EVGENY KISSIN
Present since the very first edition in 1994, Evgeny Kissin has grown and flourished at the Festival, becoming one of the most extraordinary musicians of our time. For the bicentenary of the German composer’s death, the celebrated pianist presents an unforgettable panorama of Beethoven’s music, from the first Viennese sonata to the pivotal No. 13, through to the late Diabelli Variations.
Programme
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor Op. 2 No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major Op. 27 No. 1
Interval
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Diabelli Variations Op. 120
Evgeny Kissin plays Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10 No. 3: I. Presto in Verbier
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The keyboard accompanied Beethoven throughout his life. It would be no exaggeration to say that they evolved in step, the former leaving the strings of the fortepiano for the power of the modern piano, the latter moving away from the Classical idiom to explore ever more unheard-of sonic territories. In 1794, Beethoven was still only a young virtuoso, newly arrived in Vienna. His art, steeped in echoes of Mozart (whom he had met) and Haydn (with whom he had studied), changed dramatically in the Sonata No. 13 of 1801. The intended title ‘Quasi una fantasia’ clearly signals the composer’s wish to move beyond formal structures and give free rein to an imperious inspiration. Twenty years later, the revolution is complete in the Diabelli Variations: from an innocuous waltz by the publisher of the same name, Beethoven traces a fabulous arc of 33 metamorphoses through which flow all human feelings and passions. In this bicentenary year, Evgeny Kissin returns in majesty to the German composer’s music to write a new page in the history of Beethoven interpretation.
