Monday 1 March 2010 at 7.30pm
Wigmore Hall
36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP
Alasdair Beatson (piano)
Mendelssohn: Sonata in E, Op.6
Schumann: Gesänge der frühe, Op.133
Schumann: Abegg Variations, Op.1
Brahms: Variations on a theme of Schumann, Op.9
Mendelssohn/Rachmaninov: Scherzo from "a Midsummer Night's Dream"
Schubert/Liszt: Du bist die Ruh; Gretchen am Spinnrade
Schumann/Liszt: Widmung
Tickets: £8 - £13
Box office tel: 020 7935 2141
or visit www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
"artistry incarnate - that's Beatson" Sunday Times
"an artist of exceptional talent and confidence" The Independent
"As 2010 is Schumann's Bicentennial year, I wanted him to be the central figure of this recital. Rather than present a procession of the usual Schumann warhorses, this programme instead explores less blatant themes with music by his contemporaries and friends. For me, Brahms's opus 9 set of variations lies at the recital's heart. Using for his theme the first of Schumann's Albumblätter, the young Brahms makes a deeply touching tribute to his friend and teacher, as masterful in its construction as it is tender in conception. Schumann's own contributions, the delightful Abegg Variations and more earnest Gesänge der Frühe, are at literal extremes in his output as the first and last of his solo piano opuses, and are perhaps measures of change in a life so turbulent. Born one year earlier, the life of friend and colleague Mendelssohn was far from parallel, not least beginning as every bit the child prodigy that Schumann was not. His early E major sonata has a striking ease of lyricism and freshness that belies a quite ambitious structure. Further tributes bring the recital to a close - Rachmaninov and Liszt transcriptions - with the fitting conclusion of Widmung recognising the importance of Lieder to Schumann's expression." Alasdair Beatson