Robert Schumann and Leoš Janácek's birthdates are divided by 44 years that witnessed profound history and art aesthetic's changes. Despite that, their music reaches us nowadays with something preserved intact through time: a deep feeling of nostalgia and melancholia. A sense of longing for events that left their mark in a far, evermore unreachable past.
Bach's Chaconne from the Partita for violin, idealised in this declamatory arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni, opens the event with its dramatic notes from the distant baroque age,
Leoš Janácek, in his piano cycle 'In the mists' (1912), scatters remembrances of his lost daughter, in cold and fast notes resembling icy Czech Winter gusts.
In the second part, Leoš Janácek recalls an innocent man killed during a demonstration, in his Sonata 'From the street' (1905).
At last, Robert Schumann closes the recital with his 'Carnaval' (1834-35), a series of fast and dazzling portraits inspired by the antique italian theatrical form called 'Commedia dell'arte'. Every piece/mask conceals one of Schumann's friends' personality (including Chopin's) as he perceived it.
The programme of this piano recital is performed by the italian pianist Giulio Potenza (Palermo, 1990).
To find out more about this pianist praised by Martha Argerich and Pascal Rogé, visit the website his website.