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The French pianist, Pascal Rogé, a third-generation French musician, studied first with with his mother. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) in Paris at age 11 (1962) and made his debut as a soloist at the same age in Paris with a performance of Claude Debussy's Preludes. His principal teacher was Lucette Descaves, and he graduated with premiers prix in piano and chamber music at age (1966); then studied with Julius Katchen (1966-1969).
At 18 (1969), Pascal Rogé performed solo recitals in both Paris and London. After winning joint 1st prize in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris in 1971, he pursued a successful international career. Several European engagements followed, landing an exclusive contract with Decca in the process. In 1974 he made his first tour to the USA, returning nearly every season. He has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world. He is a frequent guest artist in Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and especially Japan, where he has made over 20 tours. Among his recent British engagements are recitals at Wigmore Hall, Symphony Hall Birmingham and the Queen Elizabeth Hall where he is a frequent guest of the International Piano Series.
Pascal Rogé has a particular affinity for French composers such Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Eric Satie, Francis Poulenc, and Vincent d'Indy, among others. He exemplifies the finest in French pianism; his playing of these composers in particular is characterised by its elegance, beauty and delicate phrasing - his name is simply synonymous with the best playing of French repertory in the world today. However, his repertoire also covers the German masters J. Haydn, W.A. Mozart, Johannes Brahms, and L.v. Beethoven.
Some of the orchestras Pascal Rogé has appeared with include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Radio France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam , NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Wiener Symphoniker, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and all the major London orchestras. His his collaboration with orchestras has been noted for its faultless musicianship, and made him a favorite of conductors as Lorin Maazel and Kurt Masur. A friend of conductor Charles Dutoit, he is regularly invited to Canada to work with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He also performs chamber works, with the Pasquier Trio, and with musicians such as Pierre Amoyal or Michel Portal, with whom he recorded F. Poulenc and Tchaikovsky.
For several years, Pascal Rogé has enjoyed playing recitals for four-hands/two-pianos with his partner in life and in music Ami Rogé. Together, they have travelled the world appearing at prestigious festivals and concert halls. The have appeared in New York Carnegie Hall, Hong Kong Joy of Music Festival, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the Beijing International Piano Festival, on tour in New Zealand, at Incontri in Terra di Sienna in Tuscany, at the Salisbury international Festival, the Thaxted Festival, Music for Galway, The Sage Gateshead, Nottingham’s Lakeside Arts Centre, London’s Chopin Society, and Petworth Festival. Their recent tour of Japan saw them perform the premiere of Ami Suite, a new piece for four hands, written especially for them by the Japanese-American composer Paul Chihara. Additionally they have made a growing number of orchestral appearances together playing F. Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E Major, including the Shanghai Symphony, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Poznan Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon, and the Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra in Finland.
Pascal Rogé has taught at the Académie in Nice, but a busy international schedule has kept him from consistent teaching. Pascal Rogé is the Artistic Director of Incontri in Terra di Siena, a summer festival that takes place each year in Tuscany.
Pascal Rogé became an exclusive Decca recording artist at the age of 17. His recordings have received numerous awards. including two Gramophone awards, a Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison Award for his interpretations of the Ravel and Saint-Saëns concertos. Other recordings include the complete piano works of F. Poulenc and Ravel, four albums of Satie and two of Debussy and a Béla Bartók cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra. He received the Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison award for the Ravel and C. Saint-Saëns concertos; his first volume of F. Poulenc won the 1988 Gramophone award for Best Instrumental Recording, and his collaboration with Chantal Juillet and Truls Mørk won the 1997 Gramophone award for Best Chamber Music recording. For the Poulenc Edition in 1999 Rogé recorded both piano concertos, the Aubade and the Concerto Champêtre all under Charles Dutoit. For Oehms Classics Rogé recorded, to unanimous acclaim, the Ravel G Major and Gershwin concertos with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Bertrand de Billy and has now recorded a second disc with the same forces which includes the Ravel Left Hand Piano Concerto, Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. Pascal Rogé’s latest recording project is the Rogé Edition, released on the Onyx Classics label. The first CD release in May 2005 inaugurated his first complete Debussy cycle with the Préludes and was followed by a second disc including Estampes and Children’s Corner early in 2007. In March 2008 the third volume was released containing Images and Pour le Piano. Also for Onyx he has released a disc of W.A. Mozart's concertos with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Raymond Leppard.
Pascal and Ami Rogé will record a 2-CD set of French repertoire for four-hands and two-pianos to be released on the Onyx Rogé Edition label in the coming year. Together they will give the premiere of a newly-commissioned Concerto for Two Pianos by the composer Matthew Hindson with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy in 2011. |
