After the four movements of Schubert’s sonata, Piotr Anderszewski will perform Johannes Brahms’s last four opus piano cycles. They were written in just two years, after a long break from composing works for solo piano. The subsequent sets included miniatures with titles such as fantasy, capriccio, intermezzo, romance and ballade. These pieces can be lyrical and melancholic, but also turbulent – even tragic in character. Brahms consulted some of them with his private ‘editor’, friend and muse, Clara Schumann.
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Bartłomiej Gembicki
Beethoven completed his Sonata in C minor, Op. 111, in 1822; it was his last piano work of this genre. Dedicated to the composer's patron and friend, Archduke Rudolf, the Sonata in C minor completely defies both formal and expressive conventions. It has an unusual two-part structure (Allegro con brio ed appassionato, preceded by a slow, dissonant Maestoso introduction, and an Arietta – a melodious theme with an elaborate cycle of five variations – which contrasts intensely with the first movement), which is why it was initially considered unfinished. Later, however, it turned out that Sonata in C minor was not only a complete work, but also a visionary one – going beyond the formal patterns of the time and opening up the prospect of the development of the piano sonata genre in a new era and with new aesthetic canons.
Urszula Ciołkiewicz-Latek