Olga Kern and Festival Musicians Play Beethoven

Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Presto in E Minor from Six Moments Musicaux, Op. 16, No. 4

Charles Lysberg

Spinning Wheel

Moritz Moszkowski

Étincelles [Sparks] from Eight Characteristic Pieces, Op. 36, No. 6

Claude Debussy

Feux d’artifice (Fireworks] from Préludes

Alexander Scriabin

Andante in F-sharp Major from Eight Etudes, Op. 42, No. 4
Affannato [Breathless] in C-sharp Minor from Eight Etudes, Op. 42, No. 5

Sergei Prokofiev

Presto energico from Four Etudes, Op. 2, No. 4

Ludwig van Beethoven

Trio in D Major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost”

Olga Kern opens this program with a series of light, short, and speedy pieces for solo piano.  Following, she joins with Festival musicians for Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D Major, which got the nickname “Ghost” because of its ominous and spooky middle  movement.  It’s eerie, mournful, and almost painfully slow.  In contrast, the two movements that surround it are short, cheerful and light-hearted, making for an interesting spooky sandwich.  George Bernard Shaw wrote of Beethoven that “he could write music whose beauty will last you all your life; he could take the driest sticks of themes and work them up so interestingly that you will find something new in them at the hundredth hearing.”  Listen and enjoy the simple “sticks” of themes in the very beginning of both outer movements.