The first half of this performance features French, Austrian and Hungarian music. Georges Bizet’s daring Variations chromatiques is followed by Carl Czerny’s playful Variations on Pierre Rode’s ‘Ricordanza’. Franz Liszt’s étude Ricordanza, which pianist-composer Ferruccio Busoni termed ‘a bundle of faded love letters’, shows him at his most tenderly nostalgic. Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Variations on a Theme of Steibelt is flamboyant, witty and brilliant.

The recital concludes with the great piano sonata the ‘Hammerklavier’ by Beethoven, an inspirational figure for all four composers. Fellow composer Hector Berlioz described this sonata as a ‘sublime poem’ after he heard Liszt play it in Paris. It is full of passion and drama, with a beautiful slow movement and one of the most challenging and thrilling finales in the piano repertoire.

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Supported by The Inches Carr Trust