Beethoven Piano Sonatas VIII
Tue, Mar 30, 2027, 7:30 pm
Alice Tully Hall
2 hours, including intermission
This performance says farewell to the Beethoven sonatas, beginning with the "Pastoral" Sonata's paean to nature. The "Appassionata" is defined by nearly unrelenting conflict and intensity. "Les Adieux" wishes farewell through its transformed horn calls, and Op. 111 provides a summation of the art of the composer—in some tellings, Beethoven stopped after the second movement because nothing more needed to be said. The sonatas were complete.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Sonata No. 15 in D major for Piano, Op. 28, "Pastoral"
(1801)Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Sonata No. 23 in F minor for Piano, Op. 57, "Appassionata"
(1804-05)Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major for Piano, Op. 81a, "Les Adieux"
(1809-10)Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Sonata No. 32 in C minor for Piano, Op. 111
(1821-22)
Gilles Vonsattel
Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel boasts remarkable versatility and artistic originality. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and top prizes in the Naumburg and Geneva competitions, he has graced prestigious stages worldwide, enthralling audiences with recitals and chamber performances, and collaborating with renowned orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic and the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies. As a champion of new music, he has premiered compositions by celebrated composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Anthony Cheung, and George Benjamin. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and has earned degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Today, Vonsattel shares his passion for music as a Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.