The artistic director of the festival, Samantha Ward joins forces with British pianist Sam Armstrong in a rarely performed programme of two piano works. Inspired by the poem L'après-midi d'un faune by Stéphane Mallarmé and originally written in 1894 as a symphonic poem for orchestra, Debussy’s Prélude is considered to be the birth of modern music. While this version made its way back to literature in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain as Hans Castorp’s favourite recording, the piano version has…

The Romantic spirit blossoms in this all-Chopin recital opening with his late, mature works and then, rather interestingly, taking listeners back to the final months spent in Warsaw when the young Fryderyk was occupied with the composition of his fiendishly difficult Grande Polonaise Brillante in 1830. This retrospective journey, veering through a series of closely related keys offers us a chance to hear how the complex, mysterious harmonies and textures of the Nocturnes Op. 62 and the perfect marriage of…

Artistic Director Samantha Ward joins forces with violinist Fenella Humphreys to inaugurate the new PIANO WEEK residency at Rugby School with Schubert's with Beethoven’s Spring Sonata. Published in 1801, this sunny and heartfelt piece instantly delights listeners with youthful energy and a lyrical opening melody. A mighty example of another young but more rebellious spirit follows in Brahms’ Sonata in G major Op. 78. As with all chamber music, but particularly in Brahms, this monumental and hugely demanding work pushes…

The Romantic spirit blossoms in this all-Chopin recital opening with his late, mature works and then, rather interestingly, taking the listeners back to the final months spent in Warsaw when the young Fryderyk was occupied with the composition of his fiendishly difficult Grande Polonaise Brillante in 1830. This retrospective journey, veering through a series of closely related keys, offers us a chance to hear how the complex, mysterious harmonies and textures of the Nocturnes Op. 62 and the perfect marriage…

The evening of piano music for four hands opens with one of the most remarkable pieces in the entire repertoire – Schubert’s Fantasia D 940. Written in the final year of his life and not far from such masterpieces as the Winterreise and Schwanengesang song cycles or the last three piano sonatas, it delves deep into the existential uneasiness of the human spirit. This emotional quivering echoes even in the very form of the composition. The four interconnected movements performed…

The programme begins with two contrasting Scarlatti Sonatas, the first emotional and expressive, the second lyrical and sprightly in turns. Brahms' Six Piano Pieces, Op 118 form the heart of the recital. Comprising four Intermezzi, a Ballade and a Romance, they all contrast in mood, but are surreptitiously linked by a three-note motive, cleverly transformed so that each one stands as an individualised jewel. Chopin's two Nocturnes, Op 27 are also linked, this time by tonality. Described by David Dubal…

1917: THE FINAL FLOWERING gathers together pieces by the émigré composers Gretchaninov, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Having fled Russia before or immediately following the Russian Revolution, they were later divided in their opinions of the new regime, with varying consequences for their subsequent careers. The music chosen by Alexander Karpeyev to illustrate the ‘final flowering’, composed between 1909 and 1917, reflects this and includes rarely performed miniatures by Gretchaninov, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff as well as Stravinsky’s piano arrangement of the…

Artistic Director Samantha Ward opens PIANO WEEK's residency in Beijing with Beethoven's 6 Bagatelles, written late in his career and dedicated to his brother Johann van Beethoven.  Beethoven considered these works some of his best writing, and wished for each movement, each "character piece" as a Bagatelle is known, to be played in succession, as one complete work rather than seperate pieces. The 6 pieces are filled with emotion, highs and lows, and showcase the incredible skill of the composer. Another…

South African pianist Niel du Preez presents a program filled with sensitivity, emotion and virtuosity. The recital opens with Ferrucio Busoni’s transcription of the famous choral prelude of Johann Sebastian Bach, followed by a selection of Debussy's Preludes; workings of a master of colour and expression, light and darkness, harmony and melody, texture and rhythm. A picture of a successful virtuoso and composer who strove after formal clarity emerges in the final piece - Liszt's B minor Ballade written between…

Japanese pianist Yuki Negishi opens her recital with Debussy's Children's Corner, dedicated to his daughter Claude-Emma who was three years old at the time. The pieces are not intended to be played by children; rather they are meant to be evocative of childhood and some of the toys in Claude-Emma's collection. This is followed by two pieces from Schubert's Drei Klavierstucke D.946, brought to light by Johannes Brahms and published for the first time forty years after the composer's death.…

The artistic director of the festival, Samantha Ward joins forces with Japanese pianist Yuki Negishi in a rarely performed programme of two piano works. Inspired by the poem L'après-midi d'un faune by Stéphane Mallarmé and originally written in 1894 as a symphonic poem for orchestra, Debussy’s Prélude is considered to be the birth of modern music. While this version made its way back to literature in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain as Hans Castorp’s favourite recording, the piano version has…

The Romantic spirit blossoms in this all-Chopin recital opening with his late, mature works and then, rather interestingly, taking the listeners back to the final months spent in Warsaw when the young Fryderyk was occupied with the composition of his fiendishly difficult Grande Polonaise Brillante in 1830. This retrospective journey, veering through a series of closely related keys offers us a chance to hear how the complex, mysterious harmonies and textures of the Nocturnes Op. 62 and the perfect marriage…

Artistic Director Samantha Ward inaugurates the Easter edition of the festival with a programme of some of the most revered piano masterpieces by Brahms and Schumann. A collection of four character pieces Op. 119 composed four years before Brahms’ death constitutes his last work written for solo piano. What he wrote to Clara Schumann about the opening Intermezzo: ‘Every bar and every note must sound like ritardando, as if one wanted to suck out melancholy out of each and every…

Roberto Russo opens the recital with his own Preludes, written in 1995, linked to a neo-romantic style with their harmonies and melodies. They are a deeply personal work, influenced by the most important writers of the early 20th century, and they have been performed in Italy, Poland, Norway, Romania and the USA. Franz Schubert wrote his last three piano sonatas a few months before his death, and for a very long time they were considered too difficult for an audience.…

British pianist Sam Armstrong performs two major works that were extremely progressive at the time of their respective composition, Beethoven's Sonata in A flat Major and Debussy's Preludes Book 1. The Sonata was progressive due to none of its movements actually being in Sonata form, and because the first and third movements contain strong premonitions of his visionary late style. Also, the inclusion of a funeral march in a sonata was unprecedented, this particular sonata later proving to be a…

The festival directors Samantha Ward and Maciej Raginia open the concert with Mozart’s popular Sonata KV 448, one of only a few works which he wrote for two pianos. In a solo programme inspired by night and water, Mark Nixon presents James Wilding's visionary 'To Sleep, perchance to dream', composed in 2013 and inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet's famous soliloquy. One of the many pieces that Debussy wrote about water, Reflets dans l’eau, follows, where the composer depicts water in its…

Presenting a programme that showcases works by brilliant composers who were also pianists, Alexander Karpeyev opens the recital with Beethoven's Sonata in A Major, dedicated to Haydn and often considered a 'perfect' sonata. This is followed by two of Chopin's four Impromptu's, No. 2 written in 1839 and Chopin's favourite of the four, No. 3 written in 1842. Impromptu No. 2 begins calmly and delicately, but then changes to a heroic military-like theme, finishing with a final flurry of activity,…

Madalina Rusu opens her recital with the six Romanian Dances by Bartók, written in 1915. They originate from Transylvania, Romania, the country of Madalina's birth, where they were first played on the nai (Romanian flute) and fiddle. Schumann's Fantasiestücke (Fantasy pieces), written in 1837, make a beautiful contrast to the Dances. They were inspired by a collection of essays, letters, and writings about music by one of his favourite authors, E. T. A. Hoffmann. Fantasiestücke is one of Schumann's most…