The young and award-winning American pianist Joshua Rupley plays large-scale piano works by Beethoven and Hirschfeld.
With the "Grand Sonata for the Hammerklavier" op. 106, Beethoven broke all previous boundaries of the genre. The rarely performed late work, which was premiered by Franz Liszt decades after Beethoven's death, is still feared and loved by pianists to this day due to its technical difficulties and musical challenges.
René Hirschfeld's 7-movement cycle "Music for Piano Solo" is similar in scale, but develops slowly and dissolves into freedom and expansiveness at the end. It demands the utmost sensitivity of touch from the pianist, even in the softest areas, and the greatest calm in the development of the sounds over long stretches.
It almost seems to be music for giants, or for celestial bodies, rather than for humans.
Programme:
Ludwig von Beethoven (1770 - 1821)
PLAYING SONATAS NO. 29 in B flat major OP. 106
"Hammerklavier Sonata"
I. Allegro
II. Scherzo: Assai vivace
III. Adagio sostenuto, Appassionato e con molto sentimento IV. Largo, Un poco piu vivace, Allegro, Prestissimo
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C. René Hirschfeld (*1965)
MUSIC FOR PIANO SOLO (OP. 139)
I. Extremely slow
II. broad, but with emphasisIII. very moving, urgent
IV. With brilliance
V. Singing
VI. clear, almost speaking
VII. open, with breadth