Gabriela Montero, Piano
Performers
Gabriela Montero, Piano
Program
R. SCHUMANN Kinderszenen
COREA Selections from Children's Songs
GABRIELA MONTERO Scenes from Childhood
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 61
GABRIELA MONTERO Improvisations
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.Listen to Selected Works
At a Glance
Venezuelan-born pianist Gabriela Montero belongs to the rare breed of classically trained musicians for whom improvising spontaneously comes just as naturally as reproducing music from a printed score. “I have been improvising since my hands first touched the keyboard,” she recently told an interviewer, “but for many years I kept this aspect of my playing secret. Then Martha Argerich overheard me improvising one day and was ecstatic. In fact, it was Martha who persuaded me that it was possible to combine my career as a serious ‘classical’ artist with the side of me that is rather unusual.”
Tonight’s concert showcases these two complementary sides of Montero’s artistic personality. She offers a succinct description of its overarching theme: “Reflecting William Blake’s own Songs of Innocence and Experience, this program presents a musical collision of innocent childhood with the inevitable impact of later life in the adult world. Schumann and Chick Corea’s childhood reflections give way to Shostakovich and the impact of war. Before they do, however, I insert my own Scenes from Childhood, five entirely improvised reflections of life growing up in Caracas, Venezuela.”