Jonathan Biss is a young American, still in his 20s, who has already given a great deal of thought to what makes a solo recital a success.
For him, the secret lies in programming an ‘emotional arc of experience’. This recital begins in the abstract, with the sturdy humour of Haydn’s sonata – no story attached. It takes in a farewell (‘Les Adieux’) and welcome, expressed with the full force of Beethoven’s personality, and works its way around to the wild eccentricities of Kreisleriana, Schumann’s portrait of a fictional conductor.
But in many ways, the high point of intensity comes from a composer not often heard in recital – Janácek. The odd title of his poignant sonata refers to a chilling moment in the Czech struggle against oppression, in which ‘a simple worker falls, stained with blood…he came only to plead for a university’. Less than four months later the sonata was premiered – but not before Janácek had tried to destroy the music.
'The slow sections of Kreisleriana… magically approximated the sound of one man thinking aloud.'
The New Yorker
HAYDN Sonata in A flat, Hob.XVI:43
JANÁCEK Sonata 1.X.1905: From the Street
BEETHOVEN Sonata in E flat, Op.81a (Les Adieux)
SCHUMANN Kreisleriana, Op.16
Pre-concert talk by Dr Robert Curry at 7.15pm in the First Floor Reception Room.