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Details
The Quay Theatre
Quay Lane
Sudbury
Suffolk
CO10 2AN
England
Programme
Frédéric Chopin – Prelude in C sharp minor, Op.45
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata no.30 in E major, Op.109
Dmitry Shostakovich – Two Preludes, Op.34
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata no.31 in A flat major, Op.110
Johann Sebastian Bach – Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Johann Sebastian Bach – Musical Offering, BWV 1079: Ricercar a 3
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata no.32 in C minor, Op.111
Performers
James Lisney – piano
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
Johann Sebastian Bach travelled to Potsdam in 1747 to meet King Frederick the Great. During his visit, he improvised a three-voice fugue on a theme of the King’s devising, later developing the music into the Musical Offering. Given that Bach extemporised upon the newly developed Silbermann fortepiano, the Ricercar a 3 may be regarded as the first significant work for the piano.
James Lisney’s musical offerings centre upon Beethoven’s three final sonatas, one of music’s great spiritual journeys, written when the composer was turning fifty years old and occupied with the Missa Solemnis. This transcendent, dramatic, lyrical, and ultimately communicative music is prefaced by complementary preludes by Bach, Chopin and Shostakovich.
Myra Hess was a peerless interpreter of Beethoven’s final sonatas and her transcription of Bach’s chorale prelude Jesu bleibet meinen Freude (from the Advent cantata Herz und Mund and Tat und Leben) is the perfect way to mark the sixtieth anniversary of her death (November 1965).
