Events

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Sonata no.12 in F major, K.332

Béla Bartók 14 Bagatelles, op. 6, nos. 2-7 and no. 10

Claude Debussy Pour le piano L.95 (Prélude – Sarabande – Toccata)

Interval

Thomas Adès Blanca Variations

Johannes Brahms Klavierstücke (Eight Piano Pieces) op.76, nos. 1-5

Robert Schumann Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival-Jape from Vienna) op.26

Last season, when Elisabeth Brauß had to cancel due to illness, we missed out on her lovely Grieg and Hans Abrahamsen programme. Happily, she has come up with something just as enticing this year.

In 1907 Béla Bartók’s friend Kodály returned from a trip to Paris with some of Debussy’s music. Bartók was profoundly impressed – like Debussy, he had been seeking a fresh approach. The following year he published his 14 Bagatelles, uncluttered pieces reflecting experiments with tonality and, in some of them his love for Hungarian folk melodies, for instance no.4, the lament of a cowherd who went to sleep and awoke to find that all his cows had vanished.

Elisabeth begins the second half with Thomas Adès’ Blanca Variations, a set of variations based on a Judaeo-Spanish folk tune, and follows it with Brahms’ beautiful Klavierstücke. Her finale is Robert Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien. Schumann can be troubled but this piece shows him at his joyful, teasing best. A perfect end to the evening.

Watch Elisabeth Brauß performing Schubert: Impromptu no. 3 in G-flat major