Joel Krosnick - His Work

His Work

He has recorded the complete quartets of Beethoven, Bartók, Schoenberg, Janáček, Hindemith, and Brahms, as well as the last ten quartets of Mozart, four quartets of Elliott Carter, and works of Debussy, Ravel, Dutilleux, Berg, Smetana, Roger Sessions, Franck, Verdi, Donald Martinu, Stefan Wolpe, Bach, and Haydn.

With his sonata partner of over twenty years, pianist Gilbert Kalish, Krosnick has performed recitals throughout the United States and Europe. Since 1976, they have given an annual series of recitals at Weill and Merkin Halls, as well as at Miller and Juilliard Theatres. In 1984, Krosnick and Kalish gave a six-concert retrospective of twentieth-century music for cello and piano at the Juilliard Theatre and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C..

With Gilbert Kalish, Krosnick has recorded for the Arabesque label the Complete Sonatas and Variations of Beethoven and the Sonatas of Brahms, as well as works of Poulenc, Prokofiev, Elliott Carter, Hindemith, Debussy, Janáček, and Henry Cowell. Recently released was a disc of the cello and piano sonatas of Johannes Brahms. Especially noteworthy is a recording devoted to the cello and piano music of Ralph Shapey; soon to be released is a disc of Forgotten Americans, including music of Ernst Bacon, Hall Overton, Ben Weber, and Otto Luening.

In the season of 2002-2003, Krosnick and Kalish performed a pair of recitals at the Juilliard School of Lincoln Center. One of the recitals was a memorial to the composer Ralph Shapey, involving among other Shapey works the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1954), the Kroslish Sonata, and the Songs of Life, as well as the premiere of the Duo Variations for violin and cello, a composition from 1985. The other recital included premieres of works by Gunther Schuller and Richard Wernick, as well as works by Robert Stern and Francis Poulenc.

Particularly noteworthy are premieres of Donald Martino's Cello Concerto in Cincinnati and New York City (with the Juilliard Orchestra); also significant were the premieres of the Ralph Shapey Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra (with Robert Mann and the composer conducting the Juilliard Orchestra) and of the Ralph Shapey Double Concerto for Cello, Piano, and Double String Orchestra (with Gilbert Kalish and Ralph Shapey conducting the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra). In October 1999, Krosnick premiered Richard Wernick's Cello Concert #2 with the Juilliard Orchestra. In January 2001, he played the concerto by Sir Donald Francis Tovey in three performances with the Jupiter Symphony under the baton of Jens Nygaard.