Hélène Grimaud, Piano
Performers
Hélène Grimaud, Piano
Program
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109
BRAHMS Three Intermezzos, Op. 117
BRAHMS Seven Fantasies, Op. 116
J. S. BACH Chaconne in D Minor from Violin Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 (arr. Busoni)
Encores:
VALENTIN SILVESTROV Bagatelle II
RACHMANINOFF Étude-tableau in C Major
RACHMANINOFF Étude-tableau in C Minor, Op. posth.
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately 100 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.Listen to Selected Works
At a Glance
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109
Beethoven’s first piano sonatas followed hard on the heels of his Op. 1 piano trios, in which the composer declared his artistic independence. By the time he wrote the last few of his 32 sonatas in the early 1820s, he was no longer a young lion but a battle-scarred warrior whose indomitable spirit shines through in the incandescent slow movement of the E-Major Sonata.
BRAHMS Three Intermezzos, Op. 117; Seven Fantasies, Op. 116
Brahms lavished as much craftsmanship on his short piano pieces as on his sonatas and concertos. The capriccios and intermezzos gathered in his Op. 116 and Op. 117 attest his lifelong interest in the Romantic genre of the character piece, a vehicle for distilling a particular mood or musical idea to its essence.
J. S. BACH Chaconne in D Minor from Violin Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 (arr. Busoni)
Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Brahms are among the 19th-century composers who made keyboard transcriptions of J. S. Bach’s monumental D-Minor Chaconne for solo violin. In his famous arrangement, pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni added colors and sonorities designed to enhance the grandeur of Bach’s musical conception.