Peter Grunberg to Give “Piano Talk” at SFCM

Pianist Peter Grunberg on the banner for his performance and talk (from the Eventbrite event page)

Piano Talks is a series of performances and talks focused on the piano and its prodigious repertoire. Presented by the Ross McKee Foundation, this offering is currently in its second season. Created in 1989 to continue the legacy of pianist and educator Ross McKee (1915–1987), the foundation has supported piano performance and education in the Bay Area. That support includes a nationally-organized piano competition for young artists, grants in support of piano performances, and scholarships for pianists at a variety of local educational institutions.

Next weekend the Foundation will present the second of its four Piano Talks events for the 2018–2019 season. Performance and discussion will be by Peter Grunberg, frequently seen giving pre-concert talks for the San Francisco Symphony. The title of the event will be Beyond the Piano – Before the Phonograph, and the focus of the discussion will be Franz Liszt. The focus will be on his transcriptions and paraphrases and will include his highly ornate transcription of Franz Schubert’s D. 741 song “Sei mir gegrüsst!” and paraphrases on music from two operas popular in Liszt’s day, Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma and Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. Grunberg will also play one of Liszt’s transcriptions of his own music, the solo piano version of his song setting Petrarch’s Sonnet 104 for the second (Italian) “year” in his Années de pèlerinage. The program will also include Liszt’s third Hungarian rhapsody, which drew upon Hungarian folk sources.

This concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 15. The venue will be the Recital Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which is located at 50 Oak Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street and a short walk from the Van Ness Muni station. All tickets are being sold for $20, and they may be purchased in advance online at an Eventbrite event page.