Event is Live
Carnegie Hall Presents

Alexandre Tharaud, Piano

Sunday, March 26, 2023 3 PM Zankel Hall
Alexandre Tharaud by Marco Borggreve
Alexandre Tharaud opens this recital with his breathtaking original transcription of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. His take on Schubert’s Impromptus gets to “the heart of the beauties and abysses of this music” (The Guardian). Tharaud’s assured interpretation of Rameau’s Nouvelles suites, originally composed for the harpsichord, “makes you aware that there is as much intensity in Rameau as there is in Ravel” (Gramophone)—and it is Ravel’s impressionistic and wonderfully paced Miroirs suite that rounds out Tharaud’s characteristically insightful return to Zankel Hall.

Performers

Alexandre Tharaud, Piano

Program

G. MAHLER Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor (transcr. Alexandre Tharaud)

SCHUBERT Four Impromptus, D. 899

RAMEAU Selections from Suite in A Minor from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin
·· I. Allemande
·· III. Sarabande
·· V. Fanfarinette
·· VII. Gavotte

RAVEL Miroirs


Encores:

D. SCARLATTI Sonata in D Minor, K. 141

RAMEAU "Les Sauvages" from Suite in G Major from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin

Event Duration

The printed program will last approximately two hours, including one 20-minute intermission.

Listen to Selected Works

At a Glance

MAHLER  Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor

Thanks in part to its association with Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film Death in Venice, the slow movement from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony has become one of the Austrian composer’s most beloved works. Alexandre Tharaud’s is one of several keyboard transcriptions of the achingly tender Adagietto for strings and harp.

 

 

SCHUBERT  Four Impromptus, D. 899

As their name implies, the Four Impromptus share a spontaneous, improvisatory quality. Yet so deliberately did Schubert lay the set out that it has often been likened to a four-movement sonata. The bewitching slow third movement (in G-flat major) illustrates the intimate, singing tone that contemporaries admired in the composer’s piano playing.

 

 

RAMEAU  Selections from Suite in A Minor from Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin

Rameau’s harpsichord music epitomizes the combination of elegance and virtuosity that characterizes the French Baroque style. Tharaud acknowledges that “you can’t play Rameau on a piano the same way you play him on the harpsichord,” but argues that “nowadays it’s essential for a pianist to immerse himself in Baroque music.”

 

 

RAVEL  Miroirs

Roughly contemporary with Debussy’s Images, Ravel’s Miroirs are similarly adventurous in their approach to harmony, form, and keyboard technique. Although the titles of the pieces evoke pictorial imagery, Ravel is less concerned with traditional tone painting than he is with capturing the flickering reflections of pianistic sonorities and textures in his musical mirror.

Bios

Alexandre Tharaud

In a career that spans 25 years, Alexandre Tharaud has become a unique figure in the classical music world and a key exponent of French pianism. His extraordinary discography of more than 25 solo albums—most of which received major awards—features repertoire that ranges from Couperin, ...
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