We are delighted to confirm, as already announced on our Home page, that Gusztáv Fenyő will resume his Scottish cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, marking the composer’s 250th anniversary, on Sunday 15th May at The Cathedral of The Isles, Millport, Cumbrae.
As you may recall, Gusztáv embarked on this musical journey back in May 2019 with the intention of completing the eight-concert cycle prior to Beethoven’s birthday in December 2020. However, the Covid19 pandemic stopped him in his tracks mid-way and left us hovering, as it were, in the fantasy world of the ‘Moonlight’ sonata performed in that fourth recital.
It is a great joy, therefore, to be returning to this beautiful setting on the Isle of Cumbrae to re-engage with Beethoven’s compositional journey, since “more than any other genre of his output, the piano sonatas provide an almost complete view of the evolving nature of Beethoven’s creative life and take us deep into the boundless imagination, searching spirit and humanity of this towering genius.”
Programme 5 on Sunday 15th May includes the ‘Tempest’ sonata with its dramatic contrasts, and concludes with the majestic ‘Waldstein’ sonata, named after its dedicatee.
Programme 6 will follow on Sunday 29th May with the ‘Appassionata’ sonata, amongst others, and perhaps fittingly concludes with ‘Les Adieux’ – since there is a summer pause until the final two programmes.
Programmes 7 and 8 encompass the last six sonatas, including the fiendish ‘Hammerklavier’ and the deeply-moving sonatas of Beethoven’s final years, and will take place on Sunday 11th September and Sunday 25th September.
All recitals begin at 3pm. Admission is free, with a retiring collection in aid of The Cathedral Musical Resources Fund.
Further information about the cycle, programmes, performer and venue can be found here.
We look forward very much to sharing ‘live’ music with you again.
But if this is not possible, we hope you will find time to listen to some of Gusztáv’s online recordings, which include three Beethoven sonatas recorded at The Cathedral of The Isles. One is currently featured on our Video/Audio page.
And the other two, along with a host of recordings spanning several decades of Gusztáv’s performing career, can be found on his YouTube site. These range in repertoire and genre from solo Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Shostakovich to late-20th century composers, chamber works by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvořák, Franck, Dohnányi, Kodály, Schnittke, piano concertos by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Liszt…and much else.
