It does not quite fit the current season, but anyway, I’ll be performing the premiere of my piano piece November Lament next Friday, 7:30 pm, in my university‘s recital hall, as part of an amazing concert programmed by our music theory classes. If you can manage a mournful, sombre, and autumnous facial expression, please come around and help me getting into the mood!
Events
PhD Symposium in Vienna
Who was that fabulous Russian composer-pianist of German ancestry named Nikolai Medtner, and what made him so noteworthy as a creator of piano sonatas? Dear Vienna residents, come and learn more this Thursday, May 19, 2 pm, at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst‘s Fanny Hensel hall. I’ll be presenting part of my PhD work in an one-hour talk on Medtner‘s Sonata Triad, Op. 11, and G minor Sonata, Op. 22. Would be fantastic to have your company. Entrance to the PhD symposium is free.
Ensemble Picardie Going Live
Palmarum concert this afternoon, 3 pm, with Almut Gatz and Händelchor Berlin at Heilandskirche Sacrow. This is the initial performance of Ensemble Picardie, a vocal quartet with the participation of my dear colleagues Almut, Laura, and Robert, and as the baritone part of which I am happy to serve. Never sung in a church located as idyllic as this one, directly on the Havel riverside. If you happen to be in West Berlin or Potsdam, come along! Entrance is free.
Ekaterina Derzhavina Recital
Tonight I was deeply moved and enthusiastically inspired by a piano recital at Piano Salon Christophori. Russian pianist Ekaterina Derzhavina was performing Haydn and Medtner in a way that made me burst for joy and cry in ever-repeating change. What a passionate, graceful, and simultaneously modest playing. And I didn’t have to leave my hometown, not even my borough, to be lucky enough to make this outstanding experience. At times, very rarely in fact, one may feel blessed just by being present in a moment of divine musical inspiration. This has just been such a moment, and I am grateful to have encountered it.
Sonatas and Narrations in Concert
Last week has seen another fascinating Medtner event in my university’s chamber hall, confronting the Russian composer’s 1st violin sonata, Op. 21, and Sonata-Ballade, Op. 27, with Beethoven’s Sonata quasi una fantasia, Op. 27 No. 1. Many thanks, Sasha Karpeyev and Viktoria Kaunzner, for your excellent playing!