7th SJE International Piano Series

J.S. Bach: Choral Preludes
Wacht Auf, Ruft Uns die Stimme, BWV 140 (arr. Busoni)
Schafe können sicher weiden, BWV 208 (arr. Petri)
Nun Freut Euch, Lieben Christen, BWV 734 (arr. Busoni)
Mendelssohn:
Songs without Words
Op. 19, no. 3 in A major
Op. 67, no. 2 in F-sharp minor
Op. 30, no. 4 in B minor
Op. 67, no. 5 in B minor
Op. 19, no. 1 in E major
Op. 102, no. 5 in A major, ‘The Joyous Peasant’
Op. 19, no. 5 in F-sharp minor
Op. 85, no. 4 in D major, ‘Elegy’
Op. 67, no. 4 in C major, ‘Spinning Song’
Op. 19, no. 6 in G minor, ‘Gondolier Song’
Op. 62, no. 2 in B-flat major
Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14
Adès: Paraphrase on Powder Her Face
Interval
Schubert: Sonata in B flat, D 960

Described as ‘one of the most admired pianists of his generation’ (New York Times) American/Israeli Inon Barnatan has a career that takes him around the world. His repertoire is similarly broad, ranging from J.S. Bach to contemporary composers like Alan Fletcher, Thomas Adès and Nico Muhly.

A regular soloist with the foremost orchestras and conductors, Inon Barnatan has recently made his debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus; Tonhalle-Orchester, Zürich; London and Helsinki Philharmonic and the Chicago, Baltimore and Seattle Symphonies, as well as completing his third and final season as the inaugural Artist-in-Association of the New York Philharmonic. In recital he has appeared at Carnegie Hall with soprano Renée Fleming and in November 2018 made his International Piano Series debut at the Southbank Centre, London with a critically acclaimed performance of Ravel and Mussorgsky.

Tonight, along with the three Bach Choral Preludes, we look forward to a selection of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, lovely short lyrical pieces in the Romantic tradition. Thomas Adès’ paraphrase of his darkly comic opera based on the scandalous Duchess of Argyll follows. To bring the programme to a close, Inon Barnatan performs Schubert’s transcendental Piano Sonata in B-flat major. This is the last of a trio of sonatas that Schubert wrote shortly before he died, in a period when his music had taken on a rare degree of depth and gravity.