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JOAQUIN ACHUCARRO
Brahms, Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin
Spanish pianist Joaquín Achúcarro presents a programme of waltzes, nostalgia and lavish-textured lyricism.
Programme
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Variations on a Theme by R. Schumann Op. 9
FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)
Valse oubliée S. 215 No. 1
Liebestraum S. 541 No. 3
MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)
Valses nobles et sentimentales
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)
Prelude in F-sharp minor Op. 23 No. 1
Prelude in G-flat major Op. 23 No. 10
Prelude in G-sharp minor Op. 32 No. 12
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN (1872-1915)
Étude in C-sharp minor Op. 2 No. 1
Étude in D-sharp minor Op. 8 No. 12
Distribution
- Joaquín Achúcarro piano
By turns tenderly nostalgic and turbulent, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann were written in 1854, just after the latter had been committed to an asylum. Liszt’s Forgotten Waltz’No. 1 of 1887 has a sharper-edged nostalgia with its rapid rhythmic figures – a contrast to the sentimentality of his slow-waltzing third Liebestraum of 1850, which floats a simple melody amid lavish figuration, building to an immense climax. Ravel’s eight Valses nobles et sentimentales shocked their first 1911 audience with their discombobulating syncopations, dissonance and chromaticisms. Chromaticism is also a feature of Rachmaninoff’s preludes of the 1910s – character pieces voicing their melodies amid complex surrounding chordal and counter-melodic textures. Countermelodies are equally the challenge of his friend Scriabin’s Étude No. 1, written aged 15, whereas ‘Patetico’ Étude No. 12, a virtuoso showpiece, is all about octaves.