Denis Matsuev, Piano
Performers
Denis Matsuev, Piano
Program
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111
R. SCHUMANN Kinderszenen
RACHMANINOFF Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36
Encores:
RACHMANINOFF Vocalise
CHOPIN Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2
GRIEG "Solveig's Song" (arr. Matsuev) and "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (arr. Ginzburg) from Peer Gynt, Op. 23
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.Listen to Selected Works
At a Glance
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110
One of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas, the A-flat–Major Sonata is full of strong and unpredictable contrasts. Throughout the work, one often has the sense that the composer is feeling his way from one idea to the next, the notes forming themselves soundlessly under his fingers, detached from their auditory moorings.
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111
In the radiant ending to his final piano sonata, Beethoven gives free rein to his poetic imagination. The music teacher in Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus describes the closing passage as “the most moving, consolatory, pathetically reconciling thing in the world. It is like having one’s hair or cheek stroked, lovingly, understandingly, like a deep and silent farewell look.”
R. SCHUMANN Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), Op. 15
Schumann composed the deceptively uncomplicated miniatures that make up Kinderszenen in part as a love letter to his future wife, Clara Wieck. Although he called them “light as a bubble,” Wieck saw clearly that he had invested these “scenes of touching simplicity” with the emotional turmoil of his inner life.
RACHMANINOFF Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36
Compared to Rachmaninoff’s sprawling First Piano Sonata of 1907–1908, the Second Sonata is a model of concision. The dense, roiling textures and fast-changing harmonies contrast with crystalline bell-like effects reminiscent of Rachmaninoff’s “choral symphony” The Bells, on which he was working simultaneously with the sonata in 1913.