The Keyboard Trust is delighted to announce that the remarkable British pianist, Mark Viner, will be giving its annual Wigmore Hall Prizewinner’s recital on Friday, 2 March (7.30 pm) in memory of Bill Newman, a long standing friend of the Trust.
When choosing the repertoire for this programme, Mark not only wanted to select works by composers whom he most enjoys playing but he also wished to give as representative a cross section of mid-nineteenth century piano writing as possible. The four composers around whom the programme is built, were all born within a year of one another and all were active in Paris for important periods of their careers. Between them they arguably changed the course of piano writing, unlocking untold possibilities and ushering forth the modern piano.
Mark is the UK’s leading exponent of Alkan’s works (and Chairman of the Alkan and Liszt Societies) and has just released a CD of Alkan’s Douze Etudes on the Piano Classics label — to considerable acclaim — in the Sunday Times, Guardian and Gramophone Magazine.
And an introductory podcast about the concert may be found here
‘A blazing young British talent’ — Gramophone
‘Beguiling …’ — Guardian
‘Consistently beautiful sound’ — Sunday Times Culture
Mark Viner is recognised as one of the most exciting British concert pianists of his generation and is becoming increasingly well-known for his bold championing of unfamiliar pianistic terrain.
Born in 1989, he began playing at the age of 11 and two years later was awarded a scholarship to the Purcell School of Music where he studied with Tessa Nicholson for the next five years. Another scholarship then took him to the Royal College of Music where he studied with Niel Immelman for six years, graduating in 2011 with first class honours after having gained the highest mark in the year for his final recital and, he graduated with a distinction in Master of Performance in 2013.
Aside from a busy schedule of teaching and performances he is also a published writer and his advocacy for the music of Charles-Valentin Alkan and Franz Liszt has led to his election as Chairman of both the Alkan Society and the Liszt Society. He is very active in the recording studio and his recordings of music by Thalberg, Liszt and, more recently, Alkan on the Piano Classics label have garnered critical acclaim.