Carnegie Hall

For more than 50 years, music lovers have flocked to Carnegie Hall for the chance to hear Emanuel Ax in recital. In this performance, he treats listeners to musical fantasies by Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and more. Beethoven’s experimental pair of Op. 27 sonatas includes what is most popularly known as the “Moonlight” Sonata—but both pieces were originally marked “Sonata quasi una fantasia” by the composer. Between these sonatas, Ax performs John Corigliano’s Fantasia on an Ostinato, an explorative piece based on an unusual passage from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. The program’s second half comprises works by Robert Schumann, including the ever-popular Arabeske in C Major and the Fantasy in C Major—dedicated to fellow virtuoso Franz Liszt—which is one of the Romantic repertoire’s most demanding masterpieces, featuring a movement the composer professed as being “the most passionate I have ever composed.”