Matan Porat


Matan Porat, is an Israeli pianist and composer. He lives in Berlin.

Biography

Porat has a master's degree from the Juilliard School in New York. He has studied under Emanuel Krasovsky, Murray Perahia and Maria João Pires.
He has performed at the Barbican in London, at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Louvre in Paris. He has played with Renaud Capuçon, Kim Kashkashian and Dorothea Röschmann, with the Jerusalem and Ysaye Quartets, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Porat's playing for the silent movies The General and Metropolis at Marlboro Music in 2009 was described as "an astounding feat of creative musicianship" by Alex Ross, and as "quite sensational" by Richard Goode.

Recording

In 2013 Porat released "Variations on a theme by Scarlatti" on the Mirare label, consisting of pieces by various composers from Couperin to Boulez, all supposedly related to Domenico Scarlatti's d-minor Sonata, K32. The CD received mixed reviews: Fanfare magazine noted the pianist's technique, but thought he "offers little color", and criticized the choice of pieces, which "only works fitfully". Eleonore Büning in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called it "a fantastic album that one should hear over and over again".