generation. Tiempo established his international credentials at an early age, making his professional debut at the age of fourteen at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A tour of the USA and a string of engagements across Europe quickly followed. Since then he has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors and is a frequent guest at major festivals worldwide.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Tiempo began his piano studies with his mother, Lyl Tiempo, at the age of two and made his concert debut when he had just turned three. Whilst at the Fondazione per il Pianoforte in Como, Italy, he worked with Dimitri Bashkirov, Fou Tsong, Murray Perahia and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He has received frequent musical guidance and advice from Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire and Nikita Magaloff and performs regularly with fellow-countryman and friend Gustavo Dudamel including concerts with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra.

Sergio Tiempo has made a number of highly distinctive and acclaimed recordings. On EMI Classics’ 'Martha Argerich Presents' label, he recorded Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit and three Chopin Nocturnes, and for Deutsche Gramophon he has recorded several discs with Mischa Maisky, including a disc of Rachmaninov which was awarded five stars by Classic FM and the BBC Music Magazine, which also named it their benchmark Recording. Most recently, Sergio Tiempo released a disc of French music for two pianos with Karin Lechner for Avanti Classic entitled La Belle Epoque.

Festival. In June 2010, Tiempo gave the world premiere of a new work for two pianos and orchestra ‘Tango Rhapsody’ by Argentinean composer Federico Jusid with Karin Lechner and the RSI Lugano under Jacek Kaspszyk at the Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, where he is a visitor each year.

In the current season, Tiempo returns to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris and on tour to his native South America, the Singapore Symphony and the Music Days in Lisbon Festival and will make his debut with the BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Northern Sinfonia, Queensland Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia and his recital debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in the International Piano Series.

“…he is a true virtuoso, of fantastic dexterity, and he is also capable of beautiful, tender phrasing in the “cantabile” passages. As sheer playing, it was stunning”
                                                                Buenos Aires Herald

 “Young South American pianist Sergio Tiempo had just the right combination of quixotic brilliance and poetic intensity to breathe new life into the old warhorse and bring cheers from the audience.”
                                                          thisisnottingham.co.uk