Martin opens this evening’s concert with Bach’s French Suite No 3 - composed for Bach’s young wife Anna Madgalena in 1721 as instructional pieces. Compact and accessible, charming and elegant, these short pieces impart the very essence of manners and good taste. At the opposite end of tonight’s concert, it will be fascinating to hear Dohnanyi’s acutely melodic Suite in the Olden Style.
Though written almost 200 years later, the Suite retains a very similar format to Bach’s much earlier work. A comparison of the Sarabandes in particular will be intriguing - both are renowned for their emotional intensity and grave beauty. Sandwiched between the Suites we will be treated to pieces by 3 great masters of keyboard composition.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E minor Op 90 consists of just 2 movements, the first “full of passionate and lonely energy” and the 2nd an exquisitely beautiful and gentle sonata-rondo. This piece hasn’t been played as part of Ribble Valley International Piano Week for many years – a welcome addition to tonight’s programme.
Mozart’s Sonata in C minor is one of only 2 sonatas written in a minor key – this choice of key could imply that this piece was perhaps a very personal work and is undeniably one of his most important piano sonatas, “surpassing all the others by reason of fire and passion”.
Liszt’s Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude, as the title suggests, is a meditation of transcendent beauty. Rarely performed - expect spine-tingling exaltation rather than Lisztian fireworks.