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Mitsuko Uchida: Bio

Mitsuko Uchida is a performer who brings a deep insight into the music she plays through her own search for truth and beauty. She is renowned for her interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven, both in the concert hall and on CD, but she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez for a new generation of listeners. Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including The Gramophone Award for Best Concerto. Amongst many current projects, Uchida has recently been recording a selection of Mozart's Piano Concerti with the Cleveland Orchestra, directing from the piano: all of the discs in this series have received critical acclaim and one won a Grammy Award in 2011.

Highlights this season include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, Cleveland Orchestra and Leon Fleisher, Chicago Symphony and Riccardo Muti, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Mariss Jansons, London Philharmonic and Vladimir Jurowski, and Tonhalle Orchestra with David Zinman.  She will undertake a recital tour, with venues including Paris' Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Vienna's Musikverein, Chicago's Symphony Center and New York's Carnegie Hall; and a tour of Japan.

Mitsuko Uchida performs with the world's finest orchestras and musicians.  Some recent highlights have been her Artist-in-Residency at the Cleveland Orchestra, where she directed all the Mozart concerti from the keyboard over a number of seasons.  She has also been the focus of a Carnegie Hall Perspectives series entitled ‘Mitsuko Uchida: Vienna Revisited'.  She has featured in the Concertgebouw's Carte Blanche series where she collaborated with Ian Bostridge, the Hagen Quartet, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as directing from the piano a performance of Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire.  Uchida has also been Artist-in-Residence at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Salzburg Mozartwoche, Lucerne Festival and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where she performed a series of chamber music concerts and a Beethoven Piano Concerti cycle with Sir Simon Rattle. 

Mitsuko Uchida records exclusively for Decca and her recordings include the complete Mozart piano sonatas and piano concerti; the complete Schubert piano sonatas; Debussy's Etudes; the five Beethoven piano concerti with Kurt Sanderling; a CD of Mozart Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Mark Steinberg; Die Schöne Müllerin with Ian Bostridge for EMI; the final five Beethoven piano sonatas; and the 2008 recording of Berg's Chamber Concerto with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez and Christian Tetzlaff.  Uchida's most recent releases are CD's of Mozart's concerti K.488 and K.491, a second disc of K.466 and K.595, and a third disc of K.271 and K.467, all with Uchida directing the Cleveland Orchestra from the piano; and two acclaimed discs of Schumann's solo piano music.  A DVD featuring a live performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire from the Salzburg Festival and an accompanying documentary was released last season by Bel Air and Film+co, in the centennary year of this pivotal work.

Mitsuko Uchida has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to aiding the development of young musicians and is a trustee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.  She is also Director of the Marlboro Music Festival. In May 2012 she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal.  In June 2009 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. 

1 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, K.459/1  
2 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, K.459/2  
3 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, K.459/3  
4 Piano Concerto No.18 in B Flat, K.456/1  
5 Piano Concerto No.18 in B Flat, K.456/2  
6 Piano Concerto No.18 in B Flat, K.456/3  

Press Release
'Is Talent Enough?' Mitsuko Uchida starts the debate
Interview with Mitsuko Uchida 2008
Mitsuko Uchida discusses and demonstrates The Debussy Etudes

"Drawing sharper-than-usual contrasts between movements, the pianist, who also conducted, added narrative breadth to the concertos, thereby giving the works even more to say than usual." - The Plain Dealer, Cleveland 

"When you have such a superior Mozart pianist directing Mozart concertos from the Steinway, and doing so with such ease and infectious pleasure in making music … who wants (or needs) a separate conductor'" – The Chicago Tribune

Internationally acclaimed pianist Mitsuko Uchida releases another installment in her much-admired and Grammy® Award-winning Mozart piano concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra, available now on Decca. Recorded live, as with the past three albums in the series, during performances in Cleveland's Severance Hall, this new album combines the B flat major, No 18, K456 and the F major, No 19, K459. These two pieces were part of the great series of piano concertos that Mozart wrote in Vienna in the mid-1780s.

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Online: Taintradio

Stories

  • Mitsuko Uchida plays Mozart and Schubert on next WFMT: CSO bcast
    Posted At : August 11, 2018 12:00 AM

    The Chicago Symphony presents the full range of orchestral works under the seasoned baton of music director Riccardo Muti. The top tier soloists and guest conductors complete the series with artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Matthias Goerne, and Daniil Trifonov; as well as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mitsuko Uchida, and Bernard Haitink. Hosted by Lisa Simeone, the two-hour Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the CSO Radio Broadcast Series features live CSO concert performances recorded at Symphony Center, alongside selections from the orchestra's expansive catalog. Every program is designed to illustrate fascinating stories found inside the music, as well as present insights from the performers themselves. Listen to WFMT Saturday August 11 at 8 p.m. CT for Mitsuko Uchida - Mozart And Schubert. Uchida will play piano and conduct. Here's the Program  Mozart: Adagio in B minor
    Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, K. 459
    Schubert: Piano Quintet in A Trout
    Mozart: Serenade in G, K. 525 Eine kleine Nachtmusik SEE WFMT: PAGE
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  • Only joy transmitted spectacularly, in LA Phil 'Schumann Focus' with Dudamel and Uchida / LA Observed
    Posted At : June 4, 2018 12:00 AM

    Only joy was transmitted -- spectacularly -- during the LA Philharmonic's "Schumann Focus" at Disney Hall. A huge chunk of it animated by Gustavo Dudamel and Mitsuko Uchida. What was this we wondered. What connected our resident podium-meister to this revered pianist, one who has wedded music to her soul like few others. What was this new-found love fest? And on their very first outing together? Well, something happened. Two hearts locked in a mutual appreciation that flowered in their music-making. It was the Schumann Piano Concerto, of course, that they communed in. Dudamel & Co. seemed to pick up her impulses and, as to be expected with Uchida, no musical statement is ever rote. Everything has an idea that stimulates its emotional response and her virtuosity goes without saying -- not as display in itself, but as illuminating function. So tickled were they with their collaborative experience that they hugged and kissed and hugged and kissed all the way from stage to wings and back again -- spreading a contagion of cheer in the audience. Even Schumann's 1st Symphony ("Spring") took off, although revealing its compositional drawback of perpetually short phrases. A few nights later while driving (and in an always curious state to check in on KUSC-FM) there was a recording of same. It turned out to be Simon Rattle leading the Berlin Phil and, big surprise, those short phrases sounded far less prominent, far more integrated. Dudamel and Rattle, who once resided with the LA Phil as guest principal conductor, seem to be on a single wave length. Both recently did Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" -- Sir Simon at Lincoln Center with his new band, the London Philharmonic, in a unique performance that held the song cycle wonderfully together. And with their respective orchestras, they both chose to do Schumann's very rarely performed "Das Paradies und die Peri."    photo by Chris Lee READ THE FULL LA Observed ARTICLE
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  • Uchida and the CSO under Salonen is astonishing in Bartok Piano Concerto No. 3 / WTTW: Chicago Tonight
    Posted At : May 29, 2018 12:00 AM

    Here is the formula for an astonishing evening of music:  Take Bela Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3 – a rhythmically stunning, demonically difficult modern work dating from 1945 (and completed just four days before the composer's death) – and put it in the astonishing hands of pianist Mitsuko Uchida, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Then, frame this volcanic performance with two very different but complementary works – Brahms' "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" and Arnold Schoenberg's truly transformative "Verklarte Nacht" ("Transfigured Night"). Finally, program all this at the end of Salonen's two-week residency as guest conductor of the CSO – a visit that began with a riveting performance of Mahler's massive Symphony No. 9, a work that ideally reverberates with the Schoenberg piece. Quite the musical odyssey. READ THE FULL WTTW: Chicago Tonight ARTICLE
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  • When two of the world's finest Schumann interpreters get together, magic is bound to happen / BLOUIN ARTINFO
    Posted At : May 11, 2018 12:00 AM

    When two of the world's finest Schumann interpreters get together musical magic is bound to happen. Gustavo Dudamel and Mitsuko Uchida launch the "Schumann Focus," with the German master's beloved Piano Concerto, while Dudamel leads his eclectic "Spring" Symphony. Although Schumann had a troubled life that ended prematurely in insanity, the man did compose music that lifts our spirits  by its sheer power and unique personal character. Over three creatively charged weekends, Gustavo Dudamel delves deep into Schumann's four symphonies, two greatest concertos, and a oratorio that is rarely heard, offering us a portrait of Schumann through some of his finest creations. The remarkable Mitsuko Uchida joins the programs for Schumann's only Piano Concertois. Uchida is acknowledged as one of the leading interpreters of Schumann's keyboard music. The Concerto itself is a memorable masterpiece of mid-19th-century composition and is the best one to get familiarized with Schumann's writing. The concert is on May 17, 2018 and May 18, 2018 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. READ THE FULL BLOUIN ARTINFO ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}
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  • Cleveland Orch. | Mitsuko Uchida - Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 17 (K453) & 25 (K503), / WFMT: 'Featured Release'
    Posted At : November 6, 2016 12:00 AM

    The Cleveland Orchestra and Mitsuko Uchida release their latest Decca recording project: Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 17 (K453) and 25 (K503), which were recorded live at Severance Hall in February 2016.  "With K453 in G major Mozart opens a new horizon in his piano concertos," says pianist Uchida, "With this lyrical and poignant piece, he began using the woodwinds as solo instruments, almost equal to the piano.  This new inspiration reaches its peak with K503 in C major, the grandest of all the concerti, majestic and mysterious.  The often asked question which piano concerto of Mozart was my favourite, I have to answer ‘The one I am playing today.'  But these two come pretty much at the top." Mozart: Piano Concerto No 17 in G major, K 453 (32:46) from Mitsuko Uchida: Mozart Piano Concertos 17 & 25 on Decca is TODAY's WFMT: Chicago - 'Featured Release'. Cleveland Orchestra / Mitsuko Uchida p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}
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  • Leon Fleisher & festival AD - Mitsuko Uchida close 66th Marlboro / Barre Montpelier Times Argus
    Posted At : August 16, 2016 12:00 AM

    The Marlboro Music Festival closed its 66th season Sunday with a splash, with Beethoven's joyful "Choral Fantasy," Op. 80, for piano, vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra.  Conducted by Leon Fleisher, the performance was more exuberant than profound as it involved virtually the entire Marlboro community in the under-rehearsed chorus.cStill, this year, the orchestra of top-notch Marlboro musicians had a strong cohesiveness, thanks much to Fleisher, a veteran musician of stature. And as soloist, Mitsuko Uchida, the festival's artistic director and one of today's top pianists, combined charisma with musical depth, performing parts appropriately as a soloist and others, connected with the orchestra, like chamber music. 
    While playing, Uchida could be seen singing along with the chorus - just another indicator of the joy of the occasion. READ THE FULL Barre Montpelier Times Argus REVIEW
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  • Mitsuko Uchida - Mozart Piano Concertos / WCLV October Choice CD
    Posted At : October 1, 2014 12:00 AM

    Each month, WCLV - Cleveland Program Director Bill O'Connell selects a series of special CDs to be featured on the air throughout the month. For his October list, Bill has selected . Here are the highlighted tracks and airdates Bill has chosen and a few of his comments from about why this disc is a standout. Here's Classic FM's headline in August: "One of the greatest pianists of our time returns to two marvelous Mozart concertos." John Suchet continues: "Lauded as one of today's finest Mozart interpreters, Mitsuko Uchida continues her series of his great piano concertos, performed with the Cleveland Orchestra which she directs from the keyboard. This latest live recording combines Mozart's B flat Major Concerto, No. 18 and the F Major Concerto, No. 19, two of the great series he wrote in Vienna in the mid-1780s. As should be expected, Uchida brings grace and flair to her performance. The Cleveland Orchestra too, with which Uchida has a truly tangible rapport, provide superbly subtle support."  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 18 & 19 - Uchida; Cleveland Orchestra (Decca 4786763) - Featured Thu 10/2, Mon 10/13, Wed 10/22, Fri 10/31
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  • Mitsuko Uchida - Mozart Piano Concertos / WQXR: Album Of the Week
    Posted At : September 22, 2014 12:00 AM

    This week's WQXR - New York new releases includes pianist Mitsuko Uchida  latest Mozart recording with the Cleveland Orchestra on Decca. In the 1980s and '90s, Mitsuko Uchida recorded Mozart's piano concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra and conductor Jeffrey Tate for the Philips label. While that cycle of studio recordings is frequently cited as one of the finest available, Uchida's latest traversal is worth your attention for two reasons. For one, it features Uchida conducting from the keyboard, so there's an entirely different relationship with the scores, enhanced by the passage of time. These are also live performances, recorded at Severance Hall in April, and there's a palpable sense of energy in the hall. The orchestra – itself a noted Mozart ensemble – is with Uchida through every phrase and bit of musical dialogue. The zany wit of the finale to K. 459 particularly comes through. IN-ROT
    Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat major, K. 456;
    Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459 Mitusko Uchida /  Decca
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  • Mitsuko Uchida returns to BBC Proms / The Guardian interview
    Posted At : August 3, 2014 12:00 AM

    Fiona Maddocks chats with pianist Mituko Uchida about the pianist on her beloved Steinways, the sea, sudoku and her long-awaited return to BBC Proms. Will it feel the same being back at the Proms after an absence of almost 20 years?
    Twenty? I thought it was about five! I'm a different person now. The main reason I haven't been is that every year I'm away in Vermont as director of Marlboro Music, a chamber music camp for music students young and old – including myself. I'll never stop being a student. Do you get anxious?
    Always. When you are waiting to go on you wonder how you can do it. Then, as you step out, some psychological trick occurs. You think about the music, how wonderful it is, how lucky you are to be performing it… The Albert Hall isn't the easiest place to play, especially with the Prommers standing right by your elbow.
    It's not half as bad as Vienna's famous Musikverein. No audience is closer. The only reason the piano doesn't fall off the platform there is because a narrow rim of wood holds it on stage. When you play at the top end of the keyboard you find yourself looking at the woman in the red dress jangling jewellery in the front row. Ninety-five per cent of the time there is always a woman in a red dress jangling jewellery in the front row. I've tried keeping one eye shut so I don't see it but that's quite awkward. That colour is very disturbing for a performer. It's what matadors wave to attract a bull. READ THE FULL Guardian INTERVIEW.
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  • Mitsuko Uchida back on stage after a hand injury / The Guardian concert review
    Posted At : April 25, 2014 12:00 AM

    This recital by Mitsuko Uchida was all the more eagerly anticipated for having being cancelled when the pianist injured her thumb more than a year ago. The notion of Uchida being prevented from playing seemed unthinkable, which heightened the appreciation of her unique and intense musicality in this programme of Schubert and Beethoven. She began by making a connection between the two composers: the opening chord of Schubert's G major Sonata, D984, is almost identical to that of the soloist's epoch-making entry in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, and the aura Uchida created in St George's in those moments was reverential and serene. Throughout the sonata, she found the perfect balance between the intimacy and almost grandiloquent resonance of Schubert's utterances. The sense of innocence and tragic portent was realised with perfect control, and she found a natural logic in his outpouring of melody. Most mesmerising was her way of matching tone colours and bringing a poised tension to passages of transition, so that the resolution of one idea would herald the beginning of the next. In Beethoven's massive Diabelli Variations, Op 120, which provided the single work of the second half, she showed her ability to seamlessly connect the variations. Beethoven's inventiveness and virtuosity was combined with a sense that he had given himself up to the power of music. Uchida unerringly captured the essence of each variation while fashioning the overarching structure of Beethoven's work. In some performances, the 32 Variations risk becoming tedious; here one would have been happy to hear Uchida continue to weave her magic.
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  • Mitsuko Uchida: Schumann / New York Times review
    Posted At : November 10, 2013 12:00 AM

    Mitsuko Uchida's phrasing is heartfelt, her tone warm and her responsiveness to mood acute in her latest solo disc, a continuation of her exploration of Schumann. She plays with scope but, especially in the "Gesänge der Frühe" ("Songs of Dawn"), incredible intimacy. (Zachary Woolfe)
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