St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Yeol Eum Son recital (piano)


On-line broadcast
Mariinsky International Piano Festival

Yeol Eum Son (biography)


PROGRAMME:
Franz Schubert
Four Impromptus, D. 935

Charles-Valentin Alkan
Le festin d'Ésope from Etudes in Minor Keys, Op. 39

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (arrangement for piano by Yu. Vagman)
I. Non Allegro

Rodion Shchedrin
Tchaikovsky Etude concert piece

Igor Stravinsky
Three Moments from Pétrouchka for piano

Nikolai Kapustin
Variations on themes from music for Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Le Sacre du printemps


In each of my programmes I try to build up some kind of subject. On this occasion the accent is on Russian music. Shchedrin is one of my favourite composers. His concert piece Tchaikovsky Étude means a great deal to me, because four years ago, having performed it at the Tchaikovsky Competition, I won the Special Prize. I also really love Nikolai Kapustin’s Variations on a theme from Le Sacre du printemps which I’ve also performed in Moscow.
“Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances has been one of my favourite works for many years, but I’ve never performed the arrangement by Israeli pianist Yali Wagman before. I’ll be doing that for the first time on 7 April. The choice of Pétrouchka needs no special comment.
“With regard to the second subject of the programme, it’s a comparison of pieces by Schubert and Alkan, a contemporary of Liszt, his rival in terms of refined and fantastical virtuosity. For myself, I decided that this is a contrast between angelic and demonic music. Schubert’s impromptus are filled with light, like a blessing from God. But Alkan’s Étude is frightening, the very fabric of the piece is as if turned inside-out and it is unclear from where these mad and morbid motifs come. Of all Romantic music it seems to me that this work is the most destructive and despondent.
“Performing a recital at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre has been a cherished dream for me, it’s one of the most beautiful venues I’ve performed in. At the festival I’ll be interested to hear Ravel performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard – especially the Concerto for the Left Hand which I myself have performed under maestro Gergiev. I’ll be going to the concert of Denis Matsuev – I absolutely adore Shchedrin’s Second Concerto, it has a particular kind of ‘aura’ and so I want to hear it again. It’s a great shame that I won’t be able to attend the other concerts.
Yeol Eum Son

Age category 6+

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