Louis Schwizgebel (piano)

At 29, the Swiss-Chinese pianist (and former BBC New Generation artist) Louis Schwizgebel has already been hailed as one of the great masters of his instrument. First attracting global attention in 2012 when he won second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, he makes his Saffron Hall debut performing Schubert’s late C minor sonata, written as the mortally ill composer neared death in the last months of his life. A dramatic middle-period work by Beethoven takes a stormy theme similar to the opening bars of Schubert’s sonata, and transforms it in variations of incandescent inventiveness. The concert also includes Kinderszenen, a set of exquisite miniatures – called ‘small, droll things’ by Schumann – which reflect an innocent and childlike side to the composer’s nature.