Beethoven Lecture I
Tue, Oct 20, 2026, 6:30 pm
Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio at CMS
1 hour 15 minutes, no intermission
The journey from Beethoven’s first piano sonata to his last is among the most astonishing and consequential achievements in the history of music. In this lecture series, Gilles Vonsattel complements his season-long exploration of the sonatas, providing a listener’s guide and an interpreter’s perspective from the piano. This 75-minute lecture explores different facets of Beethoven’s creative process and his development as a composer.
Works discussed include:
Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor for Piano, Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight”
Sonata No. 21 in C major for Piano, Op. 53, “Waldstein”
Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major for Piano, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier”
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.