The Art of the Piano festival was founded by Awadagin Pratt in Cincinnati in 2011. The idea behind the event was to bring together the world’s most celebrated faculty instructors, a class of future master pianists, and audiences of music lovers for performances, classes, and a shared passion for the piano. The venue for this year’s festival is the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). It began this past Saturday, June 22; but, to my regret, I only learned about it late yesterday afternoon! It will continue through the evening of Sunday, July 7.
My intention will be to focus only on the recital performances. These will cover a rich diversity of repertoire with multiple pianists featured on each occasion. All performances will take place in the Barbro Osher Recital Hall, which is on the top (eleventh) floor of the Bowes Center at 200 Van Ness Avenue. Complete accounts of the program will be found through the hyperlinks attached to each date as follows:
Wednesday, June 26, 7 p.m.: This recital will present eight different pianists performing eleven different selections. The earliest work on the program will be by Joseph Haydn. The most recent (not to mention adventurous) composer will be Alexander Scriabin, who will be represented by three selections, each performed by a different pianist. As will be the case for all of the Young Artist Recitals, there will be no charge for admission.
Thursday, June 27, 7 p.m.: Jeremy Jordon’s recital will include one of his own compositions, “Children’s Songs,” which he composed in 2020. He will also include transcriptions of vocal music by Sergei Rachmaninoff and three scenes from Richard Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal. He will begin the program with his own arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Étude en forme de valse.” In the latter half of the program, he will turn to popular tunes from the twentieth century by Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, and Duke Ellington. However, he will begin that set with a more recent offering, Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes.” Tickets may be purchased through an SFCM event page, which also provides information for special rates for passes that account for multiple events.
Friday, June 28, 7 p.m.: The next Young Artist Recital will present nine pianists, three of whom will present “paired” selections; and again, the program will be free of charge.
Saturday, June 29, 3 p.m.: Alexander Korsantia will perform a transcription of Igor Stravinsky’ score for the one-act ballet “Petrouchka.” His keyboard work will be supplemented with a tambourine (which he will also play). The first half of the program will be devoted to sonatas by Franz Schubert (D. 894 in G major) and Joseph Haydn (Hoboken XVI/23). Tickets will again be available through an SFCM event page.
Wednesday, July 3, 7 p.m.: The program for Young Artists Recital for this date has not yet been announced; however, there will be the usual “drill” of a free admission.
Friday, July 5, 7 p.m.: Those familiar with Simone Dinnerstein probably know that her name free-associates with “adventurous.” The “core” of her program will couple Philip Glass’ “Mad Rush” with the third of the compositions given the title “Gnossienne” (whatever that may mean) by Eric Satie. This pairing will be framed by two finger-busting compositions by Robert Schumann. The first of these will be the Opus 18 “Arabesque;” and the Satie will be followed by the Opus 16 “Kreisleriana.” The program will begin with “Les barricades mistérieuses,” from Ordre 6 in the Second Livre collection of keyboard compositions by François Couperin. Tickets will again be available through an SFCM event page.
Saturday, July 6, 7 p.m.: Each half of Hie-Yon Choi’s recital will conclude with a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. (Did anyone think that he would be neglected by this event?) The first half will conclude with the second (in the key of D minor) of the Opus 31 sonatas; and the recital will include with one of the major “late” sonatas, Opus 101 in A major. The first half will begin with four selections from Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 19b, the first of the eight Songs Without Words volumes. The second half will open with a selection of four of Claude Debussy’s etudes. Tickets will again be available through an SFCM event page.
Jean-Jacques Caffieri’s 1760 bust of Jean-Philippe Rameau (from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license)
Sunday, July 7, 7 p.m.: Stephen Prutsman will conclude the festival with a program that many may take to be a marathon. The “spinal cord” of the program will consist of a generous diversity of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, with particular attention to Book 2 of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Orbiting around this “spinal cord” will be selections by composers as early as Jean-Philippe Rameau and extending all the way into Prutsman’s own arrangements, which include not only traditional Rwandan and Uzbek music but also Charlier Parker’s “Ornithology.” Tickets will again be available through an SFCM event page.
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