Live recital-Debussy complete etudes, Ligeti, Bartok, Szymanowski, Zapata,etcetc

[fnork]

A recent solo recital, posting the entire recital in one file:


https://app.box.com/s/taezybccsdmiyvkhfgcmq8x7cm3qf4c4


Program-

Debussy - Etudes, book 1
Karol Szymanowski - Sheherezade, from 'Masques'
Adam Vilagi - Välyhdyksiä
Bartok - Three etudes, op. 18

- Intermission -

Ligeti - "Cordes a vide" from Etudes, book 1
Itzam Zapata - The fog also dreams
Pasi Lyytikäinen - Coma
Debussy - Etudes, book 2

[outin]

Very enjoyable, loved the programming

[fnork]

Thanks for listening and commenting, glad you liked it

[cbreemer]

Wowow, some program ! I shall have to listen to some of this at least. Not many pianists play
Bartok's Etudes in concert, I think, whereas just about everybody plays Ligeti. Am I right in thinking the Bartok etudes may be every bit as hard as Ligeti's ?

[fnork]

I can't think of any solo piano work by Bartok that is nearly as difficult as the etudes. Trying to remember which famous pianist that found them more difficult than the 2nd piano concerto....obviously, it is hard to compare the two. Nevertheless, I can say that I've worked on the etudes on and off quite a lot over the years, and it has taken quite a lot of practicing to get them to performance shape. Meanwhile, Ligeti etudes certainly aren't easy in general, but the one I picked for this concert was among the easier ones. Unfortunately, I had some memory issues in the first page, but things went fine after that!

[fnork]

I should perhaps add that Vilagi, Zapata and Lyytikäinen are all "local" composers, all of whom were present for the concert. The idea of "framing" a concert with Debussy Études, one book in the beginning and the other in the end, is something I got through pianist Nicolas Hodges. I took note of that he was doing programs with the Debussy etudes framing the concert, and only contemporary music inbetween. I liked the idea, but thought of extending it to music by CONTEMPORARIES of Debussy, along with various recently-written works, that I by the way believe are influenced by Debussy to some extent. At least two of the contemporary composers agreed that they had been influenced to a great extent by Debussy, and I think it comes across in their music.