Preview of Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninoff and Brahms this weekend in Manchester.
WATCH: Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut
Here is the second movement of Debussy’s Images, Book II from a recent performance. Evocatively titled Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut [And the moon descends over the temple that was], it is a masterpiece of tone-painting.
LISTEN: Brahms Op.120/1
Brahms’ two great sonatas Op. 120 are bedrock works in the clarinet repertoire. They are frequently played by violists as well. But barely known today are Brahms’ own careful transcriptions of these works for violin, newly presented in a beautiful new Bärenreiter edition edited by Clive Brown. Here is the ravishing second movement—Andante un poco adagio—from the F-minor Sonata, Op. 120, No. 1, played recently by Korbinian Altenberger and myself as an encore to our complete Brahms sonatas program.
REVIEW: Should dry concert halls be amplified?
Perter Dobrin writes about the pros and cons of amplifying dry halls, and touches on my performance with Korbinian Altenberger of the complete sonatas of Brahms.
WATCH: Beethoven Op. 96 & Op. 97
Not infrequently one comes cross the amusing opinion that, for all his daunting genius, Beethoven could not produce great melodies. Here is an excerpt from the last sonata for piano and violin—in G major, Op. 96—that says otherwise:
And, just for kicks, the hair-raising coda of the finale of the “Archduke” Trio, Op. 97, from the same concert:
REVIEW: Brahms Complete Sonatas for Piano & Violin
Review of my recent performance, with Korbinian Altenberger, of the complete piano & violin sonatas of Brahms.
“I have been a sufficiently devoted life-long lover of Brahms’s music to have written a book about it, yet this duo’s performances of all of his works for piano and violin (the traditional titling order that he was one of the last composers to go on using) came as a revelation. Brahms has been celebrated over the years for a number of characteristics, but the sort of sheer dazzling sonic imagination the players found in these four works has not commonly been among the qualities singled out for praise.”
LISTEN: Debussy Images, Book II
The first book of Debussy’s Images is played more often, but I’ve always preferred Book II—luminous, refined almost to a breaking-point. Here it is from one of my recent recitals.
WATCH: Mozart Sonata K. 533/494
Here is Mozart’s Sonata in F major, K. 533/494, from a recent recital. For me, it’s Mozart’s very greatest piano sonata, a work of sublime intricacy and bottomless depth.
INTERVIEW with RTN
Интервью с RTN (Майя Прицкер) на разные темы.
WATCH: Scarlatti Sonata in D minor, K. 64
Here's a delicious Scarlatti sonata—one of eight I play in the first half of my solo recital at the 92nd Street Y this Saturday.
Here's a delicious #Scarlatti sonata—one of eight I play in the first half of my solo recital at the 92nd Street Y this Saturday. @92Y @ColumbiaArtists https://t.co/5TUMsUb7BE pic.twitter.com/4prAL8xbTF
— Ignat Solzhenitsyn (@isolzh) February 28, 2019